a b o u t .
my name is forest chaffee (pronoun they.) i create space for integration of wholeness; i support people to be with themselves in warmth; and i welcome us to co-create our culture of shared honoring and protection of vulnerability.
i received my bachelors and masters degrees in architecture and taught design studio at penn state university. in my master's thesis i looked at the loss of social space in american culture; the disconnect in the profession of architecture from the people; and how to co-create social space, with and for the people, to support authentic expression and systems of interdependent thriving.
while helping build a literacy center for the northern cheyenne reservation in montana i was honored to share in sacred space with elders of the tribe. later i received a fellowship in rural alabama and i was honored to share in sacred space with elders of the community. these moments of sharing warmth as resonant hearts and voices touched me deeply. i began to know, through these experiences, warm honoring shared space.
in alabama, i interviewed 50 community members about the need for community space. i listened and created a book of people's words as the first "shared space" in the county. we created a community group and met regularly to connect and share resources. when the group had the desire, we then renovated a main street building to be the first physical shared community space and we had regular free events for all. we accomplished what i’d hoped, yet it was during this time that i experienced a series of traumatic events that left me feeling terrified for my safety and survival.
i spent the next seven years in new york city, in architecture, creating the minimalism i loved. inside, however, i carried a paralysis from this terror and no one knew. i had no idea how to integrate what i was carrying within me, and this made it challenging to connect with the world around me. i went to therapy and studied buddhism and meditation, but it was not until i found non-violent communication that i began to connect with the life-energy in me again: the needs underlying the pain, terror, and freeze. i spent years studying nvc and became a graduate of the baynvc leadership program.
in 2011 i found sarah peyton and her work combining interpersonal neurobiology and resonant empathy. i left architecture and committed myself to immersion in experiencing and understanding trauma integration: the power of warm welcome and resonant empathy to support healing for our brains and bodies and reclamation of our lives - memory by memory. through this work i have experienced the integration of my own life energy from adult, childhood, and intergenerational trauma. this path deepened my capacity to accompany people in their paths of integration.
i am dedicated to cultivating honoring and protection of mutual vulnerability and wholeness in our culture. my empathy work includes resonant language empathy, unconscious contract/sacred vow work, time travel empathy (inner part rescues), lightening the implicit load, one-on-one constellation work, and attachment repair within a relational neuroscience framework. i offer design work for people bringing nurturing to our world. in 2017 i illustrated sarah peyton's book on healing the default network entitled "your resonant self." i also work on an ongoing empathy and photography series entitled "the wholeness project."
in love
forest
i received my bachelors and masters degrees in architecture and taught design studio at penn state university. in my master's thesis i looked at the loss of social space in american culture; the disconnect in the profession of architecture from the people; and how to co-create social space, with and for the people, to support authentic expression and systems of interdependent thriving.
while helping build a literacy center for the northern cheyenne reservation in montana i was honored to share in sacred space with elders of the tribe. later i received a fellowship in rural alabama and i was honored to share in sacred space with elders of the community. these moments of sharing warmth as resonant hearts and voices touched me deeply. i began to know, through these experiences, warm honoring shared space.
in alabama, i interviewed 50 community members about the need for community space. i listened and created a book of people's words as the first "shared space" in the county. we created a community group and met regularly to connect and share resources. when the group had the desire, we then renovated a main street building to be the first physical shared community space and we had regular free events for all. we accomplished what i’d hoped, yet it was during this time that i experienced a series of traumatic events that left me feeling terrified for my safety and survival.
i spent the next seven years in new york city, in architecture, creating the minimalism i loved. inside, however, i carried a paralysis from this terror and no one knew. i had no idea how to integrate what i was carrying within me, and this made it challenging to connect with the world around me. i went to therapy and studied buddhism and meditation, but it was not until i found non-violent communication that i began to connect with the life-energy in me again: the needs underlying the pain, terror, and freeze. i spent years studying nvc and became a graduate of the baynvc leadership program.
in 2011 i found sarah peyton and her work combining interpersonal neurobiology and resonant empathy. i left architecture and committed myself to immersion in experiencing and understanding trauma integration: the power of warm welcome and resonant empathy to support healing for our brains and bodies and reclamation of our lives - memory by memory. through this work i have experienced the integration of my own life energy from adult, childhood, and intergenerational trauma. this path deepened my capacity to accompany people in their paths of integration.
i am dedicated to cultivating honoring and protection of mutual vulnerability and wholeness in our culture. my empathy work includes resonant language empathy, unconscious contract/sacred vow work, time travel empathy (inner part rescues), lightening the implicit load, one-on-one constellation work, and attachment repair within a relational neuroscience framework. i offer design work for people bringing nurturing to our world. in 2017 i illustrated sarah peyton's book on healing the default network entitled "your resonant self." i also work on an ongoing empathy and photography series entitled "the wholeness project."
in love
forest