What does collective healing have to do with creativity? And what role can poetry play in a world gripped by so much suffering?

Lori Shridhare, a writer and director of communications at Harvard Medical School, began studying with teacher and international facilitator Thomas Hübl. After years of immersive study of collective and inter-generational trauma, Lori turned to writing poetry. Throughout 2024 as the destruction of Gaza unfolded, she began to experience words and images spontaneously come through her regular writing practice – fragments of sentences that spoke of struggling voices yearning to speak. This process inspired her to write the poem Witness. Target = Rubble, published in Merrion West, which you can hear Lori read in the previous episode of What Is Collective Healing?

In this episode, Matthew and Lori explore how Lori moved beyond a purely intellectual understanding of trauma to gain an ever subtler perception of how the legacy of past transgressions – and the power of present atrocities – can live on in our minds, bodies and cultural soil – and how these forgotten layers can gradually be brought back into the light. They also discuss the mysterious process by which collective healing in groups can unlock new levels of creativity, and the sacred power of poetry to bear witness to the lives and loves of those whose voices have been muted by the violence of war and occupation.

Lori has been collaborating with Thomas Hübl on writing and other projects since 2018, including a recently launched blog series for Psychology Today called "Attuned: Collective Healing During Times of Crisis". Lori lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.

00:00 Introduction: What is Collective Healing?

00:03 Exploring Trauma and Self-Awareness

02:19 Lori's Journey into Collective Healing

05:39 The Impact of the Boston Marathon bombings

06:52 Discovering Thomas Hübl and Collective Trauma

07:46 The Power of Group Healing and Meditation

08:28 Unpacking Ancestral and Collective Trauma

12:01 The Creative Process and Poetry

31:18 The Role of Witnessing in Healing

39:33 Current Challenges and Collective Healing in the US

49:28 Conclusion and Final Thoughts