“the myth of the self-made man is a lie. No one got where they are without people and systems that supported them in visible and invisible ways too numerous to count”

The all american logic of Individualism insists that people should be able to “go it alone” and "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and strive for self reliance. But our fixation with the “small self” (the self as an object that does not extend beyond the edges of our body) actually limits our human potential. It keeps us alone and isolated. It makes us reject our own needs and the needs of others. It sets us up for shame and makes us believe we are unworthy of belonging. And it denies our humanity. 

In this clinic we will examine how we’ve been shaped by a culture of individualism and how to recover ourselves from the lie of separation. Through embodied inquiry, radical reflection and courageous conversation, we will unlearn the patterns and tendencies that stem from this ideology and cultivate a practice rooted in interdependence and solidarity. 

Individualism sells us the lie that we are better off by ourselves. It convinces us that self-improvement is the cure to all that ails us. It says that needing help is a weakness and we should trust ourselves above all things. And it says that we are separate and exceptional beings that should pursue self betterment at all costs

The systems we seek to change outside of our bodies are also carried within our bodies. Which challenges us to question what we have internalized from our shared history and dismantle the systems that continue to uphold the culture of dominance.

All of us in different and disproportionate ways are shaped by the messages we receive from our social environments which informs how we view ourselves, how we interpret self-worth and how we relate to others. The result of this mutually reinforcing cycle is very real and in how it causes harm and keeps us stuck. 

Detoxing from dominance means unhooking ourselves from our addiction to safety and control and embracing the vulnerability that is inherent to the human experience. And it means engaging in practice of truth and reconciliation that invite us to heal and repair the collective wounds of the past so that we can allow for the possibility of the future. 

In this clinic, we will do a radical inquiry of how we’ve been shaped by the logics of dominance, what it’s costing us and how to build a culture and practice of solidarity. 

“Scarcity is such an enormous and all-­consuming ideology that no matter how far I traveled on my journey, it always followed.city is such an enormous and all-­consuming ideology that no matter how far I traveled on my journey, it always followed”.

In this clinic we will explore the never ending, no winning, relentless cycle of scarcity. Scarcity is just one more social construct (it’s not real) that shapes our unconscious perceptions and drives our behaviors. Eventually, we project our ideas of scarcity internally and begin to perceive ourselves as measurable and commodified.

These views are deeply scripted within us; narrated by a system that benefits from our not-enoughness and relentless striving. When we don’t feel valued, we don’t feel satisfied. It keeps us trapped by producing an insatiable sense of needing more - more money, more material goods, more validation, more status, more everything.

While scarcity limits our imagination, dignity unleashes it, creating a capacity to dream beyond our limitations and towards cooperative models that take care of everyone. Through radical inquiry, embodied practice and courageous conversation, we will shift from a mindset of scarcity to an embodiment of dignity and possibility.