Personal and Collective Liberation through the Power of Felt Experience

An Online Forum took place on Sunday 19th October 2025 under the title. ‘Personal and Collective Liberation through the Power of Felt Experience’.

This forum centred more on felt experience in relation to wider societal and global issues. The recording of some organiser contributions are below. The recording does not include participant contributions, as a way of honouring confidential sharing and allowing participants to speak more openly. More about the forum is below, under the video.

The second forum in this series is scheduled for Sunday 23rd November 2025. It will lean more into our felt experiences in relation to any groups and teams we have been part of. We will explore how tensions in our groups, teams and movements can be a gift. How can our individual and collective work be more authentic and meaningful?

We may also touch on what processes look like in groups that work with shared power and collaborative decision making. Find out more and register via this link!

Recording of some Organiser Contributions from first Session

Timestamps for video

0:00 The ‘Why’/Context: Why is this issue important: Muzammal Hussain
17:15 Our felt experiences in relation to wider societal issues, and working in groups [Organisers share]: Shumaisa Khan, Muzammal Hussain, Yusra Supdarowa
28:40 Breakout group framing: Muzammal
31:30 More about the body and our groups and movements: Muzammal
32:55 Info about the upcoming session in November 2025: Muzammal

About the Forum

We are living through intertwined social, ecological and spiritual crises fuelled by a system of patriarchy, capitalism, white supremacy and settler colonialism. These forces shape both our world and our inner lives, and are often characterised by power over rather than power shared with others.

In this interactive online gathering, we will explore what keeps these systems of domination in place, even when we long for change.

To help us, we will be invited to explore three interwoven dimensions: the systemic, the groups and communities we may be part of, and our inner bodily experiences. Each of these dimensions holds pain and power, and offers space where change can happen.

Lived experiences and Collective Practise

Drawing on our lived experience, this gathering calls us to work together in ways that heal, rather than reproduce patterns of harm perpetuated by the dominant paradigm.

In particular, we will explore the value of noticing and welcoming our felt bodily (or somatic) experiences, e.g. anxiety, anger, fear, paralysis, numbness, rage, in response to both global oppressions and patterns that activate us in our own groups and communities. We will be invited into simple processes to help us notice inner contractions and emotions we may be holding in our body, perhaps without realising, enabling them to soften and be released.

Through working with our inner felt experiences, we may become aware of how the system holds power over us, and how our bodies are part of that narrative. Yet, as our inner tensions and patterns soften, we may discover the unfolding of wisdom and the embodiment of new choices as we move collectively on our shared journey of liberation.

Principles of self-organising groups

During our coming together, we will also consider some principles of self-organising teams and groups that work with shared power, and identify support that can help us live and organise with justice, care, and consciousness.

Who? This online forum is open to anyone curious about how we can co-create a more just regenerative world. It is for those willing to pause, reflect, listen deeply, feel discomfort and joy, as we heal and organise for collective action. Whether you are new or experienced in this work, you are welcome. 

Global Oppressions/Crises relevant to this forum include:

- Israel's genocide against Palestinians / Settler Colonialism
- Increased intensity of racism and persecution of asylum seekers
- Trump-ism / Authoritarianism
- Wealth and Power concentration / Cost of Living Crisis
- Ecological collapse
- State oppression of protests
- and more

Session 1 and Session 2: The first of the two events will focus more on how we are impacted by wider societal issues; the second on how our groups and communities impact us. However, we expect there will also be some overlap with each event. You are welcome to register for one or both. 

Format

The two sessions will both include short talks, gentle somatic practises (to help meet our felt experiences), facilitated dialogue, possible coaching and small group reflection. Depending on how the session flows, we may adapt in ways that support the intention of the gathering.

We will begin with a simple grounding ritual that includes a moment of silence, and aim to close with care. You are invited to participate as fully as feels right for you.

About WiN

WiN’s work is rooted in a vision of conscious, just, autonomous and regenerative communities integrating land, people and economy. We draw on conscious group work and internal resilience practices within an Islamic spirituality, to help co-create the beautiful world we know is possible.

Lead Facilitator: Muzammal Hussain

Muzammal is a practitioner of a powerful somatic emotional healing approach and also a medical doctor in the field of psychiatry, both for more than fifteen years. He is the author of 'Radical Healing, Wholeness and Islam'. 

He has been involved with grassroots change-making for more than 25 years especially in the Muslim community, and is the lead trainer for WiN's Sacred Collaborative Leadership (SCL) programme. 

Muzammal has supported teams (such as a Refugee Self-Support group, grassroot Cooperatives, and Faith groups) with decision making and collaborative organising. He draws on approaches that support shared power, such as Sociocracy (which includes consent-based decision-making), Process Work, Non-Violent Communication (NVC) and Social Permaculture. He emphasises presence and embodiment, and sees his role as both a trainer and a life-long student.

Shumaisa Khan

Shumaisa has experienced shared power through co-founding and working in a soil care cooperative; involvement in Wisdom in Nature (WiN) for nearly two decades; and living in a co-housing community for two years.

She believes more liberatory futures rest on more skill in practicing shared power and enjoys ways to deepen these in community with others. Shumaisa had a support role on WiN's first Sacred Collaborative Leadership (SCL) Programme

Yusra Supdarowa

Yusra ia facilitator and organiser who cares deeply about how we heal, learn and make change together. Her work is rooted in anti-oppressive practice, shared power and community wisdom, with a focus on creating spaces where people, especially young people, can reflect, lead and grow. She is interested in how personal and collective transformation happens through relationship, cultural safety and embodied, strategic action, and is a graduate of WIN's Sacred Collaborative Leadership (SCL) Programme.