Jessica Dibb, Spiritual Director and Founder, Inspiration Community and Gretchen Steidle, Director, The Garrison Institute’s Spirituality & Social Change Program
Jessica Dibb writes: We begin life with a breath and we end life with a breath. Breath is our most important connection to life energy because it is the first and last action of our life. As we expand the quality and quantity of breath in our body, healing energy is intensified.
Breath has long served as the essence of many inner work practices and spiritual lineages, from pranayama practices in Vedic-Yogic traditions dating back thousands of years, to its use as an anchor of attention and insight in Buddhist meditation practices, to its integration in movement and martial arts traditions such as Qigong and Tai Chi, among other practices. In more modern techniques, breath can serve to support deep restoration and the healing of symptoms of PTSD as well as enabling non-ordinary states that allow the healing of emotional, physical, and cognitive blockages extending back before birth.
As we look across the wisdom and insights of organizations using breath practices in service of their social purpose missions, what is the contribution of breathing towards that end? How do we understand the mechanisms of breathwork as a tool for change? In what ways do breath-centered practices generate a sense of connectivity or relational shifts that inspire a prosocial orientation and contribute towards social change?
Zoom links will be emailed within 24 hours of registration. Please contact us at events@garrisoninstitute.org with questions.
HOSTS
Jessica Dibb, Spiritual Director and Founder, Inspiration Community: Since 1982 Jessica Dibb has been the Founder, Spiritual Director, and Principal Teacher of Inspiration Consciousness School, and has designed and facilitated unique workshops, classes, and on-going trainings grounded in a highly integrated model of psycho-spiritual healing and development to support self-actualization. Her teachings assist people in cultivating consciousness through all stages of life from conception onward. Using Integrative Breathwork, psychodynamic principles, and established and emergent wisdom teachings, Jessica facilitates embodied awareness of each moment. Her intuitive teaching style, individualized and attuned attention to students, and integrative approach helps to facilitate long-lasting transformations. She also teaches nationally and internationally, including teaching Integrative Breathwork at the Psychotherapy Networker Conference for several years, and being a principal presenter at the International Enneagram Conference for over a decade. Jessica is Co-Director of the Global Professional Breathwork Alliance (GPBA) and Chair of the GPBA’s Ethics Committee. In addition to years of in-person workshops, she now leads the enneagram platform through The Shift Network. She is the host of the annual enneagram global summit, convening 50 leading enneagram teachers from around the globe with cutting-edge teachings. Jessica also teaches several online courses each year on the enneagram and consciousness through The Shift Network. Jessica’s background reflects a rich diversity that includes: classical training at the National Academy of Ballet and Theatre Arts and performance experience with the Royal Ballet of England and the Bolshoi Ballet of Russia; yoga and meditation practice since she was 14, including four years at an ashram; pre-med studies at The University of California, Irvine; and social/civic leadership and service. Jessica is a founding member of the board of Convergence, a non-profit organization working to promote dialogue and innovative solutions for challenging social issues of our time. She was an engaged advisor to the the US-Muslim Engagement Project which published the Report “Changing Course: A New Direction for US – Muslim Relations”. She also served on the board of the U.S. Consensus Council for Search for Common Ground-USA. She is author of the newly published book, Breathwork and Psychotherapy: Clinical Applications for Healing and Transformation.
Gretchen Ki Steidle, Director, Garrison Institute Spirituality & Social Change Program: Gretchen Ki Steidle is the Founder & President of Circles for Conscious Change, LLC, a transformative education firm working with social entrepreneurs, non-profits, and corporations on the use of mindfulness as a design tool for social innovation. Gretchen is the founder of Global Grassroots, an international organization that for 18 years operated a mindfulness-based social venture incubator, launching the ideas of more than 900 women and girls across East Africa, benefiting 250,000 others. She has an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth and a BA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. She is author of Leading from Within: Conscious Social Change and Mindfulness for Social Innovation (MIT Press, 2017), and lectures and teaches on inner work and social change worldwide. A certified Integrative Breathworker, Gretchen has been delivering breath-based therapeutic practices, resilience training and trauma healing since 2002 to a range of individuals globally, including Rwanda genocide survivors, Haiti earthquake survivors and first-responders, Hurricane Katrina survivors, university activists, mental health professional and health care professionals. Her workshops have been offered at institutions including the Skoll World Forum, Omega Institute, Kripalu Institute, Wellbeing Project, AshokaU Exchange, and several universities. In 2007, Gretchen was honored by World Business Magazine and Shell as one of the top International 35 Women Under 35. In 2010 she was honored as a CNN Hero volunteering in Haiti after the earthquake. In 2011 she was chosen one of seven Remarkable Women of the World by New Hampshire Magazine. In 2018 Gretchen was named one of Inc.’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers.