WHO WE ARE

  • Director of Healing Cycles of Harm

    Facilitator

    Lory Rivera (she/her) is a Borikua born and raised in Boriken (colonially known as Puerto Rico). She is an artist, a writer, and a proud chicken mom. Lory holds a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and has written and published short stories and essays on womanhood, queerness, and the fight for liberation. As an artist, she has created murals and revolution pieces that showcase the drive and determination of her people and honor her indigenous ancestors. As a queer femme who has experienced the impacts of violence in her personal life, she has dedicated herself to uplifting those who have walked similar paths.

    She began organizing at a young age, working with her community to set up potlucks, health fairs, and food and supply drives to promote mutual support and community care. In her professional life, Lory has dabbled in education management, leading programs for underserved youth in TN geared to empower them through the development of life skills, social-emotional development, and restorative justice practices.

  • “I do this work because it invites practicality and hope for radical transformation. I'm grateful for the ways it supports us all to be more accountable, compassionate and grounded in creating a more caring world."


    Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    Dominique (she, her) is a Black Queer femme and Bay Area native dedicated to transforming trauma and violence into opportunities of freedom. For the past decade, she has been honored to learn & share liberatory tools for healing. Her former work as the Healing Justice Program Director at Community United Against Violence supported low income to no income queer and Trans survivors of intimate partner violence, hate violence and police violence through direct service and organizing. At CUAV, she provided peer counseling, seasonal healing programs, mentorship and community trainings.

    Her relationship to spirit and the natural world guides her work. She is the founder of Black Seeds Project, where she provides private and group sessions outdoors. Through these offerings, she weaves her studies in psychology, ecotherapy, mindfulness and trauma informed yoga to explore deeper intimacy. Each session is tailored to specific needs around emotional and spiritual health. Her heart swells thinking about the courage it takes to accept the invitation of building an authentic relationship with self, community and mama earth. To learn more: brownsugayogini.com/blackseedsproject.


  • Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    Sage Tran (they/them) is a queer Vietnamese filmmaker and touring speaker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. They are one of the co-founders of SunKissed Productions - an independent queer Asian film collective. Sal’s work is rooted within the power of storytelling in film, visual and performative art.

    They focus on mental health advocacy work within queer trans Asian Pacific Islander (QTAPI) communities. Their work has been featured in UC Berkeley's Queer & Asian Conference, National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), Seattle Transgender Film Festival, National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) Conference, NYC Queer Asian Short Films, As[I]Am Magazine, UC Santa Barbara - Queer Trans People of Color Conference and many more.

  • “I do this work because I believe that healing is everybody’s birthright. I carry a wish that we all will reclaim what we deserve - supportive community.”


    Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    Certified Anger Management Specialist

    Jasmin (they/them/theirs) brings 15 years of experience facilitating group healing directly with LGBTQ+ peoples, youth, organizers, incarcerated peoples, asylum seekers, and workers.

    Weaving together somatic modalities, conflict transformation practices, and their counselor education (M.Ed. Counseling Psychology) for their offerings, they carefully craft impactful program strategy toward building relational culture and capacity. Jasmin is always thinking about / feeling out / practicing-to-embody what it means to live with integrity, invite spirituality, build community, and cultivate relational culture to skill-up movement builders with the hope of another world.

  • Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    Certified Anger Management Specialist

    Tanya Hernández (she/her/hers) has passionately advocated for justice-involved youth and families for over two decades, cultivating spaces where meaningful conversations and family-centered solutions flourish. Her journey as a passionate advocate and facilitator has deeply influenced communities through her multifaceted roles.

    As a curator of sacred space, she orchestrates transformative healing circles and retreats. These gatherings serve as sanctuaries where participants come together in the spirit of healing and personal growth. Guided by her profound connection to spirit as a Santera and spiritual elder, Tanya infuses these gatherings with ceremony, storytelling, emphasizing ancestral and generational healing.

    In Buffalo, NY, Tanya plays a pivotal role as the facilitator of the Generational Healing Clinic, where she provides community access to holistic healing practices rooted in ancestral wisdom.

    This initiative offers a crucial opportunity for folk to pause, breathe, and connect with ancestral practices.

    Tanya Hernández proudly identifies as being of Borinken descent, reflecting her deep connection to her roots and the cultural richness of her heritage. Her work continues to resonate profoundly, creating spaces where healing, justice, and spiritual growth intersect, fostering empowerment and resilience within the communities she serves.

  • Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    Certified Anger Management Specialist

    Natasha (they/them) has been on a journey of learning and unlearning, diving into transformative justice with the curiosity of a perpetual student. Since 2010, they've called Oakland, Ohlone territory, their home. Natasha is a tattoo artist turned community event coordinator, bringing their NYC grit and their double Virgo precision to everything they do. With a Cancer moon guiding their compassionate soul, they pour love into everything. When they are not tending to details, you can find them surrounded by dogs, thrifting or knee-deep in soil, nurturing nostalgia/histories, fur babies and plants alike. They identify with their trusty 1993 pickup truck - the perfect mix of rugged practicality and down-to-earth charm.

  • Research Consultant

    Jennelle Ramdeen (she/they) is a Black queer nonbinary person from Jerseeyyyy, unceded Lenape land, and born of Trinidadian parents. With deep reverence for the collective Black spirit, Jennelle’s work centers the healing of communities and their individuals as a pathway to liberation.

    They currently lead the Youth Action Institute, a youth policy research and advocacy program of the Center for Court Innovation. Their approach to co-creating spaces to reimagine non-oppressive ways of being while practicing joy. Jennelle's approach empowers the work their young lead to resonate throughout youth and activist communities, effecting NYC policy change. Jennelle has also organized with the New York City chapter of Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) as a member and the healing and safety committee co-chair. Over the years, they have studied and created spaces for politicized healing combining their reiki practice and shamanic energy work to transform our relationship to accountability and harm.

    Jennelle’s joy practices include learning, storytelling, and creating videos from their personal archives, as well as exploring creatively through zines and collaging. Jennelle joined the QTBIPOC Fall 2021 Cohort of Healing Cycle of Harm as facilitator-in-training and participant, and is continuing to support RooT as an impact reporting consultant and researcher.

  • Facilitator and

    Research Consultant

    Soerny Cruz (so-air-knee) (they/she) is a facilitator, consultant, and lifelong learner. They have worked in a variety of sectors including education, health services, and non-profit social services. They have organized around issues of health equity and transit justice with local organizations such as Alternatives for Community and Environment and Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center. She also worked as a sexual health educator and developed bilingual gender and sexuality curriculum for Somerville school district.

    Soerny grounds every facet of her consulting relationships in emotional wisdom and always coaches others to connect to their own emotional dimension. They seek to resist urgency and perfectionism and believe there is always time for work to be done well while sustaining caring and humanizing relationships.

    Soerny was born and raised in Jamaica Plain, MA, surrounded by connections to their Dominican heritage in forms of music, food, and familial proximity. Soerny has enjoyed expressing her artistry performing on local stages as a dancer, actor, and director. Soerny recently relocated to Silver Spring, MD with intention to connect to herself in new ways.

  • Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    Certified Anger Management Specialist

    Dr. Patty Ramirez (she/her), DSW, MSW is the Founder and Executive Director of the Healing Justice Transformative Leadership Institute where she is developing the Leading with HEART model, a healing-leadership methodology that proposes a process for healing, transformation, and liberation in social justice organizations and movements. Dr. Patty believes that reimagining how we heal and lead by creating a new ecosystem for healing, social justice, and leadership development will increase the sustainability of social justice leaders, organizations, and social justice movements.

    For nearly a decade, Dr. Patty has dedicated her work to serving immigrant victims of crimes, and justice-impacted folks. Patty’s experience ranges from working with the immigrant and refugee population, violence prevention, criminal justice policy advocacy, program development, and organizational development. She is also a founding member of the Los Angeles County Crime Victims Advisory Board. Dr. Ramirez is committed to the vision of collective healing and breaking down barriers that discredit the voice and thought leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

    Dr. Ramirez is also the creator of her own micro-enterprise, Wild Luna Botanicals, a self-care and wellness lifestyle brand where healing and brujita magic come together.

  • Tech Support

    Facilitator

    Recovery Specialist

    Madaly Love (they/them) is currently based out of unceded Lisjan Ohlone Territory. They are a curanderx, addiction recovery coach, entheogenic guide, quantum energy healer, community leader, environmental justice advocate, and all around chingonx (bad-ass)! They are committed to trauma-informed facilitation and believe that you are your own best healer. Madaly's ancestors come from Mexico -- with roots in Zacatecas and Michoacán. They feel connected to their Chichimec, Nahua-Otomi, & Purepecha roots, and hold space for the Spanish roots too.Madaly shares their work through the form of 1:1 and group cacao ceremonies, 1:1 coaching, healing energy work with reiki and sound alchemy, transformational hikes in nature, sober dance events, and mindful meditations. Madaly has been in a deep study with cacao for 6 years. Cacao found Madaly when they first got sober

    Madaly is a reiki master teacher and has been practicing for 4 years. They are a trained addiction recovery coach and entheogenic integration coach, and have been practicing for 3 years. They also have a potent background in bay area non-profit work by: connecting local CA farmer to food swamps areas, teaching trauma-informed mindfulness to young people ages 4 - 17, operationalizing and implementing systems/resources to support abolition movement organizers.

  • "I am committed to self-accountability, redefining and co-creating a new brand of masculinity through participating in and facilitating HCH circles imploring encouragement of vulnerable, courageous self-expression with the intention of expanding our capacities for compassion, understanding, and the clear identification and communication of needs, desires and boundaries."

    Facilitator

    Curriculum Developer

    Vic Aguirre (they/he) is a bilingual, 1st generation Vallejo native with a background in gender studies, sexual violence prevention and child development. They are a state-certified health educator and therapeutic massage practitioner. 

    After deciding to take inventory on their own toxic masculinity as a participant in the 2nd cohort of Healing Cycles of Harm, Vic began to co-facilitate and support with curriculum development. They are dedicated to uplifting accountability for transformation in those have caused harm and/or been impacted by violence. 

    He now is a main facilitator for the Peaceful Warriors men of color healing circle in San Francisco and works at a longstanding Mission-based organization under the Department of Children Youth and Their Families as the principal program coordinator for a gender-affirming and culturally-rooted program for high school-aged youth with a focus on providing a much needed safe space for male-identified recently arrived and newcomer immigrant youth. 

Healing Cycles of Harm

Original Curriculum Developers

  • "I do this because it deepens my own practice in choosing responses to conflict that lead to healing and not harm. I'm still growing and I get to witness the abundant shapes and models of other people's journeys."

    Founding Director

    Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    Certified Anger Management Specialist

    Rosa Cabrera, MS, MFA (she, her)

    An Afro-Dominican, queer single mother, raised in Harlem and grounded in Oakland since 2004. She founded Reclaiming Our Own Transcendence (RooT) in 2018 to support survivors of sexual and interpersonal violence, like herself, desiring responses to harm caused without engaging the punitive system of mass incarceration. Beyond community accountability support, RooT offers multiple healing experiences for survivors and those who have caused harm. RooT has also trained organizations and collectives in Oakland and across the US who serve primarily BIPOC and QTBIPOC communities in developing cultures of self-accountability and collective and individual nervous system support.

    Her facilitation and training experiences are rooted in fourteen years of secondary and college-level teaching and teacher training experience, in the Bay Area and New York City. Her previous work as a rape crisis counselor for SF WAR, a facilitator of creative writing workshops for survivors of violence, and her personal experience with interpersonal trauma, inform her current commitments to end our attachments to patterns of harm.

    She has also published essays and narratives on motherhood, sexuality, survivorship, and Black feminism.

  • Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    Tony (he/him) is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, he received a BFA in fine art painting from UC Berkeley, and completed post graduate studies with curricular emphasis on the performing arts of theatre and music at CSU East Bay. He has enjoyed a 42 year career of teaching visual and performing arts, primarily at Saint Mary’s College High School in Berkeley, California, and being the Artistic Director for 60+ theatrical productions. In addition, he has developed and directed multiple performance programs for many schools and community organizations throughout the East Bay with the Theatrical Directors for the City of Oakland Dramatic Arts program, through the Oakland Parks and Recreation Department for a total of 10 years since 1980.

    As a performer he is a recipient of a Bay Area Theatre Critic’s Circle Award for acting, and a National College Theatre Award winner as Performer, Musical Director, and Composer of Original Music for a production of “OEDIPUS REX,”performed at the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington D.C.

  • “I do this because this work is my oxygen. It’s not just about healing the painful cycles of harm in my lineages. It’s also what keeps my heart beating. I don’t know another way to live and breathe and love and be in this world than to immerse myself in the practice of healing in community.”


    Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    Amy (she/her) is mental health advocate, speaker, writer, facilitator, and co-founder and CEO of Healing Together, a global nonprofit working to end cycles of individual, collective, and generational trauma and harm and democratize access to healing resources for communities disproportionately affected by trauma and systemic violence. To date, Healing Together has trained over 8,000 community healing advocates across four continents who support over 100,000 survivors around the world. A Korean adoptee, Amy is a survivor of orphan trafficking, sexual abuse, and generational trauma, and approaches healing through somatic, expressive, and cultural arts practices.

    Amy holds a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management with a concentration in Global Studies from Northeastern University and a certificate in Trauma-Informed Interventions (UC Berkeley). Back in the day, Amy earned her BS in Business/Accounting and is a licensed CPA (inactive) in California.

    Amy is also working on her first book, The Wound Myth, about her journey as a transracial, transnational adoptee, reuniting with her birth parents, and learning to embrace gratitude as a powerful catalyst for change.

Board of Directors

  • Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    Certified Anger Management Specialist

    Dr. Patty Ramirez (she/her), DSW, MSW is the Founder and Executive Director of the Healing Justice Transformative Leadership Institute where she is developing the Leading with HEART model, a healing-leadership methodology that proposes a process for healing, transformation, and liberation in social justice organizations and movements. Dr. Patty believes that reimagining how we heal and lead by creating a new ecosystem for healing, social justice, and leadership development will increase the sustainability of social justice leaders, organizations, and social justice movements.

    For nearly a decade, Dr. Patty has dedicated her work to serving immigrant victims of crimes, and justice-impacted folks. Patty’s experience ranges from working with the immigrant and refugee population, violence prevention, criminal justice policy advocacy, program development, and organizational development. She is also a founding member of the Los Angeles County Crime Victims Advisory Board. Dr. Ramirez is committed to the vision of collective healing and breaking down barriers that discredit the voice and thought leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

    Dr. Ramirez is also the creator of her own micro-enterprise, Wild Luna Botanicals, a self-care and wellness lifestyle brand where healing and brujita magic come together.

  • Treasurer

    Shayna Cureton was a founding mentor of this project before it had a name. She is a Black and queer freedom school starter, youth advocate, and parent organizer.

  • "I do this because it deepens my own practice in choosing responses to conflict that lead to healing and not harm. I'm still growing and I get to witness the abundant shapes and models of other people's journeys."

    Founding Director

    Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    Certified Anger Management Specialist

    Chairperson

    An Afro-Dominican, queer single mother, raised in Harlem and grounded in Oakland since 2004. She founded Reclaiming Our Own Transcendence (RooT) in 2018 to support survivors of sexual and interpersonal violence, like herself, desiring responses to harm caused without engaging the punitive system of mass incarceration. Beyond community accountability support, RooT offers multiple healing experiences for survivors and those who have caused harm. RooT has also trained organizations and collectives in Oakland and across the US who serve primarily BIPOC and QTBIPOC communities in developing cultures of self-accountability and collective and individual nervous system support.

    Her facilitation and training experiences are rooted in fourteen years of secondary and college-level teaching and teacher training experience, in the Bay Area and New York City. Her previous work as a rape crisis counselor for SF WAR, a facilitator of creative writing workshops for survivors of violence, and her personal experience with interpersonal trauma, inform her current commitments to end our attachments to patterns of harm.

    She has also published essays and narratives on motherhood, sexuality, survivorship, and Black feminism.

  • Former Participant

    Cris Harris is a black, queer, trans equity practitioner from deep East Oakland. As a former foster youth, person of houseless experience, and neurodivergent person they approach equity work from a lens of deep lived experience.

    They are a systems agitator who challenges institutions to do and support the citizens they serve in creative ways that go beyond legal compliance. They have a J.D. from University of San Francisco School of Law and a B.A. in African American Studies from UCLA. 

  • Former Participant

    “I came to this work as a survivor, and as someone who has worked across community health, social services, and advocacy—as a spiritualist, doula, herbalist, and facilitator committed to cultural healing. I entered this path wanting to help ensure that children, families, lovers, friends, and neighbors do not have to live in danger, shame, violence, or ostracization. After approaching this work from many angles, RooT offered something deeper: rooted, relational, and spiritually honest."

Former Facilitators

  • Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    Certified Anger Management Specialist

    Gabby {G} Momah (they/them) is a Black queer nonbinary storyteller, actor, writer, director, and producer raised on the unceded territories of the Tongva and Ohlone peoples on the west coast. G’s writing, directing and performance work is rooted in showcasing black trans voices and experiences from both comedic and dramatic lenses. They have also performed in various Bay Area theater productions including Schoolgirls; Or the African Mean Girls Play at Berkeley Repertory Theater, Top Girls at American Conservatory Theater and numerous shows with the sketch comedy group Killing My Lobster and the National Queer Arts Festival.

    Gabby is a Resident Artist of Crowded Fire Theater in the Bay Area, and has trained at Stanford University, San Francisco Mime Troupe, and The Actors Space. They are currently pursuing their MFA in Acting and Directing at Brown / Trinity Repertory Theater on occupied Narragansett and Wampanoag land. They are also a bomb cook, enjoy expressing their creativity in the kitchen and always down to build community and prism resources through food.

    As Gabby started working with a Somatic Behavioral Therapist last spring, they applied and joined the BIPOC Summer 2020 Cohort as facilitator-in-training and participant.

  • Tech Support

    Facilitator

    Trina Marie (she/her) is a second generation San Francisco, Mission born descendant of Náhuatl and Boriken heritage. She believes in and promotes the following practices to sustain energetic balance: the power of the breath; time spent convening with nature; creative expression; knowledge of self; and visualization and affirmation writing as methods to manifest the desired experience in one’s life. She is guided by her Ancestral lineage which includes seers, intuits, healers, empaths, and artists.

    She is a nature photographer, dancer, drummer, and Astrology enthusiast. She earned her degree in La Raza Studies from the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University and has a professional background in youth development and non-profit administration. She reminds us that we are more than the labels assigned to us, we are sentient beings on a comprehensive journey of self-discovery, self-actualization, and fulfillment of one’s purpose.


  • Facilitator

    Esteban Orozco (he/him) has been a holistic nutrition coach for the last eight years, primarily on Ohlone territory. He’s the son of a Huichol midwife and a Mexica medicine man. He grew up in a home that was at times abusive and overcame those struggles to be a healer and advocate for others. His spirituality is a blend of indigenous and Buddhist practice. Esteban has been training with curandera Veronica Igelsis in Mexica/Anahuak healing since October, 2019. He is a former intern with the Buddhist EBMC (East Bay Meditation Center), based in Oakland CA.

    He's been an active member of two men of color groups, including Peaceful Warrior Men's Circle based in Oakland. In the Spring of 2020, Esteban was trained in trauma healing by Healing Cycles of Harm. In the Spring of 2021, Esteban was trained in Trauma-Informed Ethics, Boundaries and Communication by the Trauma Healing Project, based in Eugene OR. All of these various trainings and experiences has helped him to co-facilitate regular online BIPOC talking circles. Esteban is currently on the steering committee for the Healing Clinic Collective Two Spirit Clinic.

  • Curriculum Developer

    Facilitator

    For the past 25 years, Sage Hayes (he/she/they) has offered a unique integrated approach to therapeutic change and transformation. Offering Somatic Experiencing (SE), craniosacral therapy, community education, family and systemic constellations and massage therapy. Sage has practiced, taught and facilitates thoughtful reflection and embodied change.

    Sage has been a lead teaching assistant with the Somatic Experiencing Institute for the past 4 years and has assisted countless somatic experiencing trainings since 2010. Sage has recently been in collaborative projects with the Genesis Institute/Liberation Academy, Reclaim Your Own Transcendence - Healing Cycles of Harm and Lumos Transforms. Sage also co-founded the SE Working Group for Racial Justice.