Leading with love
Heart Forward. Love Forward.
Radical Rest’s Mission
Radical Rest provides communal trauma healing experiences and education to Black, Indigenous and Peoples of Color (BIPOC) folks in the Portland Metro Area.
Radical Rest uplifts access to healing for Portland area black and brown communities with free to low cost communal healing events led by BIPOC healer-facilitators who center healing justice. Radical Rest uses the principles of somatics, experiential learning and trauma-informed practices to provide trauma healing spaces that reduce isolation, build resilience, expand knowledge of ancestral and healthful life practices and grow trust in self, others and the natural world. We encourage structural change in wellness work through fostering trust in oneself and the collective, through contemplation and embodiment and, of course, through rest.
Radical Rest’s story
Radical Rest started by T. Aisha Edwards, LMHC on a wing and a prayer in the wake of the George Floyd murder and the racial uprising of 2020. To support BIPOC folks who were disproportionately impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic and experiencing the ravages of carceral violence, Radical Rest started as a simple mutual aid pop up of like-minded wellness providers offering free wellness services to BIPOC folk. It has evolved to explore and redefine health justice in BIPOC communities and to return our agency about our health back into our own hands. What will never change at Radical Rest is the belief that material conditions of the marginalized MUST occur in the context of belonging and bodily safety.