Group FACILITATION
The Mending Circle offers group facilitation to support meaningful self-reflection, collective (un)learning, transformative action and community building in the work of ancestral healing and the reparative movement of money, land and power.
CURRENT & ONGOING COHORTs
Ancestors & Money:
A 6-month cohort
NOVEMBER 2025 - MAY 2026
As the billionaires solidify their grabs for power and white nationalism becomes mainstream – as a backlash to the growing movement for racial justice – a true and deep examination of whiteness and wealth is more necessary than ever. We need a movement of white people with wealth who are willing to risk embodying something different: a deep and long lasting commitment to collective liberation and repair.
Together with Morgan Curtis, we offer a 6-month cohort journey for 15 white people with wealth interested in taking a deep dive into ancestors and money. This is for people who are called to take transformative, reparative actions that build the more just world we know is needed. This offering is shaped by several methodologies: money and giving coaching, anti-racist genealogy, the Work That Reconnects, deep nature connection and a rites-of-passage framework.
This is an opportunity for us to heal. We can move beyond guilt and shame to root our commitments to justice and liberation in deeper soil. This journey requires (re)building cultural practices of connection with self, community and the land, so that we can sustain this work for the lifetime (and beyond) that it requires. Our ancestors have a role to play in this too.
This is what is being asked of us, as people who have benefitted from centuries of racialized capitalism: to look with open eyes at the harms caused by our ancestors, listen to the impacts still being lived today, speak the truth about our responsibility and complicity, and to begin to enact repair and atonement, in both material and spiritual ways. A world of justice, belonging, liberation and community awaits on the other side.
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We need to talk about our ancestors. As the veil continues to be pulled back on the American story, we need to take intergenerational responsibility for the intergenerational trauma and theft perpetrated and perpetuated by our people. We are in a moment of reckoning – the result of 400 years of untended and compounding harms. Reparations for the founding sins of the United States are long overdue, and we need to return what has been stolen.
This work isn't about disowning our ancestors, but becoming closer to them by telling the truth of their times, and committing to transform and transmute the trauma they caused. When we allow ourselves to fully face and grieve what has been taken and what has been lost, who might we become? Perhaps wealth inequality, racial violence and climate chaos do not have to be the final chapter of our families’ legacies.
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You know (or have a clue) that your ancestors took part in the colonization of Indigenous land and/or the enslavement of African people, and benefitted from this theft of land and labor.
You continue to benefit from those harms by way of inherited wealth, whether it has carried through over many generations, or gone and come again, facilitated by whiteness along the way.
You are called to play your part in telling the truth about this history, surrendering resources you have access to, standing with movements for Black and Indigenous liberation, and organizing others to do the same.
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Participating in this cohort will accelerate your journey with wealth redistribution, ancestral connection and dismantling white supremacy, equipping you with:
Redistribution & divestment plans that arise from a clarified commitment to wealth redistribution, and your particular ancestral story
A vision for your relationship with wealth, family, and social justice movements, and short, medium and long-term goals to get you there
A family tree and/or collection of stories that clearly tells of your family’s role in perpetrating and/or benefiting from genocide, slavery, the racial wealth divide
A strengthened relationship with your ancestors and practices for connection that move us from guilt, shame and hiding, towards truth-telling, collaboration and healing
A community of peers that have shared experiences and a stake in your onwards journey
The Hour Before Dawn:
A Program for Inheritors of Wealth with Family Ties to the Nazi Regime
The Hour Before Dawn is a program for inheritors of wealth or family businesses with ties to the Nazi Regime who want to take ancestral responsibility and create a more just world. Through family history research, embodied storytelling, philanthropic planning, and community building, participants will be supported to more deeply learn about their past and explore how their wealth can become a tool for repair in the present. This confidential and unique learning environment will equip participants to navigate the emotions, questions, and challenges that emerge when confronting difficult truths, while also discovering their power to embody their story and move from shame into action.
The Hour Before Dawn is a 5 month program for 10-15 people. It includes in-person retreats in Berlin, video calls, and personalized site visits. It will be facilitated in English and tailored to a European audience.
This program is offered in collaboration with coach and facilitator Iris Brilliant. You can hear from both of us about our approach to this work in this interview.
“The darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.”
― Paulo Coelho
JULY - NOVEMBER 2025
“The darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.”
― Paulo Coelho
Why We’re Offering This
Fascism is rising globally, wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, and violence against marginalized groups is growing. From Elon Musk’s recent Hitlergruß at Trump’s inauguration to the increasing popularity of the AfD in Germany; from the escalation of hate crimes against Jews and immigrants to the tightening of European borders, today’s conditions feel hauntingly similar to 1930s Germany and the seeds of what became the Nazi regime. Despite decades of Holocaust remembrance efforts in Western Europe, the root causes of fascism remain unaddressed, and repairs for the harms of the Nazi regime incomplete.
Those who have inherited wealth or power tied to the Nazi regime hold a unique and necessary role in today’s fight against fascism. Yet few have had the space and support to research, grieve, and understand their legacy in a meaningful way and align their money with their values.
Whether your ancestors were active Nazis, reluctant participants, or business owners who profited from the regime, the reverberations of one’s family’s history continue to shape the present. Reckoning with one’s history—its intersections with wealth, privilege, and cultural narratives—is an essential step toward uprooting fascism and working toward a more just future for all. Inheritors of wealth have a particular opportunity to explore how moving money in response to this history can support a kind of healing and repair not addressed by state-level reparations.
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You have at least one ancestor who lived and grew your family wealth, in whole or in part, during the Third Reich (1933-1945).
You have an anticipated inheritance of at least €500.000 and/or present-day access to €100.000.
You are vehemently against fascism and right-wing authoritarian governments and care deeply about democracy and social responsibility.
You feel called to confront your family’s past. This can include unease, hesitation, or fear about what you might uncover—but you still want to do the work.
You have the emotional bandwidth to engage in this work alongside others. This program involves group-based reflection, family research, and peer support.
We recognize that family legacies are complex and that involvement in the Nazi economy varied widely. This program welcomes participants whose family histories include a spectrum of involvement, ranging from passive economic benefit to active participation in Nazi policies.
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A supportive and confidential learning container to honestly confront your family’s connection to the Third Reich
A library of diverse resources and a strong political framework for understanding the context of history and this present moment
A community of peers with shared values and experiences
Tools for researching the history of your family and your money
Tools, practice and support for (potentially difficult) family conversations about your family history, and tools for organizing your family into your action steps
Tools for researching the history of your family’s wealth and creating a philanthropic plan that centers repair for past harms and its current consequences
Action steps you can take to offer healing to your lineage and those your family caused harm to
Practices and skills to navigate emotions from guilt, shame and hiding, towards grief, truth-telling, empowerment and action
Strengthened relationship with a sense of home and connection to your lineage that extend beyond this recent history of harm