• A nourishing space to experience sacred practice in a community of care
• A collective in which to face the challenges of the present moment together and explore the future we envision
• A dynamic network to exchange around shared issues, geographical location, and contemplative strategies for systems change
• Time to forge deep relationships built on shared values and diverse approaches

We are coming together to understand who we are as a field, to help raise visibility and amplify our collective impact.  Join us and help shape our common purpose.

Tending the Field: Monthly Connection Circle
February 12 | Virtual

Each month we gather virtually to connect, practice, and make space to listen together at the edge of what’s emerging.

In our February Tending the Field connection circle, we are sensing into the future that we crave. What do we envision as an alternative way of being in the world with each other? What is or isn’t working and what is unspoken as we move towards this vision?  

This is a place to reflect, speak honestly, and learn from one another. Two call times are offered depending upon your time zone: 

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12

REGISTER: 7am PST / 3pm GMT

REGISTER: 4pm PST / 12am GMT

Our next circle will take place at the same times on Thursday, March 12.  Registration links to come.

Our criminal justice system is fundamentally traumatizing, yet we keep expecting it to reform people. Our analysis of organizations integrating contemplative practice or inner work strategies into criminal justice work shows a radically different approach that’s producing results conventional reforms do not achieve. These sophisticated interventions are addressing root causes of violence: including unhealed trauma and a disconnection from self, purpose, and community. Restoring that connection through inner work, invites longer-term transformation.

Organizations like the Enneagram Prison Project and Prison Mindfulness Institute have identified specific mechanisms of transformation: contemplative practice builds emotional regulation and resilience; inner work allows healing and self-understanding; creative arts provide avenues for expression especially for marginalized voices; nature connection and life skills restore a sense of purpose and community value; and critically, work with the entire justice ecosystem—incarcerated people, staff, families, communities—creates collective healing rather than isolating “the problem” in individuals.

Organizations report reduced recidivism, decreased violence and suicide rates, lower crime, and stronger communities—not through harsher punishment but through addressing what drives harmful behavior in the first place. We cannot transform a system rooted in trauma and dehumanization without examining how that system has conditioned all of us in patterns of dominance, separation, and violence. This means investing in long-term, relationally-grounded, trauma-informed approaches that honor people’s inherent dignity. It means recognizing that the most effective interventions do not involve harsher consequences, but integrate practices that help people access their own wisdom and purpose, and reconnect with their humanity. 

Our community of organizations working on contemplative approaches to criminal justice reform and violence prevention are now meeting to explore connection, wisdom sharing, collaboration, and co-authoring a writing sharing insights from their collective work and insights within the map. If you too are working in this field and would like to join this community within the Conscious Change Collective, please let us know.  We are also preparing to build similar communities working on education, climate, health, and democracy.

In fact, EPP is changing our system of incarcerating human beings from the inside out by working with all people in the correctional system: from the residents to the wardens, from mental health providers and case workers to Parole Board commissioners, and even with families on the outside.

“The Enneagram Prison Project not only gave me the tools to understand myself but it opened my mind and my heart to the most important responsibility that I have. To give what I’ve gained, away to others that have been forgotten and to those who have forgotten themselves. Understanding this concept, and being able to be a living example of the enneagram through shared work is my blessing. I copilot course 493 at CCWF women’s prison and it is a joy to watch the transformation and realization of themselves. This is me being blessed by them.”  – Troy Phillips, EPP Ambassador

In 2024, EPP presented to the California Board of Parole Hearings, after which one of the Commissioners shared: “First off, I am so glad that other commissioners are making referrals to your program! …One of the big take-aways was that the gentlemen in EPP appeared to have developed a really good internal locus of control. Some programs really stress external loci (such as sponsors, meetings, accountability partners); but your program stresses discovering the internal factors.”

Like many of the organizations with an inner-driven methodology, EPP are a community committed to their own inner work. They say, “We understand that we cannot ask others to do what we, ourselves, are not doing too. As an organization, we practice embodying our curriculum and values as a guide for doing the work inside ourselves, and as a collective that is working to build a more just and sustainable world for all.”

EPP was founded in 2012, by Susan Olesek. After her own in-depth study and work with the Enneagram, she was invited to share it with 100 residents in a little prison outside of Houston, Texas. She writes: “In bearing witness to the courageous inner-work taking place in the unlikely place that prison is, I became downright convinced that the benefit of self-understanding through the lens of the Enneagram is a critical missing piece for real criminal reform.”

Susan Olesek is the founder and practical visionary behind The Human Potentialists and Enneagram Prison Project. She is an unapologetic idealist in passionate pursuit of what is possible for people. Susan is a human bridge reconnecting us to our wholeness and humanity.