Kavya's Bio

Kavya is a media artist and activist with a background in journalism, documentary film, and a BA in Gender and Women's Studies. She is the Founder of Agitate Productions, a media arts collective that focuses on community youth engagement and activism by creating space for stories told through art.

She has worked on a variety of projects centered around community engagement and activism the latest of which has been as an artist facilitator for a community mural project with Art Not Shame and director for the Moving Histories documentary project about stories from her neighbourhood of West Willow Woods in Guelph. She was also a digital storytelling facilitator with the Re•Vision Center for Art and Social Justice at the University of Guelph.

She began the Leaders of Today (LOT) program because of her fundamental belief that young people have meaningful stories to share and the capacity to create change through those stories. Growing up as an immigrant child at 85 Willow Road in Guelph she was raised by her community. They taught her what community responsibility was and that she always had the capacity to create change for and in her community. She hopes through the LOT program to offer this same sense of community to the young people in our city today and support them in sharing their stories and helping them to create the change they wish to see in their world.

Note from Nadia

Kavya Yogananthan is one of the most inspiring youth facilitators I know. I’ve been hearingabout her work with Leaders of Today since we started facilitating together in 2021, and I havebeen absolutely blown away by her ability to create vibrant, intense, deep and joyous spaces foryoung people to express themselves through the arts. Kavya and I run a yearly programtogether for Art Not Shame, called Rest and Resilience, and it’s there that I’ve experienced hergenerous, hilarious and gentle style of facilitation. In this podcast you’ll hear her story, and herincredible storytelling ability, draw all the threads together that led to the inspiration for Leadersof Today.She is currently recording a series of videos for Toolsi that will articulate the methodology forLeaders of Today, for the very first time. I know you’ll find this podcast as riveting and inspiringas I did!

The Adaptagen Podcast is part of the Toolsi facilitation training platform hosted by Nadia Chaney. Go tohttps://facilitate.toolsi.ca

Jonathon (BA, BEd, MEd) sustains NGM’s reputation for reliable and high-quality program delivery within the field of gender justice, and contributes to NGM’s expertise on boys and masculinity through ongoing research, knowledge translation, and advocacy.

He started out as a teacher before realizing that he was uniquely passionate about supporting boys’ well-being and challenging gender-based violence. In 2017, Jake, Jermal and Jason helped him launch the Breaking the Boy Code podcast—now part of the NGM Podcast Network—and a year later, hired him to take the lead on NGM’s youth programming. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jonathon also loves adventure sports and is currently most excited about leading Next Gen Men’s Rite of Passage Expeditions Project, taking masculine-identifying youth on wilderness-based transformative journeys through the waterways of Ontario and the Rocky Mountains.

Contact: jonathon@nextgenmen.ca

Note from Nadia for Johnathon Reed

This podcast with Johnathon is intelligent, insightful and vulnerable. Johnathon’s brilliant and innovative youth work comes from “I know how that felt.” A career built on empathy and a poignant insight into the shadows of gender relations. I’ve mostly known Johnathon in the context of his attendance at trainings I’m running, and I have consistently been blown away by how much I learn from him. Johnathon has a gift for seeing beyond the surface of things (tools, methods, conversations) to the heart of meaning and truly inspired application. With Next Gen Men Johnathon is part of a trailblazing effort to create facilitated online youth communities (discord, podcast, and more) where young people can both be themselves and be inspired to reach beyond the toxicities of online communication. This podcast is generously narrative and full of very practical tips about youth work. For example, how do you create entry points for teenage boys to want to talk masculinity? It’s brilliant, it’s touching and Johnathon talks with the rhythm of a poet. I know you’ll enjoy this one.

The Adaptagen Podcast is part of the Toolsi facilitation training platform hosted by Nadia Chaney. Go to https://facilitate.toolsi.ca

Ez Bridgman helps organizations and individuals connect to their playful vitality in their most important and challenging moments.

Through collaborating, making decisions, navigating conflict, establishing priorities and communicating in an enlivening and uplifting way, he supports groups to open up doorways to liberatory organizational cultures and personal empowerment.

This shift is not easy. We are taught to be ashamed of our true selves, to constantly seek approval & validation from others, to stay within the status quo, and to fear judgment. Within our organizations, we are taught that creativity is for a select few.

He says, when we open ourselves up to working, learning, connecting and being in an embodied, playful & creative way, every moment becomes a delightful opportunity to explore and grow.

For more info about Ez, you can visit his website at: www.ezbridgman.com

A note from Nadia:

Ez is one of my dearest friends. We actually recorded this podcast right after the one I did for his amazing podcast, Shadow Playground. The flow was so smooth I haven’t had to cut or change a single moment of the recording. Ez is one of the deepest listeners, and most curious and playful people I know. His work is full of joy and yet he can help groups achieve incredibly profound transformation.

The Adaptagen Podcast is available on Spotify for all to hear, but if you listen at https://facilitate.toolsi.ca (it’s part of Toolsi Free) you can post your questions and comments and I will be sure to respond.

Tai Jacob and Cat have been part of an enormous project called Justice Trans. Over sushi with Tai a couple of years ago I was fascinated to hear about the facilitated community research process they were designing. It’s a very specific use of facilitated space, and one that comes with its own challenges and constraints. This podcast is brimming over with insight and tips into how to do community research in a way that is respectful, radical, and defensible.

This is the first time I’ve interviewed two people at once for the Adaptagen Podcast! I met Tai Jacob quite a few years ago, and just met Cat as we began this interview. It was a wonderful experience, not only to learn about the work they’ve dedicated themselves to, but also to experience the dynamic between them as colleagues and co-facilitators. Humble, quirky, self-possessed, brilliant and funny, they were both an absolute delight to interview. I can’t wait to hear what you think.

Cat is an emerging academic and artist weirdo, and established non-profit leader based in Regina, Treaty 4 territory, who strives to bring her dyke politics to work. Cat was previously the Development Director at JusticeTrans, the Programs and Operations Manager at UR Pride—a 2SLGBTQ+ non-profit in Regina, and was the Chair of TransSask—a non-profit organization with a mandate to provide supports for Two Spirit, trans and non-binary people in Saskatchewan. Cat is also a founding member of the Saskatchewan Trans Health Coalition, and a member of the Capacitor Advisory Council, which oversees a universal basic income pilot program for Two Spirit, trans, non-binary and gender diverse artists and digital creators in Saskatchewan. Outside her work, Cat enjoys painting portraits of people she is in community with and creating Super-8 films documenting her queer family and life.

Tai Jacob is currently a law student at Osgoode Hall Law School. They are a Board Director at Mazon Canada, the national Jewish response to hunger that supports initiatives that educate Canadians and foster effective solutions to end hunger. Prior to this, they were the Executive Director at JusticeTrans, a national non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to justice for Two Spirit and trans people across Canada. Tai received her MA in Geography from McGill University in 2020, where she did research with trans and gender nonconforming refugees about their experiences with the Immigration and Refugee Board. He has over five years of experience working in advocacy for refugee and migrant justice, trans and queer liberation, anti-poverty work, and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion efforts at various organizations, companies, universities, and grassroots groups.

To learn more about creative facilitation, go to https://facilitate.toolsi.ca

Brigid loves co-creating spaces with a bit of magic in the air; where people are able to show up, share, challenge, connect, disagree, grow, get a bit uncomfortable and feel heard.

She works in cultural programming and production, and as a strategic consultant, program designer and facilitator - she loves a little infrastructure to foster connection and make the complex accessible.

Note from Nadia:

This is the end of the first part of the Bloom Series, where I’m interviewing all the members of a Montreal-based boutique consulting firm (www.bloomworld.org). There have been some new hires since I started...so we’ll get back to Bloom soon. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and working with Brigid for many years, in three cities and with at least four different orgs. Her facilitation is courageous, sensitive, honest and loving. In this podcast, I think you’ll hear all of these qualities quite unmistakably. This is a podcast about being true, being yourself, being direct. Brigid has this rare leadership quality. She says, “I aspire to tell you the truth because I love you and I want to stay connected to you, and I can see something is going on. The work is figuring out how to say it, so it can be heard and received.” Brigid shares a lot of specific tips on how to actually achieve the beautiful balance between agency and boundaries. Near the end, Brigid breaks down the panic/stretch zone framework in an incredibly generous and intelligent manner that really inspired me.

I am a community facilitator, theatre artist, life-long learner and creative soul. I have spent the last 15 years connecting and collaborating with diverse communities by co-creating learning environments that are founded upon shared values of diversity, love, respect and self-empowerment - embracing a vision of solidarity, social justice and change from the inside-out. I invite learning that engages the mind, body, heart and soul, drawing on our personal and collective experiences and inner wisdom for the purpose of community connection, clarity and capacity building. Through the blending of participatory, creative and embodied practices, I am able to support groups in creating space for each other - to reflect, share, learn and heal alongside one another for personal, collective and organizational change.

I support grassroots movements, social justice organizations and government sectors through processes of equity, inclusion & diversity; peacebuilding & conflict transformation; community healing and participatory leadership.

I am a freelance consultant as Weaving Connections (Toronto, Nova Scotia & Egypt) and currently collaborate with Bloom Consulting (Toronto), Branch Out Theatre (Toronto), Interplay (Oakland, CA).  I have a MEd in Adult Education and Community Development at OISE.  In my spare time I can be found in one of three homes - dancing ecstatically in Toronto, playing in the waters of rural Nova Scotia or connecting with my ancestral roots in Egypt.

NOTE from NADIA

Naty and I have not yet had a chance to facilitate together, but the very first time we met we started making plans! A kindred spirit, most certainly, and a powerful and potent presence in so many ways. This podcast episode follows the journey of a very seasoned facilitator, who is asking humble and subtle questions.

facilitator | ze/hir/they/them

Yami Msosa is a Black genderqueer Malawian arrivant currently living in Tkaronto who grew up as a visitor on Algonquin Territory. As a creative, strategic consultant and facilitator, they love building containers for connections to be forged, and holding space for individual, community, and systems transformation. They joined Bloom in January 2020 as a collaborator. You can find out more about them at yamimsosa.com

Note from Nadia

Meeting Yami was such a wonderful surprise. We’re both part of the Bloom team, but we have never had a one on one before this podcast. I was so happy to discover some of the shared resonance, especially the tarot! And that we both grew up in Ottawa. This podcast gets underneath the work of facilitating equity from a place of authenticity and self-knowing. It’s charming and inspiring, critical and hopeful…I can’t wait to hear what you think.

Francesca Allodi-Ross has spent the last 10 years pursuing parallel paths in law and facilitation. She recently left her work as a lawyer to become Executive Director of Romero House, a community of welcome for refugee claimants in Tkaronto/Toronto. Francesca loves building community, supporting social change, and dancing every day.

A note from Nadia

I’ve known Francesca for some years now. My experience of her is of someone sensitive and thoughtful, very tuned in to a group’s ripples, and always willing to support people and processes! Francesca’s journey to facilitation is an incredibly inspiring story about how a vision that is born out of necessity can come to life. Francesca first saw the need for facilitation and mediation in a group home and took a long journey to find the tools she needed. Also, Francesca’s background as a workplace dispute litigator gives her a very piercing insight into the need for holistic management of group dynamics. This podcast is incisive and inspiring. Can’t wait to hear what you think!

Show notes:

Romero House is a community of welcome for refugee claimants:
https://romerohouse.org/

YES Jams bring together 30 outstanding changemakers for a week of networking, skills sharing and community building:
https://yesworld.org/ 

We Shall Be Known, a song by MaMuse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX11MEtbkXI

Shilbee Dhalla-Kim, passion coach:
https://www.shilbee.com/

Centre for Courage and Renewal (Parker Palmer, Circles of Trust):
https://couragerenewal.org/wpccr/

AORTA (Anti-oppression resource & training alliance):
https://aorta.coop/

Rehana, M. ED, has a passion for transformative learning, systems change and building capacity for generative dialogue across difference. She has over 15 years of experience in facilitating participatory, arts-based and equity-centered change, and is always learning & unlearning! Rehana is deeply serious and deeply playful at once, believing in the need for thoughtful strategies that center creativity, play, embodiment and the imagination to open up fields of transformation and jump into the practice both personally and collectively. She practices Art of Hosting, Theatre of the Oppressed and InterPlay, and holds a Masters in Sociology and Equity Studies in Education. She served as National Facilitator for Righting Relations, a heart-centred, national network of adult educators, community organizers and Indigenous Peoples of the world working for radical social change through decolonization and popular education.

A Note from Nadia

If you’re interested in collaborative leadership, this is a very special series. I have interviewed all of the Bloom Consultancy (except myself haha). I’m excited to share these with you for a few reasons: 1) Bloom’s method is flexible, responsive and emergent. The courage and presence required to facilitate like this is something very special. 2) The collaborative team work in a hierarchical for-profit organization is also quite rare and 3) The practice of living the work internally so that is ripples out to the clients is so authentic and disciplined, I’m absolutely thrilled to be part of this team and wanted to share it with all of you!

Rehana Tejpar is a dear friend, and the co-founder and leader of Bloom. Her way of working comes from a deeply spiritual and community-minded approach not only to work, but to her whole life. Her personal practices are rigorous and constantly deepening. She carries her big community and family responsibilities with a dancer’s grace and a childlike sweetness, but also with the edge and sharpness of a visionary change-maker (and she’s trained as a clown, so there’s often a surreal edge lurking beneath!). Rehana has made my life easier and lighter in so many ways, I’m endlessly grateful for her example and her friendship.

Moyo Rainos Mutamba, MSW (Social Justice and Diversity) Ph.D. (Social Justice Education) is an Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ARDEI) consultant, leadership coach, and scholar. He finds joy and meaning in supporting organizations to achieve deep cultural shifts. He specializes in integrating ARDEI principles and practices in organizational policies and operations to create cultures of belonging. Additionally, Moyo facilitates in university classrooms as a lecturer of social work (diversity, equity, inclusion, leadership, mental health) at the University of Waterloo and Community Development at the University of Toronto.

A Note from Nadia

Moyo is a new collaborator for me, and by both first impression and reputation I am so honoured and excited to work together! This interview is full of gems, in particular his theory of conflict as an essential aspect of the human experience, and his view on knowledge-practices, as opposed to knowledge as an object. Hearing Moyo’s story and knowing about the incredible change work he has done and will do inspires me to dig deeper and be more diligent in self-reflection and systems shift.

Gwyn Wansbrough is an international facilitator, learning experience designer, and course creator. She focuses on empowering educators and team leaders with the skills to make learning more creative, engaging, and human. She specializes in ways to create learning experiences that lead to breakthroughs. Gwyn recently stepped down as Executive Director of global facilitation training organization, Partners for Youth Empowerment, scaling programs to over 15k educators and team leaders in 15 countries. She has collaborated with organizations and schools around the world including the Ashoka Foundation, WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education), private foundations, departments of education, and universities. She publishes a weekly newsletter on creativity, facilitation, and learning called The Quest, and she launched an online cohort-based course in October called Breakthrough Facilitation for professionals who lead virtual groups.

She lives in Barcelona, Spain. She loves spending time by the sea, experimenting with watercolors, and playing cards with her family.

A Note from Nadia

Working closely with Gwyn Wansbrough for a little over a decade at Partners for Youth was an up-close education for me in people skills. As a director and manager she was unfailingly supportive and generous without holding back the feedback I needed to keep growing in my work. She was able to manage and handle the details and personalities of many projects around the world simultaneously. She was so good humoured, so loving and wise, it was an honour to work under her guidance and I would absolutely do it again, anytime.

Now that Gwyn is developing her own online facilitation method, I see all these skills at work again. I can’t possibly recommend The Quest newsletter or the Breakthrough Facilitation cohort-based course more highly. This podcast is full of tips, but I hope what you hear even more deeply is the amazing courage of a woman hearing a call and stepping up to follow it. If you don’t already know Gwyn, I’m excited for you to meet her! If you do, you’ll know that this is a podcast worth listening to. Pearls of wisdom, a gentle nature and a razor intelligence; can’t wait to hear what you think.

Link that leads to the Breakthrough Facilitation Official Course page coupon: 5OFFNET

(if you use this affiliate link Nadia will make a small commission, and if you use the code you'll get 5% off the course fee as well)

Personal Website: www.gwynwansbrough.com

The Quest Newsletter: https://www.gwynwansbrough.com/newsletter

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwynwansbrough/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/home

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gwynwans/

The 7 Secrets of Exceptional Facilitators Free e-book - https://www.gwynwansbrough.com/free-ebook

Other resources Gwyn mentions in the podcast:

https://coursecreatorlab.co

https://writeofpassage.school

https://www.ship30for30.com

Laura June Albert (she/her) is a researcher, cultural producer, and artist. She is a seventh generation European-Canadian settler based in unceded xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil- Waututh) territories, colonially known as Vancouver.

Laura June's research investigates the experiential body as a liberatory landscape for anticolonial and anticapitalist self-determination and liveness. She is deeply interested in intersections in pedagogy and embodiment: learning through the body about body-based ways of knowing. Consent and access are core values in her work. Laura June holds an MA in Contemporary Arts Studies from SFU, and has worked as a performer, instructor, and lecturer in over ten cities.

A NOTE FROM NADIA

I’m thrilled to interview a very dear friend and colleague Laura June Albert. We met many moons ago, creating an inter-arts performance for the fondly remembered Sista’hood Festival in Vancouver, Canada.  Laura June’s movement pedagogy has taught me so much about facilitation and leadership. This is a pedagogy that questions the reaching of the eyes, the dominance of the head, the doing of the hands…and returns with the body as a wise and living place with its own authority and with gravity as its partner. This podcast is an invocation of “authenticity” that is profound and constant. While Laura June’s research is particular to dance and movement, I believe any facilitator will find these questions deeply relevant and stimulating. I can’t wait to hear what you think. Laura June has generously offered Toolsi six instructional videos, so you will also be able to move and play with this extraordinary practice.

BIO:

Dona is a multidisciplinary facilitator, community organiser, spoken word artist, and cultural worker. Her practice and methodologies are inspired by regenerative patterns within nature, stories of resilience and diaspora, and the expansive and evolving work of what it means to decolonise, to heal, to love, and to seek truth, even in the darkest of places. You can learn more at her website www.donanham.com

NOTE FROM NADIA:

Dona Nham is one of my dearest friends. She is an exemplary community facilitator and in theearly days of our friendship, about ten years ago, she inspired me deeply with her work withSisters-in-Motion, a women’s arts collective in Montreal that she co-founded with Malek Yaloui.Her work is co-arising and co-informed by her active and dedicated gardening practice, herdeep understanding of permaculture and her unfailing focus on justice and equity in communitywork. As an artist she is experimental and generous; in this podcast she will talk about her latestand longest work, a story collecting project about her own ancestors.

Aida Gadallah is a creative facilitator, a trainer, designer and developer of content at Funtasia Egypt.

“I studied Geological Sciences and after the despair of not being able to achieve my scientific dream at this time, I returned to my teenage passion towards psychology. I took several courses in human development until I participated in a train-the-trainers group where I discovered my skills as a trainer. When I participated in PYE’s Creative Facilitation training at Funtasia Egypt, I became sure that this is what I wanted to be my career. I participated in the deeper levels of facilitation training, then I volunteered for a period of time with Funtasia until I became one of their great team. I kept learning about psychological health, counseling and art therapy to deepen my work with groups.

Now I enjoy being part of a process which helps young people and youth to be more connected and understanding of  themselves and able to use their potential to create their lives and be who they are.”

A note from Nadia

I’m so excited to introduce you to the mind and heart of Aida Gadallah. This is a facilitation style that rises up from the deeps of introspection and illumination. In this sparkling podcast, she gives some very useful tips on how to create and facilitate visualizations, and also a series of tips for new facilitators. The tips are all gems! Aida facilitates the inner self, and has an incredible theory of presence and its effect on group behaviour. Her clarity, her attention to detail and her commitment to working from integrity have taught me so much. I absolutely loved my time in Luxor, Egypt with the amazing Funtasia team and meeting Aida Gadallah was a big part of that!

Elizabeth Maria Ortega is a batch of stardust. As an educator and facilitator, she loves all things related to diversity, equity, wellness, equanimity and artistic expression. In her spare time, she’s a printmaker, creative and wanderluster. She is a certified holistic sex educator and absolutely loves to help create a container of safer and alive education for all peoples. Currently teaching at an independent school in Seattle, she has a burgeoning consultation, coaching and workshop life.  While in the Pacific Northwest since 2010, she originally hails from the proud and dusty trails of the Southwest. She holds a Masters in Education from Antioch University. Collaboration and creative projects and world building is tantalizing to her so connect by supporting her art, emailing her, following her on social media and saying hello.

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/elizabethmariaortega

Insta: @elizabethmariaortega

Email: elizabethortega11@gmail.com

A note from Nadia

Elizabeth Ortega is a bit of a legend. Long before we had met I’d heard of her amazing facilitation work with FEEST. In a group she is a sparkling, energizing presence and as a friend and community member she is quite unforgettable. As you might have noticed, the Adaptagen Podcast is focussed on unique facilitators; those who really think for themselves, and have developed a method, style and/or practice of their own. Elizabeth is most certainly one of these! Her community intervention is an investigation and deconstruction of “love” as we are taught to know it, in a way that recentres community, friendship and the inner self. After recording this podcast I was walking on air for a couple of days! My world looked different. Her radical insight into human dynamics, particularly into the nature of love, inspired me to face my own life in a very different way. I found myself looking at my little bird feeder with the winter chickadees and house sparrows that show up every day and thinking…this is love. THIS is romance. I’m sure you’ll find this podcast as fascinating as I did. Can’t wait to hear your reactions.

I’m a poet and writer at heart; a comedian at best. I’ve been facilitating and designing youth programs for over eight years and holding space for groups feels like a sacred and inherent role, for me. My general way of moving through most experiences is to remain curious and find the essential question. I keep returning to the work and learning new things about the world.

A Note from Nadia:

Kamilla is an incredibly magnetic and generous youth worker. She is currently part of the amazing team at YWE (Young Women Empowered).  There is so much luminosity and charisma in her work, it is poetic and hilarious and compelling and, in equal measure, it is nurturing and loving. I love to witness her fearlessness, her frankness, her incredibly tender and powerful heart. This podcast is a gift, full of personal stories and overflowing with essential tips for facilitators; how to work with resistance, how to work across difference, how to bring your whole self to the table, how to follow your heart into the depth of your practice. It’s also very candid and gives some powerful insight into the nefarious underlying dynamics that can appear in the NGO sector, and what it means to be an individual facilitator in that complex machinery. She is both philosophical and practical in her approach to facilitation. I’ve been blessed to encounter Kamilla on my path and I am so excited to introduce you to her through Toolsi.

“Maya: Being trauma-informed is a journey and a practice.”

Maya is a Trauma Informed Coach and Facilitator who has been involved in community healing and support work since 2007. Passionately committed to her own healing journey and creativity, Maya created the Heart of Flow Method combining creative expression and movement to help others transform their struggles and reach desired goals while softly easing into connection with their bodies and emotional landscapes. Her unique approach helps build security in our ability to navigate the challenges of our lives while embodying self worth, emotional resiliency and well being. Her approach prioritizes resourcing people so they are able to learn lifelong tools while providing deeply nourishing support to restore a sense of joy. She believes in meeting people where they are at, bringing balance to holding deep space for others with a sense of humour and facilitation that is both gentle and playful.

The Heart of Flow method operates from a trauma informed body-centric focus, believing that we can access profound transformation when we work with the body as the home where we experience our internal and external reality. Her work helps regulate the nervous system and build new neural pathways to redefine our relationship with ourselves and others. This process based method meets others where they are at- she has worked before with others coming from a wide range of cultural backgrounds and lived realities, including non profits and agencies that work with survivors of trauma including sexual assault and gendered violence.

She cultivates joy in her life through painting, dancing, writing poetry, conversation and wild laughter.

A Note from Nadia

I met Maya Nadeem at an Art of Facilitation Training I was running in Toronto in 2017. I was immediately struck by her sparkling presence and self-possession. As I got to know her, I found her to be incredibly open hearted, generous and curious. Maya’s work with the Heart of Flow method inspires me to keep searching for breakthroughs and to push my own edges. I am in awe of her courageous and bold design work, the depth of her experience and most significantly her choice to create her own therapeutic method. Her focus on trauma-informed practices while exuberantly pushing creative edges reminds me that there is no compromise in creating accessible spaces. In fact, the accessibility focus itself is an asset to any group member. I’ve already learned so much from Maya in terms of creating safer spaces without sacrificing boldness and courage, and I expect to continue to learn from her for many years as her brilliant method develops.

Shilpa P.A.- Bangalore – India - 39 years old –International trainer and Facilitator with Dream a Dream (a Bangalore based NGO), Certified Clear Beliefs Coach, and a Board member of the Sustainable World Project (a not for profit foundation registered in the Netherlands).  In her work with groups of young people and teachers in developing life skills over the last 8 years, she got to witness the power of a supportive community and how it impacts individual transformation.  Each one of us have our unique gifts we bring into the world and we all have the inner resources to connect within and manifest the life of our purpose.  Powerful transformative experiences and connection with inner self prepares us to deal with the ever changing life.  She envisions a thriving life for every person where each one of them are able to work with their limiting beliefs and are getting in touch with the wonderful being they are.

She facilitates Life Skills/social emotional programs with different organizations and practices as a Clear Beliefs Coach.  She is a single mom of one daughter who has published a book of poems at age 14.  She enjoys long walks in nature, meditation, music, reading, learning new things, quality time with loved ones.

Email – shilpa43in@gmail.com

A note from Nadia

Shilpa Setty is a luminous, gentle, generous and practically fathomless facilitator.  She carries her quite enormous presence with so much humility that it is almost incongruous sometimes. I have been so blessed to learn and grow through her example of rigorous self-reflection and investigation and consistent meditative and spiritual practice. Her energy is well conditioned, like tilled soil; an incredible resource for a facilitator. Shilpa has the gift of making a person feel loved, and even fascinating! Her listening style in particular seems easily to draw out authenticity and a spirit of being already enough. It is a wonder to witness her work with young people, and the hidden young person in adults. The addition of a therapeutic practice to her facilitative toolkit is such an interesting turn of events. I look forward to seeing what new depths she will find in her practice now.

Emily Yee Clare is a community-based consultant, educator, and illustrator. As Kai Yun Ching, they illustrated of the upcoming children's picture book, For Laika, and co-illustrated From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea in 2017. They love dreaming and nerding out about different pedagogical tools and frameworks, and looking at the moon at night.

Note from Nadia:

Even though these is so much strange background noise in this podcast, I’m proud to share it with you! Emily Yee Clare and I (with other amazing collaborators) have been thinking together about this concept, consentfulness, together for more than two years.  Emily spontaneous used the terms to describe a group phenomenon in response to the question (routinely asked in the second day of the Partners for Youth Creative Facilitation 1 course I was running), “what did the facilitator do to support you in taking creative risks)? 

It’s been a joy to learn and play with Emily. She is one of the most intelligent and incisive thinkers that I know. In particular her ability to think in diagrams, models and with a kind of simultaneity and holism is wonderfully illuminating when thinking together about how groups of people move together. I hope that we will be able to create a small subarchive about our thoughts, with collaborators, about consentfulness!

“Searching for a unique blend of the practical application of spirituality and philosophy combined with the study of dream and energy.”

Hailing from Portland, Jamaica and based in Kingston, Andre Wilson is the founder of Youth-For-Development Network (YFDN) www.yfdn.org – a non-profit organization connecting marginalized groups with core skills, entrepreneurship and employability readiness training, using sports, multi-arts and innovative methodologies.

LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/andre-o-wilson-10b69a44

https://www-origin.usaid.gov/jamaica/news/sporting-change

A note from Nadia:

When I first met Andre, it was online. He was managing a camp for the One Love Foundation and I was the director of training at Partners for Youth. From those first moments, from so far away I both heard from others and witnessed almost immediately the vast capacity of this person to both, seemingly effortlessly, hold the details of a major undertaking AND plumb it to its ultimate depths. Andre asks hard questions, thinks extremely deeply and is ruthlessly committed to his vision of change in places where people may have given up hope, but somehow he never manages to miss being fun, silly, creative, compassionate and kind.

Without fail, every encounter we have had both online and in person, personal and professional he has changed me to rethink my assumptions, establish my inner alignment and recommit to the deepest calling that I can hear. He tells his fascinating stories the long way, and I always find myself pulling layers off our conversations for months to come.

Nadia: How to engage children at community events

Madhu Shukla is a theatre and story practitioner and co-founder of “By the River”, a storytelling initiative  started in 2014 in Bangalore that revels in taking the joy and power of stories to adults, communities and organisations.  Since her post-graduation in acting from The National School of Drama, New Delhi, she has explored the applications of theatre and psychodrama practices for  leadership transformation for over 15 years. She facilitates learning programs for organisations in the area of collaboration, innovation mindset, effective communication, conflict management and leadership presence. She is also the co-founder of India’s first all-women’s improv group – The Adamant Eves and is one of the early founder members of the improv community in Bangalore.

Instagram: maddyzozo

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/madhu-smriti-shukla-14a6a93

Website: playspace.in, bytheriver.in

A note from Nadia:

From the moment I met Madhu I knew I was in the presence of a great artist!Her ability to step into a state of flow at any moment, to expand and extend her presence, to imagine worlds and creatures and characters, to fill a space with sound and song and laughter...it’s all so stunning. But Madhu’s genius goes even further, in that she can always bring everyone else along. She’s a quintessential collaborator. Never have I sensed that I was witness to this amazing creativity, but always with it, part of it, inside of it. Revelling in it! Whether we have been in a private home concocting wild cocktails or a professional public training there’s a bubble of life, love, and the sacred always around her.

Nadia: Leading a staff team at a youth camp.

Rehana Tejpar, M.ED is a facilitator, leadership coach, mediator & movement artist, supporting leaders and organizations seeking to deepen in connection with their authentic leadership, wholeness, vision and intuition in a holistic way. She brings over 15 years of experience midwifing transformative journeys with individuals and organizations, in their evolutionary movements, and is a founder at Bloom Consulting, strengthening the creative and collaborative brilliance of leaders and teams to move forward wisely and inclusively, together. She is a practitioner of Transformative Coaching, InterPlay, Mindfulness, Authentic Movement, Theatre of the Oppressed, Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter, Sacred Clowning & Dialogue for Peaceful Change. She lives in Montreal with her daughter and husband and collectively stewards land with a collective of humans who are learning how to rewild and heal with nature in Ontario, Canada.

A Note from Nadia:

Rehana Tejpar is a dear friend, and the co-founder and leader of Bloom. Her way of workingcomes from a deeply spiritual and community-minded approach not only to work, but to her whole life. Her personal practices are rigorous and constantly deepening. She carries her bigcommunity and family responsibilities with a dancer’s grace and a childlike sweetness, but alsowith the edge and sharpness of a visionary change-maker (and she’s trained as a clown, sothere’s often a surreal edge lurking beneath!). Rehana has made my life easier and lighter in somany ways, I’m endlessly grateful for her example and her friendship

Venu Doddavarapu

Venu Doddavarapu R is a founder of ‘Theatre For Liberation’, a theatre artist, director and practitioner, believing that every individual is outstandingly creative and adept. A certified Child Mentor Trainer (UK Based). An experiential facilitator and trainer creating community enrichment and learning enabled creative spaces to have a scope for inclusivity and thriving -under the belt of life skills/21st century skills and social-emotional transformative learning. Firmly desires to connect the people and their stories across boundaries and wants to invite spaces consisting of individuals to be seen, heard, celebrate and bloom.

Training participants since 2014 consisting of low cost private and government school educators and officials across Karnataka and Telangana Indian States. Worked with university and college students, corporate, individual volunteers and vulnerable youth and young adults at a grass-root level. He has been one of the chief facilitators in training the core team of Delhi Government’s ‘Happiness Curriculum’ developers and trainers at being level facilitation and orientation design. Also one of the chief content architects of Kenya (East Africa) Government’s (Ministry of Education) ‘Competency Based Curriculum’ to emphasize the significance of developing skills and values.

A note from Nadia:

I’m so excited to share this interview with Venu! He has a profound insight into the philosophical underpinnings of facilitation, something that I feel doesn’t always get to shine when we are in workshop spaces and a bit rushed. These musings take time to blossom. In this interview he interrogates questions of empathy, fun, shame, guilt and truth, and tells the fascinating story of how he came to facilitation from the roots up. Venu has an artist’s soul and it shines through his work. He attends to detail, he pushes edges, he is always wondering how to innovate, how to find a deeper, more effective moment with a group. In contrast to episode 002, we have only known each other for two years, though our association began in 2014 when he joined Dream a Dream(.org) just after I had finished a five year series of trainings. When we met in 2018 it was as though we already knew each other! To me this is a testament to the cultural power and transferability of some of these teachings. They change us, they mark us, and they help us recognize each other! In any case, I certainly immediately recognized a friend and kindred spirit in Venu.

Ruby Singh was born in the Crow’s Nest Pass and now calls the lands of the xwməθkwəyəm, Sḵwxwú7mesh, and səlílwətaɁɬ/Selilwitulh Nations home (Vancouver, BC). Singh’s creativity crosses the boundaries of music, poetry, visual art, photography and film. His expressions engage with mythos, memory, identity, justice and fantasy; where the surreal can shatter the boundaries of the real. As composer and sound designer he has worked with theatre and dance companies across Canada, as well as creating numerous scores of the National Film Board and other independent films. Singh’s personal and collaborative works have been presented across Turtle Island, India, Germany and the UK.

Alongside his works as an artist, Singh is a long time consultant, facilitator and educator working within the liberatory practice of creativity. This work has been shared in universities, colleges, youth prisons and communities across Turtle Island, India and the UK

Website: rubysingh.ca

A note from Nadia:

As you will hear in the podcast I first met Rup when I was just about twenty-one years old. When I look back, I believe I knew even then what an enormous impact he would have on my life path. Not only did he introduce me to the art and craft of facilitation by inviting me to volunteer at the Power of Hope youth arts camp, he also encouraged me to join him as a lyricist in a band we called BMP. I don’t think I had ever been in awe of a regular person as I was of Rup back then! He was an incredible dancer, rapper, beat-maker, poet. He was full of delightful swagger and confidence, but was also one of the deepest, kindest, most magical people I knew. Once, I remember I injured my knee and he performed a healing practice on it where I actually SAW the injury leave my body like smoke!! I was beyond charmed in those early days and knew I wanted to be where he was. But I could never have imagined what that would mean, what adventured, what intimacies, what arguments (!) and what deep, deep trust we could develop. I’m blessed and humbled by our long friendship. It really couldn’t have been anyone else (except maybe Peggy and Sara) to inaugurate Toolsi. Love you to the moon and beyond, Pin.

A quick intro to the Adaptagen Podcast, a series of long form interviews with facilitators from around the world and short form answers to your questions about facilitation. To learn more about about facilitation from Nadia Chaney, and to join this incredible community of facilitators from around the world, visit https://facilitate.toolsi.ca

Claudia Pineda Reyes is a Mexican, queer, and neurodivergent social artist based in Washington, U.S. She has been practicing facilitation for 15 years across a variety of settings with the thematic purpose of advancing healing and liberation. Her family immigrated from Michoacan, Mexico to Chicago, Illinois where Claudia was born and raised. She is a Master in Social Work practitioner and has been trained as a facilitator in restorative justice Community Group Conferencing, the Creative Empowerment Model, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and in leading trainings about social equity. For 8 years, as a direct service practitioner, she provided counseling services for youth and families with a focus on working with people from the global majority, including people who have immigrated to the United States. For 7 years, Claudia has been working with the local government where she is designing and managing a program that works with community organizations to influence government practices and policies.  

Summary

Claudia Pineda Reyes has a gift for working with complexity, discomfort and conflict in group process. In this podcast she shares intimately how she developed these capacities as well as a number of concrete tools and techniques that can be used by facilitators. She asks and answers the question, how do you bring the elephant in the room into the light, and what do you do with it once it is there?

BIO:

Melanie is a Latinx social artist, community-based creator, artivist, and arts facilitation trainer. Her work aims to reflect concepts of humanism, sociology, and identity through participatory visual arts methods. She has been orchestrating social art projects for two decades cross-pollinating sectors, ages, and cultures. She believes innovative methods of connecting people, radical collaborating, and courageous processes that uplift the spirit through integration are some ways to contribute to co-create hopeful futures. NOTE FROM NADIA In this podcast with my dear friend Melanie Schambach you will learn about her incredible technique for large scale group paintings and murals, her unique approach to community arts and her important investigations into questions of integrity in community facilitstion, especially when it comes to questions of money, value and exchange. Melanie is a gentle tsunami. It has been my pleasure to cofacilitate with her a number of times, including three rounds of the 15 day Heart of Facilitation training. She's a master and a true gift to this field and I'm so excited to share some of her wisdom through this podcast with you.

Cindy's Bio

Cindy M Charleyboy is Tsilhqot'in, Secwepemc, and Norwegian and believes strongly that the arts have the capacity to shift perception allowing for greater self-awareness, integration of knowledge and lasting positive change. Her practice includes dreaming, painting, storytelling, singing and drumming. 
 
Cindy has a BA in First Nations Studies from UNBC and works with projects that prioritize creativity and First Nations cultural practices, that support the work of Indigenous artists and make it more sustainable. She facilitates dreaming circles and creative art making, does cultural healing and singing, and incorporates ceremony into everything she does.  Summary of podcast 

In this podcast featuring the magnetic community facilitator Cindy Charleyboy, listeners gain valuable insights into her unique approach to facilitating dream workshops. Cindy shares her experiences, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and playfulness in facilitation, encouraging facilitators to embrace their true selves and create spaces for participants to engage in playful activities. She recounts a remarkable workshop where she facilitated lucid dreaming experiences, demonstrating the profound impact facilitators can have on participants' lives. Cindy also discusses her resources, such as dream reconnaissance and the environment, highlighting the role they play in her facilitation process. Community facilitators will discover new perspectives and practical wisdom to enhance their own facilitation skills through this engaging and thought-provoking podcast. 

A note from Nadia 

Cindy and I met many years ago at the Indigeneyez youth camps. I took one of her dream workshops, and was blown away by her unique style, her quiet confidence, her incredible sense of humour and her taste for the bizarre. I’m excited to share this Adaptagen episode, where I learned so much about where that style came from, and her vision for her facilitation and community work.  

Summary: 

This podcast is about hearing the voice of guidance in your life, and how and when you follow it - or not! hazel bell kowski shares profound and moving stories about how she came to be a “roadie” for a collection of powerful silk screened flags that themselves “hold space,” literally. If you want to reflect on your destiny, your intuition, your teachers and elders, and the sacred livingness of the object world, listen to this brilliant, humble artist whose “first language is colour.” 

bio: 

hazel lives at the edge of the wild pacific northwest woods, with fresh water streaming past, the prints of bear and dog on the ground, the sounds of ravens and eagles overhead; a place which has helped bring her artistic impetus - awe & reverence of the created world - into a sharp focus. The Joy and Ease which comes with seeing and celebrating life naturally uses her training and experience to create expressions of colourful love. 

Beginning with a BFA from Ryerson University, hazel has maintained an inter-arts practice for over twenty-five years, weaving inter-generational storytelling and art-making circles into healing community work, all supported by her unique perspective on connection. She has partnered with groups as disparate as the Toronto District School Board and the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Grassy Narrows First Nation and the Wild Salmon Caravan. She has had the great fortune of training and working with IndigenEYEZ, which has offered her the opportunity to witness the transformative nature of stencilled flags, both in the making of them and in the hanging of them to shape sacred spaces. 

Her art has at its heart the intention of creating kinship among all the creatures of our world. 

Summary:  

In this podcast, Jeff Carolin, a lawyer, talks about his journey of moving away from the adversarial legal system towards transformative justice and conflict transformation. He shares his experiences of feeling unfulfilled and disconnected from his work in the legal system, and how he found a sense of purpose in working with restorative justice networks and connecting with organizations like Bloom. Overall, Jeff's story highlights the importance of empathy, emotional vulnerability, and restoration in conflict resolution.  

A little note, Jeff acknowledges that he got confused at one point in the podcast when he tried to attribute an MLK quote to Lilla Watson (whose name he had forgotten). Both of these inspirational leaders share(d) a vision for our collective liberation." 

Bio: 

Jeff is fascinated by human relationships and the systems they are embedded in. During 10 years of practice as a criminal defence lawyer for some of the most marginalized people in our society, he has seen up close the harm to relationships that systemic inequality can give rise to, and the further harm that our adversarial system can cause to all involved as it attempts to dispense "justice". He has also supported mediation and transformative justice processes that prove that another path is possible -- that healing and hope can emerge from the darkest of moments. These experiences have inspired him both to evolve his practice towards conflict mediation & transformative justice facilitation, as well as to deepen the work he has been doing upstream of conflict & harm for 15 years by supporting groups of people transform the way they relate to themselves and each other in the context of inequitable systems. For more, check out jeffcarolin.ca. 

Adaptagen host, Nadia Chaney, is a seasoned facilitator and the founder of Toolsi, an on-demand facilitation training program. For more information go to www.nadiachaney.com 

Dutch Harry VanDerVelde is a visual, multi-dimensional thinker. Like all of us, he tries to understand what (his) life is about. He likes to vizualize the ultimate way things should work.  Among other, he makes infographics about organisational issues. The visuals allow insight for its customers through images that reflect their situation from a refreshing out of their box point of view. He combines his analytical and graphic skills to make things professionally clear. Specifically, abstract and /or complex situations and organisations. His approach is to draw any given situation of problem. A sound concept is a mental image by its nature, so in principle it can be represented by a clear picture of it. So drawing out any situation quickly reveals its flaws. Aspects that are not clearly defined stay blurred and impossible to represent. Also the blank spots become visible. The impact of the work is still surprisingly impactful. 

Since 1976 Harry has pioneered the field of graphic facilitation and visual thinking. He worked for profit, non-profit and governmental organisations. Ranging from one person enterprises to large multi national corporations. Currently he focusses on scaling collaboration and on the grammar behind visual thinking. 

A note from Nadia: 

Harry is a pioneer in visual facilitation. His method was developed through a combination of instinct, attraction, and logic. While designing workflows for factory floors, call centers, and businesses, he created a highly effective method. Today, he is more focused on existential and community questions, but his visual analysis still fuels his visionary practice. I am grateful to have learned his brilliant technique and excited to share it with you all! 

I found this podcast with the brilliant Jace Malz very moving. Over the course of the Adaptagen interviews I’ve certainly learned that “outsider” is a common theme amongst facilitators, and maybe even a super power.

This is true in Jace’s story, but it is also a story of self-respect, reclamation and an authentic rebounding of the spirit that is truly inspiring. Jace is the founder of Inbo, a powerful creative learning lab. He runs an advanced facilitator training called “Holding Space” and an open group coaching series called “Misfits.” To learn more visit Inbo at https://www.inbo.ca.

Arin and I have been circling each other for many years, all the way back to the PYE Third Thursday Assemblies if you happen to recall those! We had a lovely first in person encounter at Madhu Shukla's storytelling event in 2018. But it was only in connecting preparing for this podcast that I realized what truly kindred spirits we are! A true facilitation geek; who flowed into her career one lily pad at a time; an artist and a lover of complexity and depth... this is one of the longest podcasts and to be honest it coukd have been three times as long! As you'll hear, Arindita has made some very important innovations in education, experiential ed and community arts. I learned a ton from this podcast, and Im sure you will, too.

I’m excited to bring you this podcast with one of my dearest friends and collaborators, Elioa Steffen. Elioa was an essential part of the Time Zone Research Lab, but our friendship goes back many years before that all the way to the early days of facilitating Power of Hope youth camps. At the Time Zone Elioa’s nickname was the obsidian blade because she is so sharply insightful. You will hear that sharp intelligence shining through this interview, balanced with a truly heart-felt sense of inclusion and a tender and poignant personal experience. In this podcast she is talking about a book she co-authored called A Queer Feedback Handbook, Experiments in Otherwise Arts Education. It really is a handbook, full of useful frames and activities.

To learn more about her work, or to buy the handbook, visit https://www.elisteffen.com.

Elioa Steffen (She/They, USA/NL) is an artist and researcher working in the fields of performance, writing, and social practice. Her work focuses on the intersection of communal narratives, cultural norms, and systemic violence. In 2021, Elioa co-founded In Pursuit of Otherwise Possibilities, Queer Performance Pedagogy and Feedback (IPOP) an educational, artistic research platform exploring pedagogical strategies for supporting queer artists. She is also an Associate Researcher at ATD Lectorate and works in several collaborative constellations exploring trans-feminine voice in religious ecstasy and the pedagogical possibilities of madness.

Elioa’s performances commissioned and produced by The Warp, DOOResidency, (Amsterdam) Gay City, On the Boards, Studio Current, (Seattle), Risk/Reward (Portland), Dixon Place (New York), and Vashon Center for the Arts (Vashon Island) among others. For more www.elisteffen.com

Rhys-Thorvald Hansen (they/them) is a queer folk artist and facilitator of Welsh and Norwegian descent living on the coast of the Salish Sea in the US exclave of Point Roberts, Washington. Raised and rooted in rural communities, Rhys brings a queer ecological lens to both their creative practice and community work. You can find their multimedia fiber art on instagram @rhys.earth, and connect with them about their facilitation work at www.parallax49.com.

I am so excited to share this podcast with the esteemed and inimitable Rhys~! We are new friends, though I think we have been circling each other for some time. As an artist and a creative facilitator Rhys is formidable: deep, intellectual, creative, subtle and magical. They work primarily in food systems sovereignty but also beyond and have started a wonderful integrated arts space in their home town. I find all their efforts quite inspiring and I imagine you will, too.