The Breath of the Ancestors

Rabbi Dr. Tirzah Firestone is a Jungian psychotherapist, author, and a spiritual leader in the international Jewish Renewal movement. She was ordained by Reb Zalman in 1992 and is known widely for her work in intergenerational trauma healing, Jewish feminism, and the modern applications of Jewish mystical wisdom. Rabbi Firestone teaches nationally on ancestral healing and the common boundary between ancient wisdom traditions and modern psychology.

Rabbi Firestone’s publications include With Roots in Heaven: One Woman’s Passionate Journey into the Heart of Her Faith (Plume,1999), The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish Women’s Wisdom (Harper San Francisco, 2003), Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma (Monkfish Press, 2019). Drawing from neuroscience, depth psychology, and ancient Jewish sources, her latest work, Wounds into Wisdom, offers a roadmap for people of all backgrounds who wish to break free from limiting historical narratives, seize their power, and transform the future. Rabbi Firestone lives with her husband David in the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Resmaa Menakem, New York Times bestselling author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, is a visionary Justice Leadership coach, organizational strategist and master trainer. Resmaa is a leading voice in today’s conversation on racialized trauma. As described by On Being With Krista Tippett, Resmaa “activates the wisdom of elders and a very new science, about how all of us carry the history and traumas behind everything we collapse into the word ‘race’ in our bodies. He illuminates why all of the best laws and diversity training have not gotten us anywhere near healing.” Resmaa created Cultural Somatics, which utilizes the body and resilience as mechanisms for growth.

As a therapist, trauma specialist, and the founder of Justice Leadership Solutions, a leadership consultancy firm, Resmaa Menakem dedicates his expertise to coaching leaders through civil unrest, organizational change, and community building. He helps “Justice Leaders realize their potential in the areas of Equity and Race.” Resmaa’s is an embodied approach. While we see anger and violence in the streets of our country, the real battlefield is inside our bodies, all of our bodies, of every color. If we are to survive as a country, it is inside our bodies where this conflict needs to be resolved.

Resmaa successfully coaches, trains and speaks to a diversified array of Justice Leaders who are community activists, police leaders, non-profit executives, CEOs, collegiate and professional athletic directors/managers, healthcare professionals, educators, government and judicial leaders, and the list goes on. Resmaa helps leaders examine and begin to heal the trauma of racialization that thwarts emergence. He coaches leaders on how to do the embodied work to gain the cultural maturity to lead and build community within themselves, their groups, organizations and movements.

Anita Sanchez, PhD, Aztec and Mexican American, is a trainer, consultant, speaker, and author of the international award-winning book, The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times. Dr. Sanchez is passionate about weaving indigenous wisdom with modern science to support healing, forgiveness, unity, and hope. Indigenous Wisdom is essential in this moment, as we acknowledge, and face, fear, suffering, healing trauma, and support consciousness rising. Anita will share indigenous prophecy—wisdom to support us, including the four sacred gifts given to all humanity for us to create harmony with ourselves, other people, and the earth.

Dr. Sanchez serves on the board of directors of the Evolutionary Business Council, Bioneers Organization, and the Pachamama Alliance, as well as being a member of the Transformational Leadership Council and the Tipping Point System. Anita leads an annual journey into the sacred headwaters of the Amazon to learn from the Achuar and Sapara peoples in order to help business leaders and their families remember who they are, what they are, and their intimate connection to our Mother Earth. Dr. Sanchez is celebrated as a global leader, named a Conscious Company Magazine 2020 World-Changing Woman, and by World Women’s Foundation: #SheisMyHero