I'm Amy Dallas*
I'm an attorney, project generator, educator, somatic and restorative practitioner, and coach.
My work helps people and institutions learn to reflect and respond with care to those they serve and to one another. Even in challenging conditions, I believe we can cultivate the awareness and fortitude to move forward in a good way.
So many people work in environments that run at a relentless pace, steeped in tension.
And yet, we keep showing up.
I've been there.
I know what it's like.
The complex systems that shape our society are so hard for people to navigate. They also take a toll on those working within them.
Especially now as we're facing so many compounding crises at the same time, like unchecked technology, unstable funding, disappearing jobs, climate disasters, increased polarization, and social unrest, chaos and uncertainty are unavoidable.
It's a lot. Can you feel it? I do too.
Whew.
More than ever, people need support.
We need strategies to keep us grounded as we meet what's here now. We need new ways to work well together—for those we show up for, and to imagine and shape what comes next.
When I was a public defender, my capacity grew wide for holding the full range of human experience. I counseled thousands of people through some of the hardest moments of their lives while also fielding complicated social and institutional dynamics at every level. I had to learn the hard way how to attend to myself while working with others, how to live my values without constantly burning out.
Like my former clients, like most people, I hold multitudes. We all want to feel respected and understood. We all are responding to our lives, our relationships, and our circumstances as best we can. I've been thinking a lot about what helps us handle what's important without losing ourselves in the process. What supports us in being our best selves? And how can we engage with one another in ways that are both generative and dignifying?
A New Approach
I am introducing a methodology called trauma-responsive restorative advocacy
that recognizes and works with the natural ways humans are built and interact.
Designed for our complex times, this methodology helps people act with greater intention, clarity, and adaptive responsiveness.
Incorporating science and psychology, physical and interactive practices, this framework blends contemporary research with ancient traditions. It weaves together self-awareness, resilience, relational skills, and communal learning, and offers tools to meet stress and trauma (our own and others') with greater adaptability. It's grounded in principles of human dignity and relationships, and although it originated within the legal profession it is definitely applicable in any context.
In social systems, change begins downstream where daily decisions are made. When new practices take root and start to spread, their influence flows upstream, transforming the culture and functions of the larger system itself. New systems emerge through the intentions and actions of individuals. The question that drives my work is: what can happen when each of us moves just a little differently in the orbits we are part of?
A bit about what I do:
My sweet spot is creating learning spaces that help people understand themselves and our world differently, planting the seeds for new possibilities.
I design and lead projects that ask what values, collaboration, and accountability truly look and feel like in practice. I bridge people with one another, a sort of network connector. Collaborating with experts and seasoned practitioners is my jam.
Through talks, unique presentations, and tangible resources, I craft experiences that meet people where they are.
I've facilitated trainings, workshops, and guest lectures, and provided consultation on:
- Conflict Transformation
- Incorporating a Restorative Lens
- Values-Based Organizational Culture
- Policy Implementation
- Effective Advocacy
- Humanity-Centered Client Engagement
- Intersecting System Dynamics
- Stress-Trauma Continuum - Recognizing & Responding
- Recovering From and Preventing Burnout
- Somatic Practices
- Increasing Capacity for Collaboration + Deep Listening
- Nonprofit Development
- Community + Institution Partnerships
- Restorative Justice
- Advancing Equitable Practices
- Criminal Justice, Criminal Law
I have designed, coordinated, and facilitated or spoken on panels, workshops, trainings, practice communities, and events with:
My work is also personal.
In coaching and conversation, I lock in.
I listen deeply and help clients untangle what’s stuck. We follow where the interaction wants to go, integrating strategies and somatic practices that can be used in daily life. We co-create a new reality, and often we’re both better for it.
I have studied and practiced with a range of teachers and organizations, including:
- Lumos Transforms
- Strozzi Institute
- Kay Pranis
- Learning as Leadership
- Designed Learning, based on the work of Peter Block
- Rev angel Kyoto williams
- Dr. Susanna Bergin
- The Right Use of Power Institute
- NYU's Center for Violence and Recovery
- Thomas Hübl
- The Embodiment Institute
- ...and many others
I stopped litigating because I no longer wished to spar; I wanted to build.
I love working with people, not against them. As a thought-partner and architect on big projects I have seen how the life of an idea can grow into tangible impact.
I bring an interdisciplinary approach to everything I do. I weave together project design, experiential pedagogy, somatics, restorative justice, systems thinking, and a touch of aesthetic and atmospheric discernment to create experiences that bring out the best in people to positively influence the institutions, systems, and movements they shape.
If this resonates with you
I invite you to stay in touch.
You can sign up for updates and upcoming opportunities to engage with my work.
Or simply reach out and say hello.
*My full name is Amy Rachel Dunayevich Dallas. I am a descendent of a line of strong, scrappy, and complicated ancestors: Basina, Utchitel, Katznelson, Zilbershtein, Goldfarb. They were engineers, activists, seamstresses, bakers, rabbis, strivers, and teachers. Their choices and tenacity live on in me.