Empowerment from the Inside Out

Viola Desmond is one of my heroes.  I like her.  As a woman, I long to follow in her footsteps.

In 1946, Viola had car trouble, and while waiting for her car to be fixed, she purchased a movie ticket, and sat down in the theatre waiting for the show to start.  After she was comfortably seated, she was told to go up to the balcony. Viola was African Canadian, and in New Glasgow the theatre was segregated at the time. Viola refused…she was arrested and held overnight in jail, where she sat overnight in a chair, with her white gloves, a perfect picture of dignity. She was fined…and she fought the charge. “In taking the matter to the courts, Viola Desmond's experience helped to galvanize public opinion locally and internationally, and to raise awareness about the reality of Canadian segregation”.

What I love about this story is the power of this woman to use her anger at the injustice of this situation to bring about positive change. It was wrong what happened to her…and she fought the injustice, but in a way that fit who she was. Viola Desmond rocks!

Recently we finished the inaugural sold out class of “Empowerment from the Inside Out” (EIO), our Anger Management Program for Women. The women raved about it on the feedback forms. Women commented that they felt less alone with their anger, felt empowered by sharing experiences of others, and felt the course made dealing with their anger “do-able”. The women enjoyed the community that developed as so often women don’t feel permission to aknowledge their anger. The women were a variety of different ages and stages, some were there because they had to be there, others chose to be there...and all could provide important perspectives to each other. One woman said she learned how to stop beating herself up.  How cool is that!?

In fact, the group went so well, we decided to offer an extended version to the participants who chose to continue…”EIO plus”…an additional four weeks of discussion and processing. The women weren’t ready to be done…they wanted to continue talking and learning and growing together around the topic of anger.  They will be wrapping up next week.

Linda Churchill is the therapist that is facilitated the workshop, and will be leading the next group of women through the “Empowerment from the Inside Out” journey beginning April 20^th running for 5 weeks. This course looks at the unique ways in which women experience, process and express anger…and does it in a way that invites dialogue and learning from each other. One of the wonderful ways women grow is by hearing the wisdom of other women, and “bouncing ideas” off each other, and finding out how our ideas sound when someone else expresses them.

Consider joining Linda and the other women beginning April 20^th to inspire and awaken your inner “Viola Desmond”. I’d like to think there is a little piece of her inside all of us!