Healing Roots facilitates a discussion every month for our Learning Community and we offer a workshop every few months. We conduct our discussions over Zoom. Participants at each meeting pick the topic and the date for the next meeting. Everyone is welcome.
We choose topics on modern European American culture or whiteness, particularly to build our skills at facilitating discussions and educating others about what needs to be transformed for an equitable, just, and healthy society. We also choose topics to learn about our root cultures and draw resources from them to replace whiteness, for health and healing, and to add richness and meaning to our lives.
Healing Roots Learning Community
Thursday, October 2, 2025
7:00 - 8:30 pm Central Time on Zoom
With fall on the way, we agreed to discussed ways that we adjust to, mark, and celebrate autumn -- the harvest, the fall equinox, foods, rituals, and/or special events and celebrations. For our ancestors, this was a busy time of gathering the last of the crops and plants needed to survive the winter, honoring and thanking all that made the harvest possible, and strengthening the ties to community that helped everyone to support one another throughout the winter season. What practices and events help us to prepare for winter, express our gratitude for what we have, and strengthen our ties to others?
Please join us. New people are welcome!
If
you are not already on the mailing list, please email Janice Barbee at
janicegwb"at"yahoo.com if you want to join us via Zoom. (@ has been
replaced by "at" to avoid robot spam.)
Root Culture Interest Groups
- Nordic/Germanic spirituality: Sara Axtell -- axtel002"at"umn.edu
- Celtic cultures (Irish, Scottish, and Welsh): Janice Barbee - janicegwb"at"yahoo.com. Next meeting: Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025
- Nordic ways of healing and accountability: Anna Vangsness -- annavangsness"at"yahoo.com
European American Identity and Culture Workshop
Email us (see address below) if you're interested
in a workshop in 2025.
The workshop is presented via Zoom over 6 - 2 hour sessions. We offer short presentations and use the breakout rooms on Zoom to have small group discussions. A Reflection and Study Guide is sent out before each session with reflection questions and additional resources (most available on-line) for deepening your learning. In order to engage all participants, we limit the workshop to 20 participants.
When you pay using the PayPal button, you will be automatically registered. Contact Janice Barbee at janicegwb("at")yahoo.com if you have questions, need a scholarship or prefer to pay with cash, or if
you want to be added to the email list. (To combat robot spam, the @ has
been replaced with ("at").
Fee: $125
Scholarships are available
We will explore:
- Characteristics of modern mainstream American culture and their effect on our identity and the manifestations of whiteness
- The concepts and history of whiteness and race
- Our root cultures as dimensions of our identity
Over the course of the workshop, we will identify and develop
- Strategies for creating productive discussions
- Resources and skills for building and maintaining healthy, diverse communities
- Visions of a healthy identity for Americans of European ancestry
We ask such questions as:
- What are the characteristics of European American culture?
- What is a healthy cultural identity? How does knowledge of your culture inform your work in communities of many cultures?
- What is the history of whiteness in the U.S. as a concept and identity?
- What are the cultural narratives that support whiteness and what counter-narratives can we promote?
- What resources from your cultural roots can you draw on to have a healthy identity and have healthy relationships across cultures?
- What new language can we use to replace language based on hierarchy and prejudice?
What past participants have said about the workshop:
"I would call my experience with the workshop transformative and has propelled me into doing the lifelong work of dismantling whiteness, while also seeking information on what to love about my European heritage/culture."
"It was exactly what we needed. The information was perfect."
"I wanted my group to have the same vocabulary and foundation to discuss these issues. It was a good basic start."
"I'm so grateful for the Zoom option! I really enjoyed the breakout groups. It's much easier for me to speak honestly and freely in a small group."
"Living in Madison, WI, I would have never had the opportunity to attend this workshop otherwise."
" It was clearly the best workshop I've experienced. It was valuable not only personally but [for] family and work experiences as well."