Why the Phoenix Process Matters Now
A few months ago, I found myself standing in Hiroshima, beside the Peace Park, carrying the strange and humbling awareness that I was about to guide the Phoenix Process on land marked by one of humanity’s deepest wounds.
Not exactly a lightweight Tuesday afternoon.
And yet, somehow, it felt completely right.
For those who know my work, you’ll know that I have long been drawn to places where suffering and resilience live side by side. Not because I enjoy wallowing in trauma. Quite the opposite. I am interested in what human beings do with suffering. Whether we become more defended, more divided and more numb. Or whether we discover that, somehow, given enough love and resource, we can find good medicine buried beneath the ashes.
the heart of the phoenix
At its core, the Phoenix Process is an embodied, trauma-aware form of soul retrieval and human development. A practical, grounded and deeply experiential way of shifting the balance of power inside ourselves. Not by trying to destroy the ego, exile our wounds, or pretend we are all beings of pure light floating about like helium balloons wondering what all the fuss is about. But by learning to bring awareness, compassion, courage and movement to the places inside us that got stuck in survival or what we call the self's protective, adaptive, survial mechanism (SPASM) . (School of Movement Medicine®)
Over these past four decades of practicing and teaching, I have seen this in myself and Susannah again and again. And, I have watched in awe as people discover something which is accessible to our shared humanity:
What we thought was only damage also contains intelligence.
What we thought was only shame also contains humility.
What we thought was the end of the story was the beginning of a more soul-led life.
The Phoenix teaches us that transformation is not theory. It is metabolism. It is alchemy.
Why the Phoenix Process Matters Now
We are living in times where many people’s nervous systems are being asked to carry far more than they were designed for. A relentless stream of bad news, division, speed, uncertainty, outrage and digital overstimulation leaves many of us oscillating between anxiety, exhaustion, numbness and reactivity.
Human beings who are overwhelmed do not tend to become wiser, kinder or more connected. We tend to contract. Defend. Blame. Disconnect from our bodies, from each other and from the deeper intelligence of soul. The Phoenix Process matters now because it offers a practical, embodied way to meet these pressures without collapsing beneath them or armouring ourselves against life.
Through movement, awareness, compassion and honest self-inquiry, this work helps people metabolise stress rather than simply store it in the body. It supports the development of resilience without hardening, vulnerability without collapse, and a deeper capacity to stay human in what can feel like inhuman times. In a world that often rewards disconnection, the Phoenix Process is a practice of remembering what it means to belong to life again.
lessons from hiroshima
In Hiroshima, this truth landed in my bones with particular force.
The city itself is extraordinary. Once the site of devastation beyond comprehension, it now radiates an unmistakable commitment to peace. During the workshop, we worked with the Hiroshima Peace Flame, carried for many years by Hiroki Okano, whose dedication to peace through art and ceremony moved me deeply.
One night before ceremony, I dreamed of the mountains surrounding Hiroshima. In the dream, they appeared as vast Wise Elders who had witnessed the history of the land over thousands of years. In Movement Medicine, the Wise Elder is the part of us capable of loving both who we are and who we are becoming. The mountains seemed to say: “Do not turn away. Witness. Grieve. Dance. Transform. And please invite us in to your ceremony to be the Wise Elders that support you to do your work.”
And so we did.
Half the dancers embodied those ancient mountains. The others stepped courageously into the river of history, grief, resilience and prayer. Together we danced ceremony for the land, for the dead, for the living and for the future.
And if you’d like to read more about the Hiroshima journey and the ceremony with the Peace Flame: Rebirth in Hiroshima
Peace work
Phoenix work is peace work. And peace work is far harder than standing righteously on one side of the fence pointing fingers.It involves a willingness to engage with the complexities of life rather than retreating into simplistic ideas of good and bad. That is why the Phoenix Process matters so much to me.
The world does not need more spiritual bypassing. It does not need more polished performances of pseudo-wellness and happiness while human beings quietly drown in loneliness, despair, disconnection and inherited pain.
What we need are practices that help us become more human. More embodied. More honest. More capable of transforming conflict rather than simply projecting and amplifying our own unowned shadows and thowing them at one another from behind the safety of social media.
Peace is not passivity. Peace is work. Fierce work. Beautiful work. The long practice of developing our personal power alongside our responsibility to use it well. Shadow work. The work of taking the raw material of our experience and learning to create new life from it.
Phoenix rising incoming
And this is why I am glad to let you know that the next Phoenix Rising journeys are incoming. One online with me beginning in October and the other at the extraordinary Blue Spirit in Nosara on the forested coast of Costa Rica with both Susannah and myself.
Phoenix rising online:
15 Oct to 12 nov 2026 with Ya'acov
Over four weeks, we will enter a powerful and carefully held process together. Through live sessions, listening circles, movement practice, teachings and ceremony, you will learn the Phoenix Process for yourself.
phoenix rising costa rica
9 to 16 january 2027 with susannah & Ya'acov
At the beginning of a new year, Phoenix Rising is a call into that moment. A Movement Medicine journey for those ready to stop circling the same wounds and begin transforming lived experience into wisdom, presence, and power. Not by bypassing pain, but by alchemising it. We will be joined by Reuben Darling Khan, offering the fundamentals of wellbeing to support resilience and health, and Haein Cho, whose yoga teaching brings clarity, fluidity, and grounded support to the dancing body.
Together, they create a field that is safe enough to be real and strong enough to support transformation.
So what is phoenix rising all about
The phoenix is the beating heart of Movement Medicine for a reason. This is not about fixing what you may think of as broken. It is about deepening your connection with what is whole and unbroken in you and discovering that even the most difficult chapters of your life contain hidden resources for becoming more fully who you are.
Healing is not a return to how things were. It is a creative act. A conscious participation in becoming. Phoenix Rising invites you to meet the flames of Phoenix medicine to compost what no longer serves. To reclaim energy trapped in old stories. To dance at the centre of your circle with your heart online and your mind open.
what is the phoenix process good for?
In both the online and in-the-room versions, we will work with what we call in Movement Medicine we call “the understudies”, the inner characters (ego structures) and stories that so often run the show from backstage. We will explore the dynamic relationship between ego and soul. We will dance. We will sweat a bit. We may laugh at inconvenient moments. There is a strong possibility that somebody’s cat will walk across a Zoom screen during a profound breakthrough. This too is part of the mystery. (School of Movement Medicine®)
And somewhere along the way, if you stay with it, something begins to shift.
Not perfection.
Not transcendence.
Not becoming a permanently enlightened houseplant.
But greater presence. Greater resilience. Greater capacity to love your life and participate in this extraordinary, heartbreaking, astonishing world with more soul in the driving seat.
Wherever you are right now in your life, perhaps this is simply a moment to pause and ask:
What inside me is asking to rise?
And if the answer comes back as a whisper, a roar, a nervous cough, or a full-bodied “bloody hell, yes”… welcome. That’s often how the journey begins.
The truth is, none of us get through this life without being singed a little. Hearts break. Dreams wobble. Nervous systems occasionally behave like over-caffeinated squirrels at a rave. But beneath all of that, there is something in you that knows how to heal, how to create meaning, how to dance forward carrying both tenderness and strength.
That is what Phoenix Rising is here to serve.
Not perfection.
Not spiritual cosmetics.
Not becoming unbearably serene while the world burns around you.
But becoming more deeply, courageously and compassionately yourself.
So if something in these words stirs your feet, your belly, your longing, or that ancient part of you that remembers there is more to life than surviving… perhaps now is the time.
Come and dance with us.
Come and meet the fire.
Come and discover what medicine may be hidden in your ashes.
Ya'Acov DK. June 2026
