Samara (she/they) is an somatic practitioner, trauma informed yoga & mindfulness educator, facilitator, lived experience expert, writer, activist, herbalist, daughter, sister & mama to over 100 plants. Working at the intersections of survivor empowerment, collective wellbeing & transformative justice, they are guided by anti oppressive & liberation frameworks. Above all else, Samara identifies as a seeker - a seeker of deeper connection to Self, land & beloved community, a seeker of wisdom, a seeker of the world that we all deserve & a seeker of Collective Liberation.

Samara is the founder and director of At The Center, a grassroots healing justice initiative that builds collective power and nurtures transformative leadership with criminalized survivors of gender based violence and sex workers. She sits on the Steering Committee and leads professional development learning spaces at the National Survivor Network, as well as sitting on the Survivor Advisory Board for Center for Survivor Justice and Agency. She was also a member of the inaugural Survivor Advisory Council for Polaris’ Resilience Fund.

She has been doing innovative grassroots healing work with survivors, sex workers, activists, criminalized & queer folks for nearly a decade. She has studied directly with many thought leaders in the realm of trauma & embodiment, from Dr Gabor Mate to Dave Emerson (creator of the Trauma Center’s Trauma Sensitive Yoga) to Nkem Ndefo (The Resilience Toolkit). She is passionate about creating cultures of care where survivors are resourced with the practices, skills & community needed to tend to their wellbeing, while impacting meaningful & sustainable systemic change. Her approach to this work centers nervous system literacy & somatic skill building as tools to empower survivors & build new worlds.

Samara was the co-creator of the Collective Practice Lab, a revolutionary community space for folks working in the anti trafficking sector to integrate psychosomatic skills & professional growth. They are a peer mentor & facilitator for marginalized survivors through You Are More Than Inc. as well as offering individual & small group containers for holistic healing through her practice, Rise Venus Rise. She is a gifted facilitator & has developed numerous trainings & workshops in trauma informed practices, nonviolent communication, conflict resolution & much more for both healing arts & gender based violence organizations, as well as extensive experience facilitating peer support & healing spaces for impacted communities. When she isn’t immersed in transformative work or dreaming into new worlds, you can usually catch her getting lost in the woods, picking flowers at the local urabn farm collective or creating magic in her kitchen with loved ones