Science - Politic -Indigeneity - Animism : A provocative and non-Eurocentric somatic approach to trauma, grief and nervous system work.
A soft space for exploration, embracing the uncertainty of where grief and trauma may lead us.
“The Eurocentric paradigm often centers on 'healing' trauma by fixing individuals, pathologizing, and suppressing grief. In contrast, the approach I live by invites us to lean into grief—to feel it fully, own it, and become curious about our fragmented parts. I can’t promise “healing”, but I invite you to explore what “healing” truly means for you, in your own body.” Tobi Ayé
TRAUMA is often stigmatized as something bad or dysfunctional; something that we shouldn’t have. But in fact, we are already born into a traumatized and fragmented world and the air we are breathing is full of grief. Trauma in our nervous system could be understand as a result of an intelligent and necessary response that saved us. It helped us survive and cope through the situation in that moment.
We don’t let GRIEF rise in us not alone allow ourselves to feel it. Western paradigm has even pathologized grief. Although GRIEF holds answers and solutions to many of the world’s issues we are facing - whether on a collective or individual level.
We need to change the way we understand grief.
We need to grief differently.
Trauma & grief work help us get in touch with the wisdom of our body. By integrating non Eurocentric practices and understanding of trauma and grief to somatic work, we invoke and build your nervous system’s capacity to respond to situations instead of reacting to them.
Practitioner Alignment
I work with individuals across a range of genders, races, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds, with a particular focus on supporting bodies from the Global South, as well as systemically marginalized communities. However, I do not work with everyone who approaches me. I hold the Indigenous belief that each person has a practitioner meant for them, and that what we often call 'healing' is, in part, the process of finding and connecting with that practitioner.
UP COMING EDUCATIONAL & WORKSHOPS PROGRAMS
COLLECTIVE RESONANCE IN ORGANIZATIONS: GRIEF-INFORMED PRACTICES TO ADDRESS LOSS AND CHANGES IN THE WORKPLACE
Course day & hours: Mondays & Tuesdays - starting on March 31st - 10am to 3 pm; CET (Berlin, Paris time)
Course language: English
Course Length: 4 modules + 2 sessions of practice, spread over 6 weeks
Number of participants: This workshop is designed for a small cohort, max 12 people
Trainers: Tobi Ayé & Martin Reinfeldt
TRAINING DESCRIPTION
What could an organization look like when we intentionally make space to feel grief in all its forms, both obvious and non-obvious? Whether addressing the discontinuation of a product developed by the organization, acknowledging the impact of a colleague or boss being let go, or even recognizing how social and systemic losses and crisis affect employees. All these experiences demand attention.
In "Collective Resonance in Organizations: Grief-Informed Practices to Address Loss and Changes in the Workplace," we will explore how organizations can become more humane by integrating grief into their culture. Rapid changes and transformations within organizations often bring both opportunities and losses, even when the transformations are positive. Therefore, addressing grief is essential for supporting well-being.
This course is designed for HR professionals seeking to create a more compassionate workplace, ultimately retaining and attracting talent and keeping the organization healthy and human-centered. It is also designed for organizational consultants who want to integrate grief, nervous system, and somatic aspects into their work to address change, team development, and conflict in their client organizations. You will gain practical tools and strategies to recognize and address grief in various contexts, ultimately transforming your organization into a supportive environment where employees can thrive amidst change.
By the end of this course, participants will:
Understand the multifaceted nature of grief in the workplace and its impact on employee well-being and organizational culture.
Explore the ways grief manifests in change processes.
Learn breathing and somatic practices and how to adapt them to an organizational environment.
Learn how to create grief-sensitive policies and practices that support emotional health and resilience.
Equip themselves with tools to facilitate conversations around grief, loss, and change within teams.
Discover how acknowledging and processing grief can lead to a more engaged, cohesive, and compassionate organizational culture.
My Offerings
My Approach
1-1 Sessions
In Person / Virtual
Facilitation & Training
In Person / Virtual
Free Monthly Grief Space
About Tobi
Tobi is a dyer, mender, and weaver of stories, born and raised in Benin. Movement and displacement have been integral to her life, shaping her identity. Growing up across the West African sub-region and living in North Africa, notably Tunisia, she has personally experienced the ethnic, inter-religious, and social divisions rooted in the continent's colonial trauma.
Now based in Portugal after years in Germany, she is a cultural somatic practitioner, grief worker, and educator. Her work focuses on helping individuals and communities repair fractured connections and integrate collective, intergenerational, individual, and systemic trauma and grief.
With a commitment to bridging Indigenous perspectives and modern neurobiology, Tobi created Collective Resonance™, a grief program that trains facilitators to hold space for collective grief processes and acknowledge systemic grief. This program fosters deeper community connections by addressing grief somatically, helping people integrate their losses while nurturing resilience and collective transformation.
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Grief is part of life, part of our growth process, part of us.
What if we make more space to honore it? What if grief more often together?
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