Developed over 30 years across six continents, the Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI) program applies principles drawn from Truth and Reconciliation initiatives to seek to transmute gender and sexual injustice and achieve gender equality. The GERI process creates a unique forum for empathic truth-telling on sensitive issues and builds mutual trust and compassionate community through interactive activities and group process. Together, women, men, and people of all genders and sexual orientations can jointly confront difficult and often taboo issues relating to gender and sexuality—without shame and blame—and collaborate skillfully to reach a place of newfound respect, trust, and even mutual reverence.

This session will highlight three GERI program areas that span a diverse spectrum of gender identities and intersectionalities, including: MeToo to WeTogether, LGBTQ+ healing; and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).  The presenters will share inspiring stories and impacts of the GERI programs in diverse countries and cultures, which demonstrate how the methodology of deep truth-telling and collective alchemy can dissolve root causes of gender conflict, through skillfully facilitated, heart-centered transformational experiences. Facilitated by: William Keepin and Rev. Cynthia Brix, GERI’s co-founders; Alka Arora, Associate Professor of Women, Gender, Spirituality, and Social Justice at CIIS; and Jorge Rico, co-leader of GERI’s Latin America Project and its corporate training program.