Listening Circle

Description

Facilitated by the MA Music Therapy team, the Brave Spaces event series provides a space for staff and students to share their stories and experiences around themes of race, racialisation, racial trauma and whiteness. We welcome thoughts and feelings that may be considered unacceptable within the dominant culture.

Sessions are confidential within the usual safeguarding limits, and these boundaries will be held by the facilitator.

What to expect

This session will take the form of a listening circle, rooted in Indigenous practices and designed to encourage listening and connection without confrontation or debate. A musical instrument will be passed around the circle, with each person invited to offer a sound and speak into the circle without interruption or response before passing the instrument to the next participant.

You don't need to book. Just come along at the start of the session. You can also email the facilitator in advance to let them know you're planning to attend.

About the facilitator

This event series is facilitated by Adam Kishtainy, Senior Lecturer on the MA Music Therapy course at UWE Bristol and an experienced group facilitator. Adam has mixed global majority heritage (Iraqi/Cornish) and has completed a certificate in racial trauma through the lens of group psychoanalysis with the organisation Race Reflections.

Session groups

There are four separate groups, each running on a roughly monthly basis:

• Listening Circle for staff with global majority heritage
• Music Therapy Group for students with global majority heritage
• Listening Circle for staff racialised as ‘white’
• Music Therapy Group for students racialised as ‘white’

The groups are held separately to give participants space to explore these themes without having to navigate the racial dynamics of a mixed group.