stronger together:
physical skills for tough times
a workshop series where we practice using our bodies to do hard things together, with a focus on collaboration, care, and not leaving anyone behind.
As climate catastrophes and political crises get more intense, there are moments that arise in our communities that require some folks to do physically intense things to take care of ourselves and each other.
Lots of different situations might require us to do challenging, physical things. Maybe the power goes out after a tornado and someone needs to carry oxygen tanks up 10 flights of stairs to an elder’s apartment. Maybe we’re running from the cops and we need to get over a fence. Maybe a group of people, whose bodies have lots of different needs, need to walk 5 miles together to get somewhere safe.
The Right thinks about these moments with a militaristic, “only the strong survive” approach. But for those of us who are committed to taking care of each other, we can practice physical skills in a way that’s about keeping each other safe, drawing on the wisdom of the group, and not leaving anyone behind. Stronger Together is a space to experiment, learn, and practice these skills, in a curious, caring, and sometimes even playful environment.
I’ve been scheming on the idea for Stronger Together in the back of my mind for almost a decade. In 2025, my dear friend and mentor Susan Raffo gave me a nudge and an invitation to collaborate to bring it into the world. We co-led the curriculum in a couple of different formats, and now I’m continuing to build it out and offer it on my own.
What to expect at Stronger Together
We spend our time together (whether it’s a few hours or a few days) practicing with our own bodies and with each other in scenarios that might come up in intense moments. We’ll talk about some principles that can help us, do some physical practice focused on a specific scenario, and then debrief what we learned together. We may work with skills like:
balance
climbing over things
lifting and carrying heavy things, including each other
dealing with stairs
One focus is on learning and practicing physical skills to help our bodies accomplish these tasks more easily. Another focus is on building the skills to relate to ourselves and each other as we do challenging things. We practice working with others while also tracking ourselves and our bodies.
If there are particular scenarios or skills that a group wants to work with, or that are relevant in a given moment, we can work with those. Recently run into a situation where you unexpectedly had to climb a tree, or push a car? Let’s practice it together.
This workshop is for anyone who’s ready and willing to engage with this material and with everything that arises in our bodies as we do. There will be physically challenging aspects to this workshop, and participants will get to decide how they want to participate throughout. All bodies are welcome and all bodies will be asked to stay in tune with their limitations and to make decisions accordingly.
Interested in Stronger Together?
In the months to come, I plan to offer Stronger Together as a stand-alone workshop that’s open to any Twin Cities community members, and also as a tailored offering that groups (including neighborhood groups, faith communities, grassroots organizations, and pods of family or friends) can bring to their people.
If you’re an individual who wants to stay in the loop about the next time I run an open workshop, sign up here.
If you’re part of a group or a community that wants to bring Stronger Together to your folks, let’s connect. If you’re local to the Twin Cities, the answer will probably be a quick “yes!” And if you’re elsewhere, let’s talk more to explore the possibilities. Format of the workshops, and pricing, can be determined based on our conversation.