About

Sera is a settler of European descent in Mi'kma'ki, working to support deep shifts around social and environmental issues. As a social innovator and master facilitator her work is focused on building capacity for participatory leadership and creating movement around stuck challenges. Her work creatively engages a diversity of players and stakeholders in finding shared clarity and timely actions. She began her career in the complex field of Environmental Consulting, juggling the needs of diverse stakeholders balancing economic, ecological and social sustainability. Since that time she has successfully led change with dozens of organizations on four continents in the Public Sector, Academia, Nonprofit and Corporate sectors.

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. Kai Cheng maintains a private practice as a one-on-one somatic coach, consultant, and group facilitator, drawing from extensive professional trainings in a wide variety of healing and wellness disciplines, including politicized somatics through the Strozzi and Generative Somatics lineages, depth psychology, Processwork, somatic sex education, clinical hypnotherapy, yoga nidra, and Thai massage. She has also trained hundred of embodiment and wellness professionals as Adjunct Faculty with the Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education and a Senior Teacher at The Embody Lab.

Navida (she/her) is a certified coach, creative facilitator, and conflict engagement teacher focused on creating enabling environments where people feel nourished and able to be in better relationship with themselves and each other. Before leading her own practice, she worked in start-ups, served as Executive Director of ArtStarts in Schools, and held a director role at the City of Vancouver's Arts & Culture department. She holds an MBA from the University of British Columbia with a focus on Organizational Development. Rooted in her identity as an Ismaili Muslim with Gujarati ancestry, her work carries a stewardship of devotion to learning for collective flourishing and a deep ethic of service to community. When Aftab Erfan brought Lewis Deep Democracy to the City of Vancouver, Navida fell in love instantly. She's always been a depth enthusiast that cares about relational health, so this method felt like home. She is continuously working to build her equanimity and one of her favourite micro-practices is putting her legs up the wall to metabolize the day and re-ground herself.

Camille (she/they) came to the work of process-oriented conflict transformation trying to make meaning of events in their family's life. Pulling the thread of healing, she discovered it was connected to power, and that in turn to systems change. Studying process-work with Arnold Mindell gave Camille a flexible frame and embodied skill-set for showing up usefully at the intersection of healing and social change as a facilitator and coach. Lewis Deep Democracy and Social Presencing Theatre provided powerful practices to support leaders and teams. A founding member and former director at Waterline, a Registered Clinical Counsellor, and a Qualified Mediator, Camille has spent over 20 years helping groups face difficulty with integrity. A practice they return to often is the equanimity dance - a way to engage stuckness and be surprised by the answers hidden in plain sight.

Tasha (she, her) is a settler, of Punjabi descent, living in Vancouver on the unceded territory of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. She has worked with non-profits, grassroots community groups, government, schools, and post-secondary institutions learning from and with those trying to create a more just world. Tasha is experienced in dialogue and designing social justice and anti-oppressive curriculum.  She has worked to support groups navigating conflict engagement and collaborative decision-making processes.   She spends her much of her time thinking about our collective liberation and how to convince her toddler to wear a jacket when it is cold outside. 

Aslam Bulbulia (he/him) is a new settler on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ / sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) land from South Africa, with Indian heritage. He has a background in Political Science and Philosophy and during postgraduate studies explored city planning, Islamic law and spirituality, user-centred design and decoloniality.

He has worked on a wide variety of projects that range from teaching and arts organizing to various positions within local and provincial governments in South Africa and Canada. He has a Certificate in Dialogue and Civic Engagement from SFU where he serves as an advisor, and serves on the faculty of Inner Activist. He has previously led Community Engagement Initiatives at the SFU's Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, and co-hosted the RADIUS Fellowship.

Brook (she/they) thinks of themself as a coastal creature, of English, Scottish and Austrian Jewish descent, grateful to live in Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia), with their dogs and partner. In certain company, they are inclined to describe the moments of their day in song.

Brook co-owns a company called Big Waves and has over 15 years of experience in organizational change, conflict transformation, adult education, somatic coaching, and relational leadership. They support leaders and teams dealing with questions like: Why are we struggling to get along, and what is the embodied experience of that friction? How can we make this a place where people truly want to, and do, belong? What are the patterns (personal or systemic) that are getting in the way of our most meaningful change? 

Brook originally found their way to Deep Democracy through a love of Process Work and a desire to find more accessible ways to integrate it in daily practice. They became a teacher to build their own capacity to support groups to move out of polarization and entrenchment, and it has become a core philosophy and conflict intervention practice. Brook talks about role theory as a way to support people to see systemic patterns rather than falling into the easy pattern of blaming individuals.