Thank you for your interest in my work!
Below you’ll find my vision, foundational principles, special talents and gifts I bring, educational and personal background, and affiliations.
My vision, like many others, envisions a world where every being thrives by having access to resources without taking from others, a sense of thriving and well beingness. This means we don’t take away from others or destroy our planet and any groups of people, animals, plants or our planet. This is a depth of care and acknowledgement of our interconnectedness.
Our world actually has enough food, water and land – an abundance – for us to all have enough and to belong. Our needs are not in conflict – it is strategies we fight about. Heather McGee, author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, researched the zero-sum theory we have learned in the U.S. Domination Culture – that “If you succeed, I fail.” or “If you get resources, then I don’t.” This is a win/lose view, which fosters systems of inequity and disproportionality and is the foundation of white supremacy in the United States. Shifting to a Partnership Paradigm of power with, we move beyond the binary paradigm of either/or to a both/and way of living. Our self-or soul-care, collective care and global care are needs that are not in conflict.
As a Coach, Trainer, Facilitator, and Health & Well being Practitioner, I offer the following work:
Using the metaphor of a tree – I help you plant seeds, grow capacity, support development, connect to your inner and collective wholeness, assist you in pruning what no longer serves you or your family or team, discover ways to sustain yourself, restoration, and expand your awareness of interconnectedness. Here are some examples:
- Plant seeds – intentionality, envision, empathetic & compassionate practices, imagination, discover a new road map, support your role of planting seeds with others, Beloved Community, listening and discernment to what really matters, and more!
- Capacity, Growth, Development, Sustainability – understanding your strengths, showing up more authentic and with a sense of wholeness, unlearn what is not working and learn new ways, skills and practices that are more life giving, gain insight into what you want to grow and develop, wellness plans, and generative conversations that make a difference.
- Pruning, Maintenance, Restoration – rebuild stronger relational trust and relationships, learn to hold tensions and transform conflict, have difficult conversations to restore relationships, repair broken connections with others, grieve and mourn individual and collective levels, and healing.
- Interconnectedness – develop your “Tree of Life”, create patterns of healthy communication that for greater care, cooperation and collaboration, experience the benefits of being in natural environments and care for other and our global planetary needs, foster Beloved Community, connect to that which is greater than yourself (however you name this), supporting human rights movements, and meaningful engagement.
Aspen, Pine and many other trees have wisdom on how to live life individually and collectively. Science shows how they communicate and support each other in both visible and invisible ways. We can listen more deeply to our natural world and each other to learn now to generate life giving ways of being.
Responding to these challenging times
As our collective lives continue to be impacted by accelerating climate change – with natural disasters and day-to- day new challenges for living, greed of political and business leaders, hatred and the rise of hate groups, use of violence, wars and mass shootings, and systems of oppression, such as white supremacy and playing cultural groups against each other.
These are the times to respond to these forces with our highest qualities of humanity. As a member of the Warriors for the Human Spirit, this is the time to practice compassion, dignity, kindness, generosity, love, and creativity – keeping the Human Spirit alive, lifting up the best of our humanity.
Act locally and with intention, even if you feel you are the only one trying to do this. You are not alone in this effort on a larger scale.
In all of my work communities – Courage & Renewal, Nonviolent Communication, Warriors for the Human Spirit, Forest Bathing, Storytelling, Intercultural, racial and social justice work, human right movements and Art of Hosting – I have connected with people from all over the world.
We are all making changes – big and small – in our local communities, organizations, families and for the planet. Really, you are not alone! We are uplifting the best of humanity in our work, creating Islands of Sanity and keeping on during these challenging times. KEEP ON!
Foundational Principles
In my many years of experience, I have developed a sense of rootedness and groundedness, presence, and personal practices that I bring to our work together.
The bodies of work I draw upon are complimentary and represent my own journey of healing, unlearning and learning, living into new consciousness and way of being within myself, with others and for our planet.
Integrating both the knowledge (skills & processes) and ever-growing wisdom (experiences), I will support you in your unique journey towards wholeness and integrity.
Change occurs on many levels (see Health & Wellbeing Framework below). When one level changes, there can be ripples through other levels. I support change work on all the levels: personal, relational, communal, systemic of both mezzo and marco, and for our global planet.
Health & Well Being Framework – Interconnectedness of Needs/Value
A holistic model recognizes many levels that exist and interact within our self, family, organizations, and communities. Interrelatedness is both visible and invisible. All beings can thrive in our world when we bring intentionality and empathetic listening for needs/values of all levels. Our needs are not in conflict – it is our strategies that cause we lock down on. Understanding interconnectedness empowers us to make more thoughtful choices.
Values
- Listening – deep listening
- Compassionate Presence & Empathetic Listening
- Practice vs. Mastery Orientation
- Holistic Model
- Balance & Harmony
- What really matters to you, to us and to our world?
- Hidden Wholeness & Individual and Group wisdom
- Co-creating our work together
- Invitational
- Authenticity
- Belonging
- Beloved Community
- Equity, Inclusion and Diversity
- Power of Story
- Interconnectedness
- Vision for all to thrive
- Love
Susan’s Background – Who am I?
Part of my social identities include being Jewish, a Social Worker and Dyslexic.
Growing up in the west, I was exposed to beautiful desert, oceans, and mountains, traveled across America and learned about different peoples. These experiences implanted in me a sense of interconnectedness to our earth and all those who live here.
In addition, I am from a bi-faith family. Living between Worlds is how I came to value peace, balance, harmony, kindness, spiritual life and love. I still see both commonalities and differences and how we relate to these can bring us either toward or away from each other.
It’s a blessing learning early how to adapt and move across and between cultural differences.
And the challenges too. My emotional intelligence has grown, giving me insight and capacity to work with a wide variety of emotions and the gifts of learning that come from learning about differences and commonalities.
Holistically, our mind, body, heart and soul /spirit are inter-connected. This circle then connects in concentric circles outward, inter-relating with our social identities, values at our work place, community involvement, those who accompany us in life, systems we live in, and the world. And likewise, the greater world circles inter-related back into our identity groups
and our personal inner life. That is how interconnectedness works – on many plains of movement and influence and impact.
As a young peacemaker in my family, I learned how to avoid conflict to survive, leading to my life-long journey of learning how to move with differences in ways that build relationships and a sense of love, kindness and well beingness. Raising my own family continues to be important to me , with such deep joy and a core identity in my life.
Both my blood and chosen family has and continues to be important to me, journeying with me through various life stages. I have learned to form a variety of long-term communities. From these experiences, I have learned how to grow what really matters to you in your daily life and how to build meaningful and higher quality in your relationships.
Grief and mourning has also been a companion in my life. It is hard. Really hard at times. It just is. And being in community and having companionship and attunement makes the differences in knowing that grief from death and loss is part of life. When I have formed a relationship with her, I find that joy can also exist in being in community.
Being Dsylexic, I have a natural gift in seeing a situation from many different perspectives. From these viewpoints, I can hear different needs in a way that enables me to see a new picture of what is happening. From there I then develop a new map to move forward. This map is emergent, meaning that it often arises in conversations and over time in a way that I can use these insights to see new ways to move from being stuck to moving forward.
Empathy is a 6th sense for me, allowing me to gain a deeper understanding. Relational trust is crucial for all these bodies of work I draw from. This empathy is different than intellectual empathy that sound like you understand but are not really listening or sympathy, which is power over with pity. Empathy is partially learned and how you are wired. The many practices I have for self and collective empathy have allowed me to bring my gifts and strengths in this area.
Since I think in images and feelings, I carry a 3-D view of our work together, bringing in a freshness of perspective and generative possibilities. The majority of people think in words and sequences – remembering events as who said what and who did what to who. I find that since I am wired differently, I can hear the places where people often get locked down in conflict of the who, what, where and when. Lived experiences are important. What is happening under those lived experiences are vital to envisioning new ways of repairing and being in relationship to each other.
Solutions by Joshua Troy, LLC
