Coming Together in the Great Turning - by Aravinda Ananda & Molly Young Brown & Kurt A Kuhwald (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Work That Reconnects has helped countless individuals transform denial and despair into meaningful action. Coming Together in the Great Turning is essential for facilitators seeking to deepen the Work by addressing systemic racism, injustice, and oppression, making its powerful impact available to more people.

Review Quotes

For anyone who's been drawn to the beauty and power of the Work That Reconnects, this book is a timely adjunct, providing tools, practices, framing, and facilitation tips to help make the Work more accessible to people of many ages and identities. Given the genius of Joanna's work, it merits all the care, framing, and insight that may be readily accessed in these pages.
-Nina Simons, author, and Co-Founder and Chief Relationship Officer, Bioneers

I'd place this book next to Coming Back to Life on the shelf, not as a replacement but as a companion that brings the work into this new era with clearer eyes and a wider web. It remembers that forests fall when people are devalued, and that people fall when forests are cut down. It treats liberation not as a metaphor, but as the ground we plant in.
-John Seed, founder, Rainforest Information Centre, and long-time facilitator, Deep Ecology and the Work That Reconnects.

Brilliant, helpful, and kind. The authors lovingly guide us through difficult truths on the path towards collective liberation. They provide diverse historic, cultural, and practical examples for growing the capacity of the Work That Reconnects to be more effective in creating deeply interconnected, just, and inclusive spaces. This book is a valuable resource for anyone working with groups to co-create a flourishing world for all.
-Constance Washburn, Founding Weaver of the Work That Reconnects Network, and Co-director, Spiral Journey Facilitator Programs

Coming Together in the Great Turning is an extraordinary, exquisitely articulated manifesto and guidebook for community and cultural transformation.
-Carolyn Baker, Ph.D., Executive Coach and Mentor, and author, Undaunted, Collapsing Consciously, and Savage Grace

About the Author

Aravinda Ananda is a social ecologist and principal lead at Living rEvolution, dedicated to healing, transformation, and intergenerational, interspecies, and intraspecies justice. She has been a facilitator of the Work That Reconnects for nearly 15 years, co-facilitator of the first five Earth Leadership Cohorts (an immersion in the Work That Reconnects for people ages 18-30), a founding weaver (emeritus) of the Work That Reconnects Network, and a lead convenor of the Anti-Oppression Resource Group. Aravinda is also President of the Board of the Interhelp Network, a nonprofit dedicated to liberatory and transformative group work. She and her partner and child are living the rEvolution in Watertown, MA.

Molly Young Brown, M.A., M.Div. is a facilitator, teacher, life coach, and writer who draws on the Work That Reconnects and the disciplines of ecopsychology and psychosynthesis in order to support people struggling with feelings of despair and helplessness in the face of political, social, and environmental crises. A close colleague of Joanna Macy's for several decades, she is co-director of the Spiral Journey Facilitator Development Program, working toward the Great Turning, decolonization, anti-oppression, and a thriving world for all. She offers personal training and mentoring, and speaks and conducts workshops internationally focusing on self-awareness, transformation, and spiritual awakening rooted in an understanding of the interconnectedness of all life. Molly is the author of 7 books including the two editions of Coming Back to Life and Growing Whole: Self-realization for the Great Turning. She lives in Mt. Shasta, CA.

Kurt A. Kuhwald is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister (retired), spiritual director, transformational coach, elder circle facilitator, and an activist focused on anti-racism, climate change, and low-wage workers' rights. He spent 23 years as a high school special-education teacher and then trained as a psychotherapist in 1985, after which he worked in community, hospital, and private settings. Kurt has facilitated the Work That Reconnects and has worked with the Anti-Oppression Resource Group to bring oppression, power, and privilege issues into the community of WTR. While engaging in this work in the world, Kurt has honed his capacity to support individuals and groups to walk onto that ground where the intersection of care for the world meets inner liberation. He lives in Oakland, CA.