What I've Learned About Myself & My Business: Updates from Farris Consulting
Three and a half years ago, I launched Farris Consulting after completing my doctoral research focused on the role white folks can play in disrupting systems of racism in the workplace. I had pursued my doctorate in education because I had a career in higher education where I was on track to move into a senior-level role, which required a terminal degree. However, after spending months interviewing folks of color about their experiences with racism in the workplace and pondering their feedback on what they wished their white colleagues and supervisors would do about it, it became clear to me that I needed to pivot.
The call to find meaningful ways that I could facilitate more equity and capacity for real inclusion in workplaces was unshakable, so I followed the call. I took the model that I had developed from my research and started bringing it into as many rooms as possible with the goal of building the collective capacity of white folks to be disrupters for equity. But something didn’t feel quite right.
For years I wrestled with my own whiteness and the role for me in antiracist work. On one hand, I know that my whiteness affords me access; white folks are more comfortable learning from me and are generally more willing to listen even when they disagree. I was often hired by folks who said that their organization “wasn’t ready” to have a BIPOC facilitator for this conversation because many white folks wouldn’t feel “safe” to share in that space. Again, on one hand this felt like a gap that I could stand in – I could be the entry point and then pass the baton to a facilitator of color. But on the other hand, I knew that this also made me completely complicit in a system of racialized violence. Was I leveraging my privilege for good? Or just wielding my privilege?
What I know for sure is that the right/wrong binary is a product of white supremacy culture and that nothing is ever that simple. But I also know for sure that trusting my gut never steers me wrong. Something didn’t feel right, so I kept exploring and feeling into it.
That exploration has led me to a few things that I’d like to share today…
Working in community with BIPOC antiracist educators and facilitators feels right for me. We can work collaboratively to leverage my whiteness while not centering whiteness throughout our work. We can push through comfort zones and facilitate a dialogue that includes empathy for folks who are struggling to understand, while still protecting and centering those who are harmed by our lack of understanding. Ultimately this structure just feels good and I’m so grateful to get to do this work in this way! And I’ve gotta give a special shoutout to my girl Jen Fry who I do most of my facilitating with – she’s amazing and I LOVE the work we get to do together.
There was something critical missing from my DISRUPT model. The model talks about what we white folks need to do to be more effective allies and accomplices, but it doesn’t indicate how we do it. And after working with this model for a few years I believe that how can be really difficult without proper support and tools. Many of us are relearning generations of whiteness and white supremacy culture. Meaningful change is not as simple as just understanding and empathy. It requires deep healing, nervous system regulation, and a lot of grace and letting go. This is the part that I am interested in supporting folks through these days!
I am a healer and a facilitator. I believe that when each of us connects back to our own humanity – to the person we are under the layers and layers of socialization and white supremacy, then we find more liberation and freedom. And when each of us gets freer, we help shift the collective towards freedom. It also becomes easier to navigate this world as a DISRUPTer! I love to help people connect with and remember who they are, to serve as a mirror and a guide – a facilitator who guides you back to self-trust, empowerment, ease, and joy.
I am now certified as a hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner, in addition to being a life & success coach. I am also a doula trainee, studying to become a birth worker and doula for birthing people. I started my Doula training program a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t be more excited about the potential that exists there! Birthing is deeply steeped in inequity, particularly across racial identity, and I am excited to serve as a source of support and advocacy in facilitating more space and justice for folks who birth!
I have spent a lot of time trying to make sense of how all of these things fit together – too much time, to be honest! But ultimately I think they all fit perfectly together. I am a facilitator of breakthroughs, expansion, empowerment, and trust. Whether that is co-facilitating an antiracist training to expand our collective capacity, coaching an individual who is ready to invite more ease and self-trust to step fully into their power, or supporting a person who is literally using their power and body to birth new life – it all makes sense to me!
I don’t imagine that too much will change around here, though I might share more about birthing and birth work! But you’ll definitely see some new offerings related to coaching & healing if you’re interested!
I’m always so grateful for this community in our little corner of the internet. I’m excited to continue to share with you all the things that I’m learning and doing, and I hope you’ll let me know what speaks to you and what questions pop up!