What Grounds My Work: Influences and Lineages

My work has been shaped by my relationships, community, and activism; by Jewish traditions of questioning, justice, grief, and ritual; and by my own ongoing therapeutic and reflective practice. 

More than 25 years of social work, clinical practice, teaching, community organizing, and activism have informed how I think and work. My lived experiences as a queer person, as a parent, and as someone with a learning disability have shaped my commitment to accessibility and to creating spaces where there are multiple ways to participate, reflect, and learn.

As a white settler on Turtle Island (Treaty 13), I continue to learn about and reflect on what decolonizing my practice asks of me. I am also committed to Palestinian solidarity, climate justice, abolition, and broader movements for collective liberation. As a Jewish person, Tikkun olam, the Jewish tradition of repairing the world, is foundational to my beliefs and values. For me, Tikkun olam is more than ideal, it is the ongoing and concrete practice of justice, care, solidarity, and collective responsibility. I hope to put this into practice through ongoing community organizing, solidarity work, mutual aid, and the redistribution of some of my professional income to community-led movements and initiatives. 

I am deeply grateful to the many teachers, colleagues, clients, communities, activists, and friends who continue to influence how I think and work, including Billee Laskin, Kai Cheng Thom, Tara Brach, Carla Nelson, Natalie Zlodre, and Sarit Cantor, among many others.