June 19th - July 31st

A Six-Week Online Course with Melissa Schwartz

World-System and cultural crises are unfolding around the world in various communities and societies. Social healing practitioners are needed at scale to respond to these cascading crises. Social Healing practitioners facilitate, coach, and lead social healing practices. These practices enable the development of whole persons and whole systems across multiple professional domains, contexts, and levels of practice. The transformation of collective trauma is the primary intent of practicing the art and science of social healing.

This course explores personal, historical, cultural, and archetypal perspectives to transforming trauma. Participants in this course will engage in collaborative inquiry into aesthetic, psychological, and political responses which bring about social healing and cultural renewal.

Through active dialogue participants and presenters engage complex issues of climate change, economic injustice, intimate violence, stereotyping and scapegoating, and ethnic conflict, while exploring the practices that might create conditions of social healing such as restorative justice, rebuilding trust in the aftermath of trauma, the power of empathy, and the role of awe in recasting our vision of the world. These principles and practices have been the focus of the Center for Social Healing established in 2009 at Meridian University.

Curriculum

Course Modules

Module One

Entering the Forbidden Landscape: Seven Dimensions of Collective Trauma

Dissociation, Disembodiment, and Distraction
Developmental and Complex Trauma
Empathy Practices
Contemplative Practices

Module Two

Hearing the Lion’s Roar Again: Recovering Resilience and Courage After Trauma<

Intergenerational Transmission of Interpersonal Experience
Restoring Memory and Cognititon

Module Three

When Connection Breaks: The Neurobiology of Trauma

Character Persists: Habits and Patterns are Like Stuff
Physiological and Neurological Effects of Traumatic Stress
The Cage of Addictive Patterns
Somatic Practices Affect-Regulation Practices

Module Four

Our Longest Journey: From Scapegoating to Presencing Collective Wisdom

Projection, Splitting, and the Need for Enemies

Module Five

We are Different, We are One: Race, Gender and Culture

The Dialectics of Repression and Oppression
Systemic Institutionalization of Gender, Racial, Ethnic, and Economic-based Oppression
Evolution, Development, and Dissociation
Social Fields and Trans-generational Trauma

Module Six

We are Born Artists: Social Artistry and Transforming Trauma

The Aesthetics of Healing and Practice of Reconciliation
Restorative Justice Practices
Reconciliation as Transformative Healing
Conflict Transformation Practices
Accountability Practices

Module Seven

Reimagining the Rules: The Power of Myth, Ritual and Story

Cultural Leadership and Social Healing
Refinding the Transgressive Imagination
Engaging and Embodying Archetypes
Narrative Practices and Active Hope

*Course modules are illustrative. Faculty build dynamic course content and class structure aligned with and beyond the listed modules.

Faculty

Convening Faculty

Melissa Schwartz

Melissa Schwartz, PhD is the Chief Academic Officer at Meridian University where she guides integrally-oriented programs in Education, Business, and Psychology. The Director of Meridian’s Center for Transformative Learning, Melissa is dually licensed as both a psychologist and as a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT). She serves as a reviewer for the American Psychological Association’s Journal, Psychology of Women Quarterly, and the California Psychological Association’s Office of Professional Development. As well, she serves as a Subject Matter Expert for California’s Board of Behavioral Sciences in the continual development of the state’s MFT licensure examination. Melissa’s research interests are in the areas of adult development, the psychology of women, integral transformative assessment, and the role of culture in transformative learning.

Faculty

Contributing Faculty

Aftab Omer

Aftab Omer, PhD is the president of Meridian University which offers degree and professional programs globally, emphasizing the power of transformative learning. He is a sociologist, psychologist, developmentalist, and futurist. Raised in Pakistan, India, Hawaii, and Turkey, he was educated at the universities of M.I.T, Harvard and Brandeis. His publications have addressed the topics of transformative learning, dialogic capability, developmental power, cultural leadership, civil society, generative entrepreneurship, and the power of imagination. Aftab’s advising work focuses on team development and on leveraging the creative potentials of conflict, diversity, and complexity. Formerly the president of the Council for Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychologies, he is a Fellow of the International Futures Forum and the World Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Eleanor Criswell

Eleanor Criswell received her Bachelor’s and Master’s from the University of Kentucky and her Doctorate from the University of Florida. She has been a professor of psychology at Sonoma State University since 1969 and has formerly been its Chairperson. She is the editor of the journal, Somatics, and the Director of the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training. As a counseling psychologist, she maintains a private practice in psychotherapy and somatics and is the author of Somatic Yoga and Somatics and Biofeedback.

Fleet Maull

Fleet Maull, PhD is an author, meditation teacher, mindset coach, social entrepreneur and peacemaker who works at the intersection of personal and social transformation. He founded Prison Mindfulness Institute and National Prison Hospice Association, catalyzing two national movements, while serving a 14-year mandatory-minimum federal drug sentence, 1985 to 1999. He also founded the transformational education platform Heart Mind Institute and co-founded the Engaged Mindfulness Institute where he trains trauma-informed mindfulness teachers who work with individuals and communities impacted by trauma and marginalization. He has served on the leadership team for the annual Auschwitz-Birkenau Bearing Witness Retreat for more than 20 years. He co-founded the Rwanda Bearing Witness Retreat and has trained genocide survivors as volunteer trauma para-counselors working in villages throughout Rwanda. He is a Roshi (Zen master/senior teacher) in the Zen Peacemaker Community, a senior Dharma teacher in the Shambhala-Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and leads meditation retreats worldwide. He developed Neuro-Somatic Mindfulness or NSM, a deeply embodied, neuroscience and trauma informed approach to mindfulness & awareness meditation practice that facilitates self-healing, self-regulation, and awakening. He founded both the Global Resilience Summit and the Expanded States of Consciousness Summit and co-founded The Best Year of Your Life, SummitPalooza, Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Global Summit, and The Self-Care Summit. Dr. Maull is the author of Radical Responsibility: How to Move Beyond Blame, Live Your Highest Purpose and Become an Unstoppable Force for Good; Dharma in Hell: The Prison Writings of Fleet Maull, and the Resilient C.O.: Mindfulness-Based Wellness & Resiliency for Corrections Professionals.

Format

Course Structure

Seven-week online course from June 19, 2023 through July 31, 2023.
Six, live, 75-minute Zoom sessions with faculty held Mondays at 10:00 am PT (Pacific Time) and recorded for participants who cannot join every session live. Note: There is no live class during Week One.
Reading resources, networking, and emergent community outcomes.
Content and collaboration via Meridian's social learning platform.

Schedule

Course Schedule

June 19

10 AM

First Live Course Session

June 26

10 AM

Second Live Course Session

July 3

Summer Break

July 10

10 AM

Third Live Course Session

July 17

10 AM

Fourth Live Course Session

July 24

10 AM

Fifth Live Course Session

July 31

10 AM

Sixth Live Course Session

Course Fees

$250

Live video classes
Access to recordings on course platform
Course platform community and written resources
Participant launch of ongoing Community of Practice after the course

Accreditation

Meridian University is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) - a higher education accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education. WASC is also the accreditor for Stanford University, UCLA, and the University of California at Berkeley.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an Online Course?

Meridian's online courses are conducted via the University's own learning platform. Our online courses promote community learning, through strong interactive engagement with fellow students and faculty as well as live video sessions with faculty.

What technology do I need to take an online course?

You will need an email account, a high-speed internet connection, and access to a computer, iOS or Android device. If you are planning to attend the course video calls live, you will need a webcam and microphone for your device. (Course video calls are conducted with participants video-enabled.)

Do I need to be online at certain times for class?

Live 75 to 90-min video sessions with faculty and fellow students will be conducted throughout the course. Each week's live video call will be recorded and posted on the course platform. Video presentations, readings, discussions and learning activities will be accessible asynchronously and may be completed on participants' own schedule. Course resources and recordings will remain available up to 30 days after the close of the course.

What is Meridian's refund policy?

Full refunds are available until two (2) days before the course begins, by request via email.

Do I need to apply to Meridian graduate program to take this online course?

You do not need to apply to a Meridian graduate degree program to take this online course. This course is one of Meridian's open-enrollment courses.

How can I reach course support?

The course support team will be available to assist from start to finish. Please send your questions/requests/issues to ctl@meridianuniversity.edu

Who will teach each session?

Convening faculty generally lead each live session. Contributing faculty typically contribute in one of the live course sessions. Course resources address the work of both convening and contributing faculty.

Is financial aid available for this public online course?

Meridian has institutional and federal financial aid options for our graduate degree programs. This open enrollment course does not have financial aid or payment plans available.

Transforming Collective and Developmental Trauma:

A Six-Week Online Course with Melissa Schwartz

Course Modules

Entering the Forbidden Landscape: Seven Dimensions of Collective Trauma

Hearing the Lion’s Roar Again: Recovering Resilience and Courage After Trauma<

When Connection Breaks: The Neurobiology of Trauma

Our Longest Journey: From Scapegoating to Presencing Collective Wisdom

We are Different, We are One: Race, Gender and Culture

We are Born Artists: Social Artistry and Transforming Trauma

Reimagining the Rules: The Power of Myth, Ritual and Story

Convening Faculty

Melissa Schwartz

Contributing Faculty

Course Structure

Course Schedule

Course Fees

Accreditation

Frequently Asked Questions