Practicing Liberation : Radical Tools for Grassroots Activists, Community Leaders, Teachers, and Caretakers Working Toward Social Justice

The accompanying workbook to Practicing Liberation: essential skills, exercises, and journal prompts for social-change workers to protect boundaries, prevent burnout, and nourish organizational cultures of resilience and care

What do you imagine a better world to look, feel, and sound like?

Practicing Liberation Workbook shows that nourishing our movements and communities depends on nourishing ourselves—and that centering rest, prioritizing joy, and celebrating creativity and radical imagination is necessary for long-term change. To be sustainable and realize the transformation we’re working toward, we need to care for our body, mind, and spirit, even (and especially) when the needs of our communities are urgent.

In this accompanying workbook to Practicing Liberation, editors Hala Khouri and Tessa Hicks Peterson respond to the real needs of activists and changemakers—like healing from stress and burnout, processing grief and rage, and addressing overwhelm and disconnection. Examples of practices include:

• Guided journal prompts for self-care critical reflections: Reflect on the ideas and practices you’ve inherited around survival and self-care. What did you learn about survival in your family of origin? What did you learn about self-care?
• Embrace and release, an embodied exercise to support you in times of overwhelm
• Shared reflections for building community: What experiences or circumstances have shaped you in your life? What gifts has this given you? What can’t you see about the world as a result? What support would give you more tools or uplift your gifts in this work?
• Meditations for self-forgiveness, equanimity, and connection with nature
• Holding space and being present for others through embodied listening

Readers are invited to try out the practices alone, with friends, in ceremony, at work, and in nature—to pick those that resonate most and use this toolkit in service of the care and transformation we each need to show up, sustain our work, and thrive for ourselves and our communities.

TESSA HICKS PETERSON is a scholar activist, teacher, facilitator, mother, wife, daughter, friend, dancer, and community builder. She is the Assistant Vice President of Community Engagement and Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Pitzer College. She has Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Cultural Studies and a BA in Psychology, Sociology, and Spanish. Hicks Peterson teaches classes and facilitates training on issues ranging from anti-bias education and social justice to empowerment through movement, mindfulness, and art.



HALA KHOURI, MA, is a therapist, yoga teacher, and somatic experiencing. She has been teaching yoga and movement for over 25 years and has been doing healing work with people living with trauma, depression, anxiety, or in life transitions for over 15 years. Khouri is trained in Somatic Experiencing and is an adjunct professor at Pitzer College where she teaches a Critical Community Engagement course. She also runs an online community program, Radical Wellbeing.


Keely Nguyễn is a Communications Manager at Partnership for Safety and Justice. She is a first-generation Vietnamese-American immigrant who is passionate about uplifting the well-being of communities impacted by structural and direct violence. Nguyễn holds a BA in Public Health and Policy.