FOR THE INTEGRATION OF COLLECTIVE TRAUMA

GUIDELINES FOR TRIADS 2021

INTERNATIONAL LABS

Triads are an important part of our work in the Pocket Project. A triad is a group of three
individuals that meet to share and deepen their experience together. Triads may form briefly,
as a chance encounter within a session, or more long-term, committing to accompanying each
other over a period of time. Some triads may continue over many years and grow deep
friendships.

Being in a triad gives us an opportunity to look more deeply into our experience of the
themes that are being explored in our Labs and see how they are working within us and in our
lives, allowing deeper levels of consciousness to emerge. Triads can be a powerful and joyful
part of study and growth. They offer us new perspectives and opportunities through intimate
relatedness in a vessel that is bigger than I am.

Triads are an opportunity to practice some of the life skills/basic competencies that we
specifically work with in the field of the Pocket Project:

● Presencing – becoming more and more aware of what is happening here and now,
starting from my own inner experience of my breath, body, emotions and mind.
● 3-Sync – as I presence my body, emotions, and mind (and, possibly, my soul), allowing
the synchronization and coherence between these levels of being to increase within
me.
● Self-regulation / self-care – becoming more able to embrace my inner experience with
compassion, taking time and slowing down when needed to digest. Noticing when I
am ‘triggered’, when I become numb or reactive, and through which filters I might be
seeing the world in those moments.
● Resourcing - accessing inner and outer sources of relaxation, joy, strength,
connectedness and grounding so that I can stay present in the face of challenges and
as we touch personal and collective trauma.
● Sensing / deep listening – learning to use all our senses to meet ourselves and others,
‘growing eyes all over our body’. We listen beyond the surface of the words into the
depth or space that words arise from and beyond the person into the history and
ancestry that they carry within them.
● Attunement – sensing precisely, bringing my full presence with a specific focus to
myself, someone else, an event in the world, etc.
● Resonance – noticing and presencing the response in my nervous system as I sense,
listen and attune to someone else, and event in the world, etc.

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FOR THE INTEGRATION OF COLLECTIVE TRAUMA

● Co-regulation - becoming more able to embrace another person’s inner experience
with compassion. When I am in a resourced state, I might be able to offer a spacious
and relaxed nervous system that supports the other to feel safe and slow down.
Together, we become more able to ground the energy of an intense process.
● Transparent Communication – a process, beginning with presencing ourselves, then
reaching out to sense, listen and attune to other(s). We can also sense into the space
between us and ‘them’, the quality of our relatedness and practice ‘rolling out a warm
carpet’ or relating from our heart space. Authentic communication speaks from what is
alive and present in the moment, not about.
● Building group coherence – applying our sensing, attunement , resonance, and co-
regulation to consciously induce more coherence between us - I feel you feeling me

So, our triads gift us with opportunities to deepen our experience of the labs and to practice
basic competencies in an intimate group vessel. Triads become more effective as we build a
sense of safety, based on confidentiality, spending time fairly and deepening our capacity to
relate in moments of challenge. Safety does not mean that we always feel comfortable, but
that we can integrate and ground discomfort, too.

The Pocket Project JEDI values (Justice, Equity, Dignity & Diversity, Inclusion) infuse our work
in our triads:

● Justice: Dismantling barriers so that each individual in your triad has time to express
and to listen. This might mean dividing the time equally and keeping time for each
person.
● Equity: Recognizing that advantages, barriers, privilege and lack of awareness – the
‘isms’ – exist, and that there is a need to listen and learn from each other so that we
can uncover our own blind spots.
● Dignity & Diversity: Honoring the dignity of our ancestry, culture, and the diversity of
our personal experiences, and how this might influence our sense of safety, visibility
and support in our triads. Diversity isn’t just about racial differences.
● Inclusion: Fostering a sense of belonging by centering, valuing, and amplifying voices,
perspectives and styles of those who experience more barriers based on their
identities.

Over time, we co-create an increasing sense of safety that allows for more authenticity and
depth.

(collated by Kosha Joubert, inspired by Thomas Hübl)

Feel free to share and copy this document as long as you include the Pocket Project logo and clearly credit the Pocket Project
www.pocketproject.org