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Exploring the Veil:
Race, the Body, and Ethical Presence
Be the first to know when doors reopen.
Join the waitlist for the next cohort here
A Somatic Inquiry into Internalized Race, Unconscious Bias & Embodied Power
There are moments in group spaces when something shifts.
A breath tightens.
Curiosity drops.
The room gets quieter — or louder — but less alive.
Often, nothing obvious has “gone wrong.”
And yet, safety has subtly moved out of reach.
Exploring the Veil exists for those moments.
This is a somatic, trauma-informed inquiry into how race, unconscious bias, and systemic conditioning live in the body — and how they shape presence, perception, and relational safety in the spaces we hold.
A Beginning
For many years, I’ve worked in somatic and embodiment spaces that deeply value care, awareness, and healing.
And still — as a person of colour — my body often could not rest.
Even in rooms filled with skilled, well-intentioned practitioners, I found myself navigating:
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subtle micro-aggressions
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moments of silence where something needed naming
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nervous systems tightening when race entered the field
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designs and teaching that weren’t made with my body in mind
When I spoke to what I was sensing, the room often didn’t know how to stay with it.
Those moments — not dramatic, but cumulative — became a quiet turning point.
Not because people didn’t care.
But because so much of this work was happening only at the level of ideas — not bodies.
Exploring the Veil is a somatic, trauma-informed learning space for facilitators, coaches, therapists, and leaders who want to understand how race, unconscious bias, and systemic conditioning live in the body — and how these dynamics shape safety, perception, and relational presence in the spaces we hold.
This work is not about blame, fixing, or arriving at the “right” language.
It is about building embodied capacity — the ability to stay present, curious, and regulated when discomfort, difference, or rupture arises.
Ethical Space Holding
Ethical space holding begins in the body.
It is the capacity to stay present when something tender, charged, or unfamiliar enters the field — without rushing to smooth it over, explain it away, or make it manageable.
In the context of race, this means noticing how power, conditioning, and difference register somatically: a tightening, a pull toward silence, a sudden urgency to “do it right,” or a subtle withdrawal of contact.
Exploring the Veil supports facilitators and leaders in developing the embodied awareness to recognise these moments as they arise — and the nervous system capacity to remain available within them.
Not perfect.
Not neutral.
But responsive.
Ethical holding is not about having the correct stance or language.
It is about cultivating enough internal stability, humility, and attunement to stay with what is here — so that safety can be relational, dynamic, and alive.
“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” — Audre Lorde
Why Somatics Matter Here
Many somatic and trauma-informed spaces genuinely hold the intention of inclusion — and still unintentionally reproduce harm.
Not because people don’t care.
But because race and unconscious bias are often approached intellectually, not somatically.
Bias doesn’t just live in belief systems or language.
It lives in:
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the breath that shortens
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the shoulders that brace
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the impulse to fix, explain, retreat, or freeze
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the loss of curiosity when discomfort appears
In other words: it lives in the nervous system.
As a racialised body teaching in predominantly white wellness spaces, I’ve experienced firsthand how these moments land — not as overt conflict, but as subtle shifts:
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nervous systems tightening when race enters the field
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microaggressions passing unnoticed, yet registering in the body
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silence replacing curiosity
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relational safety quietly leaking from the room
Often, nothing obvious has “gone wrong.”
And yet, something essential has been lost.
When those holding space don’t yet have the embodied capacity to stay present with racial discomfort — even with the best intentions — trust begins to erode. Not dramatically, but cumulatively.
Exploring the Veil was created to meet this layer of experience.
Not to assign blame.
But to build the somatic capacity to stay - with ourselves, with each other, and with what is tender - so that care, inclusion, and safety can move from intention into lived experience.
How Exploring the Veil Is Offered
Live Online Course
A guided, relational learning space with live facilitation, somatic practice, pre-recorded content, and self-/group reflection.
→ Be the first to know when doors reopen. Join the waitlist for the next cohort here:
Bring This Work to Your
Community or Institution
Institutional & Certification Programs
Exploring the Veil can be integrated into:
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somatic and wellness certifications
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faculty development
-
teacher trainings
-
leadership, university, and organisational programs
Offered as blended learning (pre-recorded + live), live modules, or bespoke integration.
→ Explore collaboration and create a unique program for your community. Inquire about partnership
The Sanctuary (BIPOC-Only)
For BIPOC practitioners doing this work, The Sanctuary offers a monthly somatic space for rest, integration, and connection — because this inquiry must also include care.
→ Every 1st Thursday - more info + join the next circle:
“Racism is a body construct, a body experience, and a body practice… The body remembers.”
— Resmaa Menakem
What Do I Mean by “The Veil”?
The veil is not a judgment. It is not a metaphor meant to shame or accuse.
It’s not something to remove or overcome or “fix.”
It is something to notice, map, and work with.
The veil refers to the somatic filters through which we experience the world, perceive ourselves and others — shaped by:
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race and systemic power
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culture, family, and language
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conditioning
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historical and ancestral context
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lived moments of being policed, idealised, or erased
These filters live in the body as:
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posture
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breath patterns
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reflexive reactions
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attention and avoidance
These filters are adaptive.
They help us survive and belong.
And — they also obscure parts of ourselves and each other.
The veil is not chosen — but it becomes harmful when it remains unconscious and unexamined, especially in positions of power.
This work is not about blame.
It is about responsibility, awareness, and repair.
The Somatic Approach - The Invitation of This Work
Exploring the Veil is grounded in the understanding that:
Bias does not only live in the mind — it lives in the nervous system. In the body.
In this work, we slow down enough to notice:
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where your body tightens
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where attention drifts
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where defensiveness, shame, or numbness appears
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where curiosity collapses
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where regulation is lost
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and where repair becomes possible
Rather than calling out, we practice calling in — beginning with our own bodies.
Exploring the Veil is not about:
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getting it right
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saying the perfect or "correct" thing
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performing “anti-racism”
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a debate or ideological training
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or fixing yourself
It is a practice — one you return to again and again.
It is about learning to notice.
This work builds the capacity to stay — with yourself, with others, with what’s uncomfortable — without collapsing, bypassing, or causing harm.
How We Work
Exploring the Veil is experiential.
While there is context and framing, the heart of the work lives in:
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guided somatic practices
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staying with internal sensations and moments of discomfort
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slow reflection
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relational witnessing
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integration over time
We work at a tolerable edge — not forcing insight, not bypassing discomfort.
You are always invited to choose your pace.
“The very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work.”
— Toni Morrison
Who This Is For - and Why it Matters
This work is for people who hold space — often without naming it as such.
You might be:
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a somatic practitioner or body-based therapist
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a coach or facilitator or group leader
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a teacher or faculty member within a training or certification program
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a manager leading international or multicultural teams
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a leader holding relational, healing, or educational spaces
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a mother or caregiver shaping nervous systems every day
If people rely on your presence, your regulation, your listening, or your decisions — you are already holding space.
You may care deeply about inclusion — and still feel unsure how to work with race in a way that is embodied, ethical, and alive.
If you’ve ever thought:
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“I don’t want to cause harm, but I don’t know what to do in these moments.”
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“I can feel something shift in the room, but I don’t know how to stay with it.”
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“I don’t see myself as racist — and I don’t understand how my impact might differ from my intention.”
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“I know this matters, but life is full, and this keeps slipping to the side.”
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“This work feels necessary — and tender.”
You are not alone.
For white-bodied participants
This work offers a way to engage with racism without collapsing into guilt, avoidance, or over-intellectualization.
Rather than asking “What should I say or do?” - which often comes too late - the work supports participants to notice how internalized racism shows up somatically, long before words form. When this layer is not addressed, even well-intentioned action can unintentionally reinforce harm or lead to withdrawal, defense and polarization.
A somatic approach is essential because it:
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builds capacity to stay present during triggering or uncomfortable conversations
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interrupts automatic conditioned defensive or distancing responses
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moves the work beyond box-ticking and performative compliance / awareness
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allows insight to translate into embodied, relational change
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creates safer conditions for honest, challenging conversations that can actually be metabolized
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forms a foundation for ethical space holding
This is not about becoming “better” or more correct. It’s about developing the nervous system capacity required to remain in contact - with impact, with complexity, and with responsibility - without shutting down, minimizing, avoiding or rushing to resolution.
For people of colour
Exploring the Veil acknowledges that people of colour often carry the cost when capacity is missing, emotionally, relationally, and professionally.
This work is not designed to extract stories, education, or labour from marginalized participants. No one is required to explain, represent, or make their experience understandable for others. Participation is invitational, not obligatory.
The somatic focus supports people of colour to:
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name and recognize internalized adaptations shaped by systemic racism
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explore where contraction, vigilance, or self-monitoring live in the body
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reclaim choice, pacing, and boundaries in relational spaces
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experience shared responsibility for holding the field
The intention is not to pathologize or weaponize resilience, but to reduce the unspoken expectation to endure, accommodate, or remain regulated for others.
A shared container, with clear boundaries
This is a space for embodied inquiry, not debate, performance, or proof. It is not about arriving at agreement, but about building the capacity to stay present when difference and power are alive in the room.
By working somatically, the conversation shifts:
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from ideology to experience
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from polarization to contact
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from compliance to responsibility
This is where meaningful change becomes possible - not through force or urgency, but through increased capacity to meet what is already here.
Within the program, I intentionally separate BIPOC and white-bodied participants for the first round of every sharing practice, where your voice will be heard.
This gives everyone space to speak without pressure, performance, polarization, or self-monitoring. Moving into full-group dialogue always comes with choice, consent, and pacing.
That balance, between separation and togetherness, is not a compromise.
It is the practice.
Learning to stay close to your own conditioning, rooted in your lived experience of life.
Find out more about Why I do this here.
“In a racist society, it is not enough to be non‑racist — we must be anti‑racist.” — Angela Davis
What We Explore Together
Depending on the format (live, blended, or institutional), Exploring the Veil may include:
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Understanding race and unconscious bias as embodied phenomena
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Mapping systemic power and racial conditioning somatically
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Noticing how bias shapes regulation, perception, and safety
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Working with defensiveness, shame, withdrawal, and silence in the body
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Developing somatic tools for repair and return
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Strengthening relational capacity in moments of rupture
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Learning how to hold space ethically across difference
This is experiential work — grounded in practice, reflection, and integration. Nestled in what is alive and needed for each cohort.
Scope & Focus
Exploring the Veil focuses primarily on race and internalised racial conditioning, and how these dynamics live in and through the body.
Other systemic dynamics (such as gender, class, ability, or sexuality) may be referenced to support integrated understanding — but this work does not attempt to cover everything.
Race deserves its own depth, care, and somatic attention.
“Your silence will not protect you.” — Audre Lorde
How Exploring the Veil Is Offered
Live Online Course
A guided, relational learning space with live facilitation, somatic practice, pre-recorded content, and self-/group reflection.
→ Be the first to know when doors reopen. Join the waitlist for the next cohort here:
Bring This Work to Your
Community or Institution
Institutional & Certification Programs
Exploring the Veil can be integrated into:
-
somatic and wellness certifications
-
faculty development
-
teacher trainings
-
leadership, university, and organisational programs
Offered as blended learning (pre-recorded + live), live modules, or bespoke integration.
→ Explore collaboration and create a unique program for your community. Inquire about partnership
The Sanctuary (BIPOC-Only)
For BIPOC practitioners doing this work, The Sanctuary offers a monthly somatic space for rest, integration, and connection — because this inquiry must also include care.
→ Every 1st Thursday - more info + join the next circle:
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
— James Baldwin
A Few Grounding Truths
This work holds some simple agreements:
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There is no hierarchy of pain or awareness
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Mistakes will happen — repair matters more than perfection
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Discomfort is not harm, but it does require care
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No one represents an entire group
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This is practice, not performance
Exploring the Veil is an invitation to slow down.
To let the body lead.
To listen beneath words.
To build spaces where more of us can actually arrive.
A Closing Invitation
This work asks something simple, and profound:
Can you stay with what arises in your body when race enters the room?
If you feel the quiet pull toward this inquiry..
whether for yourself, your practice, or your community..
If you feel the quiet yes in your body, even alongside hesitation,
you are welcome here.
Next Steps
→ Join the Exploring the Veil waitlist
→ Explore bringing this work into your organisation here
One love,
Juel
Join the movement
Are you called to explore how racism lives in our bodies, communities, and systems—and how we might begin to transform it from the inside out?
Exploring the Veil is a somatic-based, trauma-informed workshop and emerging program for those shaping spaces of learning, healing, and connection.
I believe this work can’t happen in the mind alone. Bias and systemic dynamics live in the body and must be met gently, with trauma-informed somatic awareness and care. Only then can we create spaces that are truly safer, more inclusive, and transformative—for all bodies.
If you’re leading trainings, holding groups, or simply longing to meet this work within yourself, I’d love to stay connected.
Join the interest and waiting list to be among the first to explore, test, and help shape this work as it comes alive—and discover how it can ripple out into your community and beyond.
Please help me by sharing this page with anyone who would be interested.