�Absolutely wonderful�
�Beautifully orchestrated�
�Everything I have worked for all my adult life was evident in that meeting�

By all accounts, our first SB-CAMFT gathering of the Creating Pathways to Community group entitled �A Conversation for our Time� was a tremendous success! Thirty five of us came together with much energy, excitement, and anticipation on Saturday morning, January 10th, at the Karpeles Manuscript Library in Santa Barbara. The purpose of our coming together was to dialogue about how we envision expanding our roles as therapists out of the consulting room and into the community.

I spoke briefly on the impact of the unprecedented national and global crises that now challenge us individually and as a community. I posited that these threats can be the stimulus and opportunity to awaken us to a more responsible, sustainable, and life-honoring consciousness. Responding to this call requires an examination of basic values, assumptions, and lifestyles, as well as a reclamation of what has been in shadow, split off from our awareness. I read a quote from C.G. Jung, which says, �Without necessity nothing budges, the human personality least of all�only acute necessity is able to rouse it�it needs the motivating force of inner or outer fatalities� (Collected Works, XVII, par.293). I invited an exploration of how we as therapists understand the changes we need to make both personally and collectively and how we can support each other and the community in creating a culture that will foster a shift that is consonant with our professional understanding and values.

Before beginning our dialogue, Angelica Jochim led a beautiful mindfullness meditation which helped us bring more of ourselves into presence. We then moved into small discussion groups, using a talking piece in council style, to address the question, �What brought us here?� After a round of sharing, we opened up to discussion. The discussions in each group were heartfelt, rich, and stimulating, and generated many connections, ideas for collaboration, and suggestions. We spoke of the anxieties, fears, and hopes generated by the current and anticipated crises we face. We discussed our perceptions of what is happening for us personally, with our clients, and what healing we would like to see, or believe needs to occur to ease suffering and support adaptability and growth. Afterward, one participant remarked, �There seemed to be a deep thirst for community and sharing.�

Anny Eastwood led us in a vocal and movement experience to �find the voice of community.� Anny guided us in allowing our natural voices to emerge in resonance with the core of the earth and allow the sound and energy to move us. We created a harmonic blending of all of our voices which reflected the energies we had brought together in this full morning. The healing sounds filled the room, connecting us. Paper and pen awaited us as we sat down to write of our experiences of the morning and any message or image that came to us. Back in our small groups we shared what came forth. What came to me after this full and rich morning was a sense of �being-ness� as enough, a shared humanity and belonging.

We ended standing together in a big circle, speaking a word or phrase reflecting our experience. We heard:
�Connection�
�Gratitude�
�Healing�
�Community�
Stay tuned for the next gathering. Hope to see you there.

Madelyn Swed has a somatically grounded, holistic depth approach to psychotherapy utilizing attachment-based relational interventions and dyadic regulation of emotion. She is currently in advanced training in the Emotionally Focused Couple�s Therapy approach of Sue Johnson, author of Hold Me Tight. She has trained in numerous body-centered approaches including having graduated and taught for six years at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and Continuum with Emilie Conrad. She studied and trained with the dreamwork and research pioneer Montague Ullman and incorporates dreamwork and sandplay into her practice. She is interested in the intersection of body-psyche, science and spirituality.