ABOUT CHERIE
My experiences as a clinical social worker, leadership scholar/practitioner, adjunct professor, and owner of Paradox Cross-Cultural Consulting, Training & Empowerment LLC have truly been rewarding. My voyage into exploring social worker discourses and what could be discovered about professional workplace experiences with race and racism has been fascinating. As life in the U.S. continues to evidence, racial dominance somehow manages to always be in season. My critical discourse analysis shows how the forces of nuanced racism and whiteness in social worker discourse function and cooperate to produce dynamics that maintain and (re)produce racial dominance while simultaneously avowing a commitment to racial justice, oftentimes without intent. By interrogating patterns of racial dominance in everyday professional conversations, my PhD thesis takes what is often implicit and makes it explicit. Frequently underacknowledged in experiences around race are various forms of resistance, and social worker stories are embedded with glimpses of dissent and opposition. Analysis of focus group data unearthed four essential characteristics or interpersonal capacities that contribute to generative racial dialogue and offers lessons and tools for social justice leadership and antiracism practices. Navigating the Silences: Social Worker Discourses Around Race can be found on my author page.
My multiracial/multiethnic clinical and educational experiences include community mental health, clinical social work with Somali immigrant families around the complexities of global displacement and resettlement, and various forms of trauma. I am a certified clinical trauma professional and in my private practice employ somatic psychotherapy and interventions that create mind-body spaces for healing primarily around oppression-based trauma, intimate partner violence, and developmental trauma. I am adept at creating generative and liberating dialogic environments that promote transformational social change. I am a member of the Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation task force.
ABOUT LINDSAY
Lindsay Lyons is an educational consultant who works with teachers and school leaders to inspire educational innovation, create curricula grounded in youth activism, and build capacity for shared leadership and racial and gender justice. Lindsay taught in NYC for 7 years, holds a PhD in Leadership and Change, and is the founder of the educational blog, Time for Teachership.
Lindsay believes in the power of working in partnership with students and families to create engaging, authentic curricula and foster an inclusive, justice-oriented community. Using her research on shared leadership structures and student voice, she is passionate about helping schools design systems and structures that exemplify shared leadership. She is inspired by the shared, democratic leadership styles of Mary Parker Follet and Ella Baker, and she subscribes to Heifetz, Grahow, & Linsky's theory of adaptive leadership, particularly their insistence that, adaptive challenges (such as educational inequity) "can only be addressed through changes in people’s priorities, beliefs, habits, and loyalties."
ABOUT PARADOX
Paradox Cross-Cultural Consulting, Training and Empowerment, LLC services primarily focus on the education, counseling and faith-based professions. Paradox concentrates on normalizing the practice of generative racial dialogue by building personal, interpersonal and organizational capacity. Our services confront the “elephant in the room” and are designed for people who are willing to do the difficult and rewarding inner work of racial justice. Taking an adaptive approach, Paradox expertise utilizes everyday talk to identify various forms of racial dominance and how it manifests in our social interactions, thoughts, and bodies, and then shows up in organizations, impacting working relationships and your bottom line. Our services support the internal work of racial justice and we journey with you to create practices that support transformational social change.
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Social Change Coaching
