FriendQuaker Spirituality, Workshops

Online Workshop, Saturday April 20th, 2024 

HEALING PRACTICES and QUAKER SPIRITUALITY 
led by Shannon Frediani

We do not store trauma in the mind;
we store trauma in the body.

Living in our world today involves trauma exposure.
Whether healing from personal trauma or
avoiding being traumatized by working with others who suffer from trauma,
we can learn in this workshop a new form of healing
Bringing attention to our bodies can help us bring our nervous systems
back into balance and to come back to one’s own center of peace.
Balancing and returning to one’s center,
where we encounter Spirit, is building our own resilience.
This 2-session series is an introduction to practices that support the resilience needed to meet today’s challenges.

This program will be conducted online and will consist of two 1½ -hour sessions.  Participants will have the opportunity to do the following:

10:30 – noon: Recognize and reflect on their own responses to trauma exposure.
Learn to interrupt the trauma response.

1:00 -2:30:    Build resilience and new strategies for centering, and
Connect with Spirit and deepen their Quaker faith.

Shannon Frediani is a Quaker teacher, writer, and activist.  She is a member of Santa Cruz Monthly Meeting.  

Register Here


FriendQuaker Pacific Yearly Meeting, Workshops

Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code

The Indigenous Concerns Subcommittee of Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Ministry and Care Committee invites you to join a noon screening and follow-up session of the film “The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code.”

The film explains how the “Doctrine of Discovery” was used to justify Europeans” seizure seizure of the lands of Indigenous peoples, Nations and Tribes in the name of “civilizing” and “Christianizing” them. This Doctrine was explicitly incorporated into US law in the 19th Century. It remains the foundation of US “Indian Law”, and the US legal system continues to use this Doctrine against Indigenous peoples to this day.

We are offering a two-session series in March and April, the first being a screening and initial reactions, and the second diving deeper into where we go from here. 

March sessions will be on Wednesdays, March 8th and 22nd, from 7-8:30pm (Pacific) 
April sessions will be on Sundays, April 16th and 30th, from 3-4:30 PM

If you would like to join our scheduled sessions, please reach out to the subcommittee at lesliezd@reninet.com. 

To see a trailer of the film, click below:

Unmasking the Domination Code
FriendQuaker Pacific Yearly Meeting, Spirituality, Workshops

Quaker Spirituality and Somatic Practices

The Peace and Social Order (PSO) Committee of the Pacific Yearly Meeting (PacYM) announces an interest group-type session held outside of Annual Session

Title: Quaker Spirituality and Somatic Practices
Date: Saturday, April 15, 2023   10:30-noon and 1:00-2:30 pm (Pacific), online
Contact: Linnea (linneachanson@gmail.com or Betty (bguthrie42@gmail.com)

Presenter: Shannon Frediani, member of Santa Cruz monthly meeting Worship & Ministry committee member. Former co-clerk of PacYM PSO committee.

Recognizing and countering the responses of trauma exposure is needed for navigating the multiple crises of our time (climate, war, racial and systemic injustice, COVID, etc.)

  • Exploring and deepening comprehension of Quaker resonance practices and bridging them with modern scientific somatic practices. A brief introduction to trauma exposure responses
  • Experiencing self-regulation and rebalancing somatic practices as a form of deepening Quaker practice for being instruments of peace. Online format, with a link to be sent out. Teens are invited to attend

For context:

This particular interest group, a 2-session workshop, is a replication of the Spring retreat held at Santa Cruz Friends Meeting in May of 2021, sponsored by the W&M committee. It was designed by Shannon Frediani based on her teaching experience at Starr King School for the Ministry, a Unitarian Universalist Seminary. The response from Santa Cruz Monthly Meeting participants was overwhelmingly positive.


Giving a brief overview of Quaker Spirituality and a story of when Quaker practice for maintaining regulation of bodies in a high stakes environment was successful, as well as an introduction of trauma exposure responses and what those look like, this workshop is designed to engage regulating somatic practices, foster Quaker formation, and offer a way forward.