In 2021, we brought the Common Threads Project trauma healing approach to the United States with our Seattle and New York programs. Since then, the program has continued to grow: helping bring effective trauma healing to some of Seattle’s most marginalized communities.
Our Partners
Asian Counseling and Referral Service promotes social justice, well-being, and empowerment for Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and other underserved communities. In Common Threads Project circles, they’ve brought trauma healing to survivors from Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Nepali communities.
Refugees Northwest is a program of Lutheran Community Services Northwest. They work with thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers each year, offering programs that include mental health support, asylum assistance, and medical case management. They most recently facilitated Common Threads healing circles for survivors from Afghan, Iraqi, and Russian-speaking communities.
Mother Africa advances racial equity through supporting African refugee and immigrant women and their families, focusing on innovative and community-led approaches. In 2025, they will begin a Common Threads Project circle with members of Seattle’s African and Afghan diaspora.
Our Work
With the support of several Washington-state Rotary Clubs and the SOS Foundation, we launched our Seattle program in 2021. Fifteen facilitators participated in the initial round of Common Threads Project training, and in 2022, the first healing circle began.
Two years later, we expanded: training 13 new facilitators and launching healing circles with additional communities. This latest cohort of facilitators includes mental health professionals from Somali, Russian, Guinean, Palestinian, Nepali, Senegalese, Burkinabè, Afghan, Iraqi, Cham backgrounds. They bring their clinical expertise, cultural knowledge, and lived experience to the healing circles they facilitate.
“After the story cloth process, I definitely think differently about my past. I feel a new sense of freedom.” ”
“Walking through each phase during the training helped me understand the importance of slowly progressing through each step and introducing each new concept. It helps to create rapport and a sense of trust before we dig deeper into how to heal their traumas.”
