If you’re ready to turn your empathy into collective power for change, you belong here.
Welcome on a 3-month journey led by Staci Haines, Nkem Ndefo, Karine Bell, and Kai Cheng Thom
We start
Healing. Community. Social Action.
This is The Outer Work.
"Inner work is always necessary — but it leaves you at the level of the individual so can still leave you isolated. It still leaves you thinking that you’re this discrete creature in a disconnected universe. It does nothing to address the social causes that drive so much mental distress and mental afflictions.”
— Gabor Maté
on The Outer Work Project
This Is The Time To Get Connected and Get Involved.
We find ourselves in a moment where coming together and taking action is our only real option. This is too much to hold on our own. Together we can find clarity in the chaos and build the world we know we want to live in.
Continuing to witness systemic harm without a channel for action leads to moral injury . This isn’t a personal failing—it’s a sign of your integrity. But it is particularly insidious because it doesn’t just make you sad; it erodes your agency.
Feelings of hypocrisy, soul-ache, burnout—these can all be indications of moral wounds calling out for healing. Collective action is the most effective way to reawaken your nervous system and regain a sense of agency and healthy power in your life.
By finding a strategic role to play, you aren't just helping the world; you are modeling for the next generation what it looks like to live in alignment with your values even when things are difficult.
Right now, we are in a critical window ahead of the 2026 U.S. Midterm elections.
You could wait until the final weeks of the election to vote and donate in a panic, or you could join The Outer Work Project, and move from reactive to proactive.
By the time the midterms are here, you will be well on your way toward the change we need!
Who Is The Outer Work Project For?
The Outer Work Project is a three-month transformative journey designed specifically for you if you are:
The Deep Feeler
You care. You’ve spent years on your own healing journey, interrupting generational cycles, and learning to regulate your nervous system. But lately, your "inner work" feels like it’s not enough.
- The Loop
You pick up your phone, see the headlines, and feel a wave of overwhelm, guilt, or heartbreak.
- The Longing
You don’t want another retreat or more information; you want a clear, humane pathway to be useful—without being polarizing.
- The Truth
You’ve realized that while personal regulation is essential, it isn’t enough to change the circumstances that caused the dysregulation in the first place. You’re ready to move from ‘resilience for survival’ to ‘resilience for transformation.’
The Healing Professional
You are a therapist, coach, yoga teacher, or somatic guide. You help others navigate a broken system every day, but you feel the moral distress of only working downstream.
- The Tension
You name social conditions in your practice, yet your own engagement remains confined to the treatment room.
- The Hesitation
Movement spaces feel unfamiliar, or “too loud,” and you worry about sacrificing your own nervous system health to get involved.
- The Bridge
You are seeking a way to get involved in social change that aligns with your professional ethics and embodied values: moving from holding others to standing alongside them.
Here’s what you get during 3 months of support, learning, & connection inside
The Outer Work Project:
Eight Live, Interactive Learning Sessions Led By Your Teaching Team
You will meet weekly to be guided by experts in both personal transformation and social change organizing. Sessions will also include occasional guest instruction by lifelong social change leaders. See full curriculum details below.
Life-long Social Change Leaders
We will have special guest teachers at several of our live sessions to help us explore past social change movements and how our lives are different because of them, what’s the difference between activism and organizing, the many different roles we can play in social change that fit our skills and temperament, and more. They’ll also share why they have committed their lives to the We.
12 Small-Group Learning Pod Meetings
You will get the opportunity to deepen relationship with a group of up to 10 participants who will meet throughout the program, beginning in Week 3, and continuing for a total of 12 weeks. Your pod will support integration, reflection, emotional grounding, and accountability. They will offer a consistent place to process learning, track engagement, and stay connected between sessions.
Landing the Social Change Home for You
By the end of the Learning Sessions and Pod gatherings, you and your pod mates will be supported in finding the social change home for you. Maybe it's very local, maybe it's national. Maybe it's about clean air and water, maybe it’s about loving and protecting your neighbors, there are lots of options. We’ll invite you and your pod mates to decide how many hours per month you want to participate in this bigger purpose.
A Dedicated, Private Virtual Community
Inside the learning portal, you will be able to connect and network with others on this journey with you in a variety of ways. Plus, this is your place to access all of the course learning materials and resources.
Learn from leading voices in trauma, healing, and social change whose insights will be integrated throughout your journey.
Plus, You’ll Get Exclusive Video Teachings From
Dick Schwartz
Dr. Richard Schwartz, creator of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy explores in 2 demos what comes up around being involved in social change with two people at different stages of their journeys:
- An IFS demo with someone thinking of getting involved in social change organizing
- An IFS demo with a long-term social change leader
Gabor Mate
In this compelling talk, Gabor Maté and Nkem Ndefo explore the profound connection between personal trauma and societal injustice. They discuss the limits of isolated inner work, emphasizing the vital importance of witnessing suffering, overcoming moral paralysis, and embracing collective responsibility, community healing, and courageous activism to maintain our humanity.
Bessel Van Der Kolk
In this exclusive interview, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk explores how true trauma healing extends far beyond the individual. Therapy must build the agency and self-worth necessary for deep, meaningful connections. We heal relationally. Ultimately, true recovery means reclaiming our capacity to connect, engage, and shape the world we share.
Manuela Mischke-Reeds
Explore the transformative power of collective healing with somatic expert Manuela Mischke-Reeds. This insightful session explores how to move beyond personal overwhelm by integrating individual trauma work with social change. Learn to embrace continuous change through movement and cultivate the resilience needed to co-create a more equitable world.
Richard Strozzi-Heckler
This session bridges the gap between deep inner transformation and the “awakened path” of social action. Learn from Richard’s background in leadership and martial arts training to harness your personal practice into collective action for justice and equity.
Meet The Co-Creators Of The Outer Work Project
A teaching team bringing together somatics, healing justice, transformative justice, organizing, and embodied social change.
Staci Haines
Master Somatic Coach, Lead Teacher
has been experimenting at the intersections of personal and social transformation for the last 30 years through the work of politicized somatics, trauma healing, embodied leadership, and transformative justice. Her work brings transformative capacity building social and climate justice leaders, organizations and alliances. Staci is the author of The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing and Social Justice (2019) and Healing Sex: A Mind Body Approach to Healing Sexual Trauma. She co-founded generative somatics and founded generationFIVE, committed to ending child sexual abuse within five generations.
Nkem Ndefo
CNM, MSN
is foremost an alchemist and also a disabled Black midwife, facilitator, coach, and strategist. She is the founder of Lumos Transforms and creator of the Resilience Toolkit, vehicles for healing and liberatory change across borders and at all scales. Her work builds embodied capacity to stabilize the impacts of personal and collective trauma and catalyze structural transformation. Nkem has led multi-year initiatives in embodied antiracism, healing justice, and resilience capacity building across the U.S., the UK, and Palestine, and directs several certification and professional training programs internationally.
Karine Bell
SEP, PHDC
is a scholar-activist, and founder of the Rooted Global Village, a relational practice space devoted to cultivating ecologies of care and collective world-building. She is a PhD candidate at Pacifica Graduate Institute studying decolonial depth psychology with a focus on community, liberation, and eco-psychologies.
Kai Cheng Thom
MSW, MSc
Qualified Mediator, Certified Professional Jungian Life Coach, and Certified Somatic Sex Educator, is a coach, process facilitator, and mediator whose work focuses on the intersections of trauma healing, transformative justice, and social change. A noted theorist and practitioner in the field of conflict resolution, Kai Cheng has made significant contributions towards the integration and application of conflict transformation, crisis intervention, and body-based trauma healing methods in an activist context through her writing and teaching.
The Outer Work Project Learning Schedule
Each live session is scheduled for 2 hours. Recordings of all teaching sessions will be available inside your learning portal.
Module 1
Orientation — From Individual Healing to Collective Possibility
July 11th, 9am PDT / 12pm EDT
In this foundational week, we’ll bridge the gap between personal healing and organized social change, helping you navigate the overwhelm that often interrupts collective action. You will learn to:
- Validate your current reality: Legitimize your feelings of hesitation, grief, or moral distress without letting them stop you from moving forward.
- Identify the "Me to We" fractal: Understand the interdependent relationship between your personal healing and social change so they no longer feel oppositional.
- Build a somatic safety net: Establish vital self-support strategies—like pacing and boundary-setting—to sustain your long-term learning and engagement.
- Anchor your motivation: Clarify your personal longings so you can trade isolation for the relief of a collective process.
What We’ve Already Learned — Stabilization and Readiness
July 18th, 9am PDT/12pm EDT
Your personal healing work is a crucial foundation. This week honors the capacities you’ve already developed while exploring why those skills must evolve to create structural change. You will learn to:
- Leverage your existing tools: Identify and validate the embodiment and regulation skills you already possess that are essential for social change.
- Interrupt limiting patterns: Use regulation practices to navigate internal narratives of shame, perfectionism, or "appeasement" that can limit your participation.
- Discern your responses: Distinguish between everyday discomfort, genuine activation, and actual danger so you can stay grounded in uncertainty.
Module 2
Module 3
Movements in Practice: How Collective Power Is Built Part 1 — Lineage and Political Imagination
July 25th, 9am PDT/12pm EDT
Find hope in the powerful lineage of vision and resistance! In the first part of our movement study, we’ll learn the histories of community-led organizing movements to expand your political imagination. You will learn to:
- Anchor in a living lineage: Connect to the strategic traditions of racial and gender justice movements, queer rights, environmental protection and more—so you can see your part in a legacy of equity and freedom.
- Broaden your theoretical toolkit: Grasp how stories transmit strategy, helping you see viable pathways to change that move beyond narrow identity politics.
- Counter the "Great Man" myth: Experience organizing as a collective, human process rather than a heroic, personality-driven one.
- Build your support and accountability network: Establish and orient your peer pods, laying the relational groundwork needed to engage with and share these organizing histories responsibly and accurately.
Pod Learning Group Meeting 1
Week of July 26th
Organizing is collective work, and learning to organize shouldn’t happen in isolation. Your Pod is a dedicated, intimate peer group where you will process the program’s material and grow together. Bound by shared agreements, such as no unsolicited fixing, no coaching, and strict confidentiality, your Pod becomes the safe container where you can navigate the emotional friction of movement-building without burdening your movement communities. In groups of up to 10, organized as much as possible by region, you will take your learning and begin applying and practicing it, initially under the guidance of a skilled facilitator.
Movements in Practice: How Collective Power Is Built Part 2 — Systems, and Strategic Change
August 1st, 9am PDT/12pm EDT
Understand the hidden mechanics of how change actually happens. In part two, we shift from history to direct application, equipping you with the practical frameworks to map out current power dynamics, identify key levers of social change, and differentiate genuine power-building from performative action. You will learn to:
- Conduct your own power analysis: Identify the decision-makers and beneficiaries within complex systems like racial capitalism, extractive economics, and authoritarianism.
- Pull the right levers: Understand which levers to engage—from policy and the "Overton window" to economic infrastructure and non-cooperation—so you can move beyond simply expressing opinions online.
- Protect your focus: Practice catching yourself when your attention is being diverted by scapegoating or distraction, allowing you to hold harmful systems accountable while rejecting dehumanization.
- Embrace tactical diversity: Validate the wide range of strategies—from base-building to institutional leverage—used to achieve structural transformation.
Module 4
Organizing 101 — From Longing to Strategy
August 8th, 9am PDT/12pm EDT
Activism and organizing are not the same thing. This module demystifies what it takes to build long-term power alongside directly impacted people, helping you find your unique place in the ecosystem without burning out. You will learn to:
- Define genuine organizing: Understand movement-building as a relational process and learn why grassroots fundraising is a core engine of power, so you can be an effective partner.
- Hold relational conversations: Build collective action by cultivating deep respect for what people care about and their lived experience.
- Find your movement role: Release the pressure to "be everything" or lead immediately by identifying how your unique contributions fit into a broader strategy.
Module 5
Accompaniment, Embodiment, and Movement Culture
August 15th, 9am PDT/12pm EDT
Movement spaces operate differently than healing spaces. This week prepares you for the pace and emotional intensity of movements by teaching you how to show up with cultural humility.
- Practice true accompaniment: Learn the core practices of following impacted leadership and interrupting "saviorism" behaviors.
- Build tolerance for intensity: Normalize the discomfort, paradox, and direct feedback inherent in fast-paced movement environments.
- Maintain your presence: Develop the resilience to stay connected to the bigger vision during conflict, hear the word "no" without collapsing, and quickly recover from inevitable mistakes.
Module 6
Conflict, Accountability, and Staying in Relationship
August 22nd, 9am PDT/12pm EDT
Conflict isn’t a failure of the movement; it’s a strategic necessity for building deep solidarity. Here, you’ll reframe accountability as a practice that strengthens our collective work. You will learn to:
- Communicate with clarity: Ask crucial questions, assert your needs, and confidently give or receive honest, direct feedback.
- Practice equanimity: Stay grounded in the face of divergence, valuing healthy endings and accepting disappointment without leaving the relationship.
- Process responsibly: Use your support pod for emotional processing so you don't burden impacted communities with your personal triggers.
Module 7
Joining the We — Commitment and Continuity
August 29th, 9am PDT/12pm EDT
The final teaching module happens in the middle of your work with your pod by design. Here, you will map out the broader social movement world and make a concrete, sustainable plan to contribute your skills in the real world. You will learn to:
- Navigate the ecosystem: Identify major organizing formations and find your accessible entry points.
- Match with an organization: Select 2–3 specific organizations that align with your values and geography, so that you can transition seamlessly from learning to doing, answering the question of "Where do I fit in?" with clarity.
- Commit to action: Create a realistic, minimum six-month engagement plan with a specific organization while using your peers to track your ongoing journey.
Module 8
Pod Learning Group Meeting 6 and beyond
Weekly, through the week of October 11th
Taking action is where the real work begins. Over the weeks following the program, your pod will continue to meet, providing a critical lifeline as you navigate the realities, frictions, and triumphs of joining a movement.
Endorsements
Get Involved Now:
- 8 weeks of guidance from experts who know BOTH trauma healing and social change organizing
- 12 weeks together with your 10-person learning pod to support you
- Bonus videos from Dick Schwartz, Bessel Van Der Kolk and Gabor Mate
- Making an impact that will last beyond your lifetime
We are a not-for-profit operation. After our operating expenses, 100% of our revenue will be donated to the organizations supporting us. And as this is a critical moment in history to get involved, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Solidarity
(sign up now, and also provide tuition so someone else can join)
Signing up at this rate makes it possible for us to offer a sliding scale.
Standard Tuition
(most popular)
This rate covers the cost of your enrollment.
Reduced Rate
No one will be turned away for lack of funds, but we ask you please support the project by paying as much as you are able.
100% Money-Back Guarantee
We are so confident that you will benefit from this training and community, that we invite you to try out this program for the first week (starting from the first live session), and if you do not feel it’s a fit, we will refund 100% of your money, no questions asked.
Frequently Asked Questions
We’ve held these questions carefully.
Here’s what we want you to know.
When are the live sessions?
The live sessions with the teaching team are scheduled for Saturdays from 9am-11am PDT / 12pm-2pm EDT on the following dates. You will get access to recordings of all of the live sessions.
Live session schedule:
July 11th
July 18th
July 25th
August 1st
August 8th
August 15th
August 22nd
August 29th
The Pod groups will meet at different times during the week based on participant availability for 90 minutes each time, starting after Week 3 of the program (the week of July 26th).
This is an intense pace, designed to match the intensity of the times we are living in. Our experience suggests though that once you’re doing the work, the meetings will come to feel like your place of refuge, solidarity, and support.
Will this burn me out?
Actually, staying on the sidelines is what’s burning you out. The ‘freeze’ response is more exhausting than ‘mobilized action.’ We aren’t adding more to your plate; we’re changing what’s on it so it stops feeling so heavy.
I work full-time and have a family. How much time does this actually take?
It makes total sense that you are worried about your capacity; you are likely already spread thin. The learning portion of the program consists of eight live, two-hour sessions, and this is supplemented in alternating weeks with 90-minute Pod Learning Group meetings. One of the benefits of the course is that it offers a gentle way to commit to spending up to 10 hours per month on movement work and making time and space for that in your life.
I’ve spent years learning to regulate my nervous system. Will joining this flood me with toxicity and despair?
This is a perfectly valid fear—it can feel scary doing something new, doing something important, advocating for change outside the status quo, and on top of that doing it in a whole different culture that you aren’t yet competent in! But instead of flooding you, Week 2 is entirely dedicated to “Stabilization and Readiness”. We teach a specific protocol to help you distinguish between actual danger and mere discomfort, acting as a “Somatic Safety Valve”. You will learn how unfreezing through supported, collective action is actually one of the most effective ways to cleanse your nervous system of moral injury and regain your agency.
You don’t have to have it all figured out to begin.
You just have to feel the pull.
I’m an introvert and a sensitive person. I’m afraid of the stereotypical loud, angry activist, and I don’t see myself becoming that. Is there a place for me?
Absolutely. The image of the loud, aggressive activist with a megaphone is just one narrow archetype. In Week 5, we provide a “Movement Ecosystem Map” to help you identify roles that actually match your current skills and personality. Wherever your strengths lie, social movements need you exactly as you are.
I don't know all the right political language or history. What if I say the wrong thing or cause harm?
Feeling like an imposter or fearing you might get “cancelled” is incredibly common. We actively welcome the “beginner’s mind” and have designed a space where it is safe to be human and make mistakes as we learn together. Furthermore, Week 6 is specifically designed to reduce your anxiety about “doing it wrong” by replacing the urge to “fix” or be a savior with the teachable skillsets of true accompaniment and cultural humility.
The systems are so big and broken. Can one person really make a difference against things like climate change or rising fascism?
When you look at massive global issues by yourself, feeling powerless is a normal response. You are right: one person acting alone cannot change these systems. That is why we focus on shifting from individual heroism to collective power. We will teach you how to use a power analysis tool to break down massive systems into concrete decision-makers and levers of change, proving historically and mathematically how large groups doing small things inside a shared strategy creates real lasting structural change.
I’m exhausted by how divided everything is. Will this course just teach me to polarize my friends and family?
No. You do not need to polarize your friends and family to make a meaningful difference. We recognize that polarization is often a divisive tactic used to concentrate power, and we do not want to participate in making another group the “enemy”. Instead, you will learn to grow your capacity to hold complexity, set clear boundaries against harm without dehumanizing others, and maintain your relational presence.
I’m a therapist/healing professional. Is this just another trauma-informed training for my practice?
If you are a healing professional experiencing the moral distress of only treating the downstream symptoms of a broken system, this program is designed for you. This is not another clinical training to help you name social conditions in your treatment room. It is a bridge to help you step into organized social change in a way that aligns perfectly with your professional ethics and embodied values, moving you from merely holding others to standing alongside them in action.
I usually buy online courses and end up doing them alone or never finishing. How is this different?
You won’t be doing this alone. In addition to the live sessions and the private online community, we place you in a dedicated, small-group practice and accountability pod beginning in Week 3. Your pod will meet regularly to offer a consistent place to process your learning, track your engagement, provide emotional grounding, and keep you connected and accountable long after the course modules end.
What exactly is the format of the course, and who else is teaching?
The Outer Work Project includes eight live, interactive two-hour sessions led by all four teachers: Staci Haines, Nkem Ndefo, Karine Bell, and Kai Cheng Thom. You will also have weekly 90-minute peer pod meetings. Additionally, you get exclusive bonus video teachings from renowned experts Dick Schwartz, Gabor Mate, and Bessel Van Der Kolk.
I want to join, but what if I get in and realize it's just not the right fit for me right now?
We want you to step into this transformation feeling completely supported. That is why we offer a 100% money-back guarantee. You can try out the program for the first week, and if you do not feel it is a fit for you, we will refund your money with no questions asked. (Note: If money is an obstacle to joining in the first place, please use our honor-system discounted rate form).
© 2026 The Outer Work Project. All rights reserved.
