Nepantla Healing and Conulting

TALKS (Videos, Articles, Interviews, Podcasts)

• The New School at Commonweal: Racial and Earth Healing - Series, Oct-Dec 2023 

Brenda Salgado in conversation with 3 Native Women: Grace Sesma, Sherri Mitchell and Pat McCabe
What would it mean to “become indigenous” to the place we are now? How would we live if we were?
Our indigenous communities and leaders hold ancient wisdom that offers profound insights into the

challenges facing us today. As we navigate the cultural, climate, and ecosystem shifts happening on our

planet now, we need to hear the wisdom and insights from these traditions. And, to truly hear and value

these insights, we need to continue to heal the racial divisions and wounds in our cultures and

communities. Co-presented by The New School and the Racial Healing Initiative at Commonweal’s

Retreat Center Collaboration
 

• Healing with the Ancestors - Toltec Practices for Intergenerational Flourishing, October 2023 
Contemplation by Design Summit, Oct. 24- Nov. 2, 2023. Indigenous

traditions have a deep understanding of the importance of cultivating relationships with our Ancestors

in order for us and future generations to heal, flourish and thrive. For many in modern society, we don't

always know how to work with ancestors, may not know their names or stories, yet we still carry strong

imprints in us of their traumas, challenges, gifts, and talents that have been passed down the line.

In this workshop, Brenda will introduce participants to healthy ways of working with Ancestors, and will

lead Toltec breath and energy practice to support the healing of ancestral trauma and patterns that no

longer serve us. This helps us to clear the patterns in our line that we don't want to carry forward, and

to access the gifts that they share with us.

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• SGTI Spiritual Luminaries Series - Brenda Salgado, June 2023 

SGTI hosts a webinar with Wisdom Keeper & Healer Brenda Salgado. Brenda shares about her
interspiritual journey, and deepening her relationship to land and ancestors and the connection of this
to her healing and justice work. She shares about Toltec breath and energy practices, and the weaving
of mindfulness and Indigenous prophecy for understanding the times we are in as a human family.

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• Reflections from the Racial Healing Initiative Team, July 2023
The Racial Healing Initiative is a nationwide racial equity initiative grounded in retreat centers across
the United States. This initiative fosters healing and transformation for retreat center staff, board, and
organizational partners,Led by Brenda Salgado, program director for RHI, and Ben Scott-Brandt,
program director for RCC, the Racial Healing Initiative team has worked directly with numerous retreat
centers. Brenda and Ben gathered with the RHI team for a retreat in the spring of 2023, to reflect on
what has been learned thus far, and to plan for the future of this work. During conversations over those

few days, we explored why we’d each chosen to join this initiative, and why we were choosing to stay.

What were we learning together, and what did we feel was most important to attend to next?
Some of our reflections are recorded in this short video and accompanying article.

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• RHI Workshop: Reconciling Trauma in the Body with Trauma in the Land, April 2023 ​
Brenda Salgado joined the Racial Healing Initiative earlier this year as the new program director. In this
role, Brenda guides the work of the RHI and collaborates with Ben Scott-Brandt, program director for the
Retreat Center Collaboration, in bringing this work to retreat centers. On a recent Community Call,
Brenda demonstrated through storytelling how healing our human relationships also means healing our
relationship with the land. Retreat centers are uniquely positioned to be vessels for this healing
relationship as retreat naturally draws people into deep inner work that engages both our bodies and
the land. View the full meeting video or scroll down for highlights and takeaways from the workshop.

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• Time of the 6th Sun: – Toltec Teachings on Life, Death and Transformation, March 2022
Curanderismo, mindfulness and traditional medicine are precious gifts from our ancestors.
These practices and cultural teachings serve to help us heal ancestral and personal trauma, cultivate a
deep and ongoing relationship with universal and earth energies, and to partner with those energies
in order to fulfill our path of service and destiny. In this presentation, Brenda speaks on the
intersections of mindfulness, indigenous prophecies and teachings from ancient calendars as a means
to understand the turbulence, loss and change happening on the planet at this time.
Brenda also introduces participants to a brief Toltec breath and energy practice with Coatlicue
(life and death energies) for healing, power and presence, and for cultivating the energy and
relationship that is needed for deep personal and collective transformation. Brenda closes with
teachings and understandings about the transition to the Time of the Sixth Sun, ushering the next
phase in the Toltec Calendar and human consciousness.

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• Nepantla: Exploring Indigenous and Toltec Healing and Transformation, Dec 2022

Drawing on Indigenous wisdom, learn about the power of liminal spaces to struggle with adversity and

experience transformation; followed by somatic breathwork to connect you with the natural world.

Indigenous understandings and a deeper relationship with the natural world point us to deeper

understandings of our relationship to growth and transformation. For example, visionary writer

Gloria Anzaldúa interpreted the concept of Nepantla, an indigenous Nahuatl word, as a "liminal space

where you are not this or that... but where you are in a kind of transition... in the midst of transformation."

Join Brenda Salgado in conversation with author and scholar AnaLouise Keating to discuss her recent

article, Nepantla Lessons for Transformation. After the discussion, Brenda will lead guided Toltec breath

and energy practices to support you in connecting with the natural world and Mother Earth, lovingly

asking for her assistance in releasing what is no longer needed, and calling in the rebirth and growth

that is calling you forward.

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• Every Step a Prayer: Walking With All Our Relations with Brenda Salgado, Oct 2022

Brenda Salgado is a Nicaraguan-American curandera and Toltec healer, who emphasizes ceremony and
traditional circle work for healing conflict and building community. In this episode, we explore and

dialogue on the issues of relationship to the natural world, the ‘wings’ of Eagle and Condor
consciousness, the planetary ‘convergence,’ the ‘Peace and Dignity Journeys,’ pan-indigenous
interspirituality, authentic representation in ‘inter-mystic’ dialogical spaces, not getting ‘fundamentalist,’
connection to place and our displacement, ‘reclaiming our inheritance,’ re-establishing right-relationship
to place, Standing Rock, the Doctrine of Discovery, stewarding our homes, and the ‘de-humanization’
of our lives and environment. Brenda also shares about a tree she is in deep relationship with.

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• All Our Relations: Four Indigenous Lessons on Mindfulness, Nov 2021

There’s healing in acknowledging our interconnectedness. Four Indigenous wisdom keepers share how
their practice helps them remember. Article in Mindfulness Magazine.

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• Mindfulness, Indigenous Prophecy and Toltec Medicine with Brenda Salgado, Nov 2021 
In this episode, Karuna and Spiritual Teacher and Healer Brenda Salgado discuss the intersection of
traditions and Indigenous Prophecy as a lens by which to understand these turbulent times. As we face
the unknown during this pandemic, how might mindfulness practices and Toltec teachings help us to
understand this particular moment we are in as humanity? Join Brenda on Mind Oasis for guided

practices for overwhelm and grief, and cultivating presence in a time of ungroundedness. Brenda will

also share about indigenous teachings about this time as a portal for deep personal and collective

transformation, and the importance of inviting in a new story and ancient questions about what it

means to be human.

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• On Indigenous Wisdom for Healing Trauma w/Sherri Mitchell & Brenda Salgado, Aug 2020

Join Sherri Mitchell, Indigenous rights activist and spiritual teacher, and Brenda Salgado, healer and
movement builder, for a live online conversation exploring Native American mythology and cosmology
as a means of healing our collective wounds. In Sherri’s work, she employs Indigenous wisdom, as well
as a broad understanding of cultural and generational trauma in ways that support deep collective
healing. Learn how Sherri creates deep roots for spiritual and social change by fusing traditional
Indigenous teachings with the foundational laws of the universe to guide us to a more serene and
balanced quality of life. Sherri offers an exploration of core spiritual values, universal expressions of
balance, and the four foundations of self-determined societies as guides for healing and social change.
Discover Indigenous pathways towards healing collective trauma and reconnecting with our
spiritual source.

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• Ofrenda Magazine Interview/Article - Issue 4 Power

Kindred Spirits and Blossoming on Our Path of Destiny

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• Pandemic as Portal: A Conversation on Transformation & Liberation, April 2020

Join us for a timely conversation - Pandemic As Portal - with wisdom teacher & healer Brenda Salgado,
movement strategist & community builder Taj James, and Thrive co-hosts Bethsaida Ruiz and Joshua
Gorman. We are living in a moment of profound change and uncertainty, the end of a great cycle and the
opening of a space for that which is to come. As beloved Arundhati Roy has named it, the pandemic is a
portal to the next world. How do we bear witness to all that is unfolding, holding space together for our

grief and struggles, and learning the lessons of interconnectedness that this time of transition is
teaching us? How can we engage in composting old patterns and structures, liberating new forms and
possibilities, and supporting the deep and transformative potential of these times? This conversation is
part of Medicine for These Times, an online series by Thrive East Bay to nourish our bodies, hearts,
minds and spirits as we navigate the Corona crisis. (Our theme is inspired by Arundhati Roy's widely
read essay The Pandemic Is A Portal.)

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• {ENCORE} Curanderismo, Prophecy & Mindfulness With Brenda Salgado, May 2019

This week we are rebroadcasting our episode with Brenda Salgado on Curanderismo, Prophecy &

Mindfulness, originally aired in May of 2019. Brenda and Venessa’s conversation explores curanderismo

and indigenous prophecy about our current times and the shift in consciousness we are experiencing. 

This episode remains timely as we collectively face a global pandemic and unprecedented challenges

as well as opportunities for change and healing. As we reflected back in 2019, mindfulness practice

can help you cultivate more inner power, peace, dignity and grace as well as navigate challenges and

difficulties with more clarity and courage in this current time of shift.

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• Herbal Highway Interview, Answering the Call of Our Ancestors, March 2020

Guest host Renée Camila speaks with Nicaraguan-American healer and teacher Brenda Salgado

about her personal journey of reconnecting with traditional medicine and the work she does in

building community around ancestral healing.

• Awakin Call: Midwifing the Prophecy of an Earth-Based Feminine Consciousness, April 2018
Brenda Salgado speaks with the Awakin community on the topic of mid-wifing the prophecy of an
Earth-based feminine consciousness, and how we are shifting from an eagle way of being --
masculine, mind centred, industrial to one of the condor -- feminine, heart-centred, intuitive
and earth-connected.
 

• Wild  Woman School: Self Care for Community Healers and Activists

Serving others in our community is a gift, and we can be of highest service when we practice self-care

in individual and communal ways as an act of reclaiming healing justice. This also allows us to model for

others what purpose rooted in a commitment to wellness and healthy power can look like. As we serve,

we may encounter others in extreme distress, pain, and powerlessness, and we may also be confused

about how to provide support while setting healthy boundaries when they are needed. Join Brenda as

we learn about various practices that can allow us to make a positive impact for others and ourselves,

from a place of self-care, awareness, energetic clarity, presence and power. (donation to access)

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• Interview for Sana, Sana Podcast, Full Circle Collective, Chicago IL, January 2018
Summer has been on volume 10 for the tocayas! We're glad to be back for episode 8 where we talk
about trips to the doctor, check in with our bodies, and get a crash course on mindfulness for beginners
thanks to the wisdom of Bay Area's Brenda Salgado. Dr. Troy Harden joins us in our Colita de Rana corner.

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• MoonWise podcast interviewee: On the Radical Shift from Mind to Heart, August 2017
 

• Conversation Catalyst, Cultivating Community Through Trust, Friday CAFÉ, February 2017
At our core, we all want the capacity to flourish, feel seen and be heard.  Building and sustaining
collaborative relationships through trust can provide a rich foundation for healthy partnerships with
families and communities.  Join us for a conversation about research on trust and how indigenous
teachings can expand our thinking about co-creating trust with families.

• Wisdom Women: Step into the Circle Podcast with Brenda Salgado, February 2017
In this episode, our host Leslie Frame-Crowley, interviews WisdomWomen Founding Member, 
Brenda Salgado, who shares about her path as healer, how her deep knowledge of indigenous wisdom
were cultivated, and her radical dream for a gift-based retreat center for healers. Brenda’s shares on
her connection to intuition as guide and her deep reverence for relationship – to one another and
to the natural world.

 

• Commencement Speaker, Naropa University May 2016
Brenda Salgado, a first generation Nicaraguan-American, speaks on the indigenous and cultural values

that have led her to spiritual, social justice, and nonprofit work. President Charles G. Lief: “At a time of
profound societal and socioeconomic transformations, Brenda’s deep experience and expertise in

community healing, social justice, and alliance building will provide an extraordinary message of
creating a society filled with wholeness and beauty.”

• An Evening with Roshi Joan Halifax and Brenda Salgado, CIIS Public Programs, November 2016
Zen priest, author, and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care Roshi Joan Halifax is joined
in conversation by Brenda Salgado about death and dying, Buddhism, and social activism.

• CTZNWELL Mindful Mondays guest speaker, November 2016
Join Kerri Kelly, Brenda Salgado, Vania Kent for discussion on truth, reconciliation and sacred activism.

• Podcast, Secular Buddhist: Creating diverse Sanghas, October 2015
Ted Meissner of Secular Buddhist in conversation with Brenda Salgado and Mushim Ikeda, on
encouraging and creating diversity in our sanghas and spiritual communities.

• Panelist: Movement Building in the Bay Area, UC Berkeley, October 2014
Berkeley Social Welfare Panel Presentation on Movement Building in the Bay Area:
A Panel Discussion on Contemporary Opportunities and Challenges

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PRINT MEDIA

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• Dumbo Feather, Conversations with Extraordinary People. Brenda Salgado Lets Love In
Issue 57—Healing Ourselves. Feature length article.

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• East Bay Express, Self-Care as a Political Act
By Ferron Salniker. August 01, 2018

In the East Bay, women of color and queer people are making alternative health-care practices
accessible and culturally relevant to their communities — as well as a key part of their activism.

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• Lion's Roar, New York Times reports on East Bay Meditation Center’s path to inclusion,
By Sam Littlefair. October 5, 2015
Read the full profile at The New York Times, as well as related writing on diversity in mindfulness: Larry Yang’s introductory teaching, “Learn the BASICS of Insight Meditation,” and commentary, “Democracy is Good For Sanghas“; our writing by and about Insight teacher Gina Sharpe, who also appear in the article; and our East Bay Meditation Center archive, including Vivien Shotwell’s profile and our recent post on the center’s upcoming “Power to the Planet” fundraiser. Also, check out our diversity section, for lots more good stuff.

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• Lion's Roar, Advice for Difficult Times

Inside November 2015 Shambhala Sun
“Can I Serve Others Without Falling into a Gender Trap?” Brenda Salgado responds.

• New York Times, Finding Path to Inclusion Through Exclusion at an Oakland Meditation Center

By Mark Oppenheimer. October 2, 2015

On East Bay Meditation Center's commitment to diversity and inclusion in their Buddhist community.