This lecture provides an overview of over 10 years of research on the neurobiology of the social nervous system which explores the causal dynamics of intergenerational trauma, oppression, social norms and social forms. This lecture uses science as a tool of liberation to help people understand how trauma lives in the body and the epigenetic mechanisms by which it is passed from generation to generation. It will invite participants to consider how healing trauma individually and collectively can help create new power and possibilities for social change to emerge.

About the Presenter:

Mordecai Cohen Ettinger, MA, has over 20 years experience as a scholor, educator, holistic healer, and social justice change maker. He serves as adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies where he is currently developing curriculum for a new Science, Technology and Society Studies Program.

His academic research focuses on the neurobiology of the social nervous system, and its implications with regard to collective trauma, healing and social change. Trained in Somatic Experiencing, Reiki, and Cranial Sacral therapy, he has studied with Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Raja Selvam and MaryEllen Sperling, PT.

Mordecai has served as Interim Executive Director of Caduceus Outreach Services, Interim Co-Director of Justice Now and co-founded the Transgender, Gender Variant, Intersex Justice Project in 2004. Other organizations Mordecai has had the gift of working include Advocates for Informed Choice (AIC), The Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Community United Against Violence (CUAV) the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, People’s Durham, San Francisco Women Against Rape, and Sins Invalid.