Clauses. A Self-Reflection

The list of things we want to include as clauses in our workshop descriptions keeps growing and growing with each new workshop experience. For example, it used to feel like it was enough to simply write that “people of all genders and sexual orientations are welcome.” But it’s now clear: Simply mentioning that isn’t enough, of course. Because a diverse group brings its own potential for conflict, and while everyone is welcome, how do we address the specific challenges that arise? Can workshop facilitators talk about vulvas in a way that allows people without anatomical vulvas—but with energetic ones—to receive their vulva massages too? Who can do that? How? And how do group leaders navigate this, ensuring that a group handles it well when, for example, structurally marginalized people (e.g., people with bodies that fall on the spectrum of race, gender, age, and disability and thus have different conditions than those dictated by a socially conventional norm) are present—without triggering…