"Thanks so much, Milene and Elisa for a really valuable and powerful workshop. How we and others define ourselves can be unspoken and assumed for years without checking back in to see if it's still valid or even helpful anymore. You helped me reflect on this and throw away some out of date stuff from my head and heart!
You made a really safe space for all of us to explore these themes in a creative way which helped me challenge the way I see things and consider different perspectives. I also learned very much from listening to other people's experiences and felt honored to be included in the letter-writing exercise where everyone trusted enough to share their vulnerabilities. It was really moving and very powerful.
The way you facilitated the session meant that everyone had the opportunity to express themselves and try out new approaches. It's obviously a subject that’s bigger than a half-day workshop but you gave us such good tools to work with I found myself thinking about this and discussing it with friends long afterwards."
"My experience with the Uncovering Identities workshop was excellent. I was laid off recently and the workshop helped me identify some feelings that made me ready to move forward quickly. The techniques used by Elisa & Milene made the process fun and joyful. They built a safe and comfortable environment and I felt good about sharing my story and struggles as well as to listening and learning about other participants' stories. It was a rich exchange experience. I highly recommend this workshop for anyone that is in the process of self-growth discovery and/ or transition in life and needs a space to stop and think for a moment about their own identities and roles they play in life. It really helped me understand myself beyond my profession and feel stronger to move forward."
“As an old male who grew up in a different time and environment, it is hard to cope with some of today’s cultural movements related to gender differences and perceptions. We feel that our ethical values of respect and attention to women fall into a conflict about right and wrong without an easy solution and real accommodation. I participated in a workshop session with Oleear, and I felt to be on the right path to understand and adapt where our society is going. I think that the solution is mutual understanding through education and not only accusations and conflict. I highly recommend the work of Milene Monteiro and Nikki Yeboah. Their exercises are great, simple but profound, capable of reaching inside of ourselves through acting key dramas we live. It is a positive and smart process to get participants to dialogue with one another in search of healthy solutions.”
“We enlisted Oleear’s professional guidance to tackle the issue of gender inequality in the African-Brazilian martial and cultural art of Capoeira. This group of men and women from various communities came together to confront the many cultural and gender issues that arise in our smaller and larger communities. The process that Oleear employed has been a very wise and wonderful one that elicits first trust, then honest revelations and explorations that are digested with deeper thought, then acted and re-enacted out with humor, empathy, anger, and all that eventually turns into a deeper and wider understanding from all sides involved this universal issue. Their approach is a very good way to understand the many places we come from and to arrive at a more loving and compassionate way to see one another and work out our differences and relationships. As leaders, they are from multiracial and diverse cultural backgrounds, which goes a long way in their loving disarmament of stereotypes and expectations. Their charisma, sincere care, and expertise is the magic that is the glue to hold everyone curious, engaged, and participating towards positive ends. When it becomes very uncomfortable, they work to transform it. They don’t let anyone crash. Oleear seems to adapt very well to the needs of their clients while staying true to their mission and process.”
“I had the opportunity to participate in a workshop with Oleear and share some activities with a warm group of women. It was an amazing and enriching experience, first because we share common stories of life and it permitted us to realize that we are not alone, other women are impacted in their lives by the same struggles so we feel solidarity with them but at the same time, maybe the most important; hearing these stories, sometimes touching, sometimes strong, we can have a new approach to our life, raising awareness of some of our own behaviors once we see them at a distance. A new way will be possible, we can change, we can break our conditioned behaviors and script another life. Thank you very much Milene and Nikki for making this workshop possible and thank you for you rigorous, thoughtful and intuitive approach.”
“We all have different sides to who we are. How do we explore both sides? I had the opportunity to see the participants of the workshop face their opposing sides and through the guidance of Milene and Nikki, a possibility was opened to unify them and create a centered being, a being that allows us to reveal, analyze and resolve this opposition. The depth of the process, the empathy created within the group; and the opportunity to be a spectator to your own life gave participants insight into their own narrative and provided them with possibilities of a new life script. It is a workshop, which I would say to be favorable to all, and also extremely functional for the analysis and reflection of the life that is lived, the life that we think we live, the life that could possibly be lived and the life that is possible to live!”
“I came here to talk a little about my experience with Oleear. I was invited to take photos of one of their workshops, and also to participate in some activities. I chose to witness with my lenses, trying to capture the magical moments. From very early in the process, I could see emotions were taking over the hearts of the participants, and that the dynamics would touch everyone’s lives. What I did not expect, was that the emotions taking place would also touch my heart. It was very exciting to see everyone’s discoveries as well as my own, see the growth of each participant and the understanding that it was all about self-knowledge. I realized that changes depend on our own will and that our programed patterns of behaviors are the major cause of our problems. I was overwhelmed by emotion so many times that it made my work difficult. Nevertheless, I believe that through the images I captured, I could demonstrate how we as women can be empathetic to each other’s stories, how it is possible to help others through our own experiences and above all, that the solution is always within us. It was a life changing experience.”
Oleear is a consulting organization that combines communication strategies, performance and expressive arts techniques to promote systemic changes facilitating dialogue around issues of gender, race, interpersonal relationships, intercultural dynamics & community engagement.
San Francisco Bay Area, CA USA
