Hi, my name is Jamila Jackson and I speak about and share soul-level rest to help audience members/participants exit a life of chronic exhaustion, burnout and restlessness, and embody a life of empowerment, leadership, harmony and alignment.
To schedule, please email me, Jamila at: EmbodiedLeadershipProject@gmail.com
Looking forward to resting with you!
Abstract:
Soul-Level Rest: Bringing Relief and Peace into Your Life while Navigating Intense Circumstances
Across fields of practice and study, many of us are experiencing elevated levels of burnout, nervous system dysregulation, compassion fatigue, and emotional exhaustion. Rest is often narrowly defined as sleep or stepping away from work. Yet chronic stress, trauma exposure, academic pressure, and service-oriented professions create a deeper form of depletion that is not resolved by ceasing work for a short period alone.
When the vital process of entering restful nervous system states is removed from our natural learning, growing, healing and creativity cycles what begins to happen is that both individuals and institutions lose access to cognitive flexibility, relational capacity, ethical clarity, and sustainable leadership.
Soul-Level Rest is an experiential talk and rest-session experience that reframes rest as a trauma-informed, evidence-aligned, and culturally grounded practice essential to mental health, leadership development, and community wellbeing.
Through immersive sound and story, Jamila creates an embodied experience of rest. The gentle, resonant tones of the handpan support nervous system regulation and guided reflection, allowing participants to feel moments of genuine restoration during the session itself.
Drawing from powerful stories in her work with horses, she offers a compelling metaphor for trauma-informed practice and explores issues of rest and historical/social context, attunement, boundaries, and relational safety. Jamila introduces a practical framework for understanding :
The nervous system and chronic survival states
Co-regulation, resonance, and emotional safety
Boundaries as a foundation for leadership and care work
Rest as part of the healing and creative cycle
The difference between productivity-driven pause and soul-level restoration
Drawing from over 25 years of youth development and community-based work, Jamila integrates trauma-informed yoga, somatics, Internal Family Systems informed reflection, African Diasporic expressive practices, and equine-assisted learning.
Participants leave with insight and a lived experience of regulation they can carry into their work and lives.
This offering is adaptable for:
Guest lectures in Psychology, Social Work, Counseling, Education, and Public Health courses and any course that may need a moment to experience and understand rest
Campus mental health and wellness events
Student groups or leadership programs
New student orientation or first-year experience
Educator, faculty and staff professional development
Keynotes for conferences and community gatherings
Youth-serving professionals preparing for careers in education, justice, healthcare, and social services
Corporate leadership teams and staff retreats
Healthcare systems and behavioral health providers
Nonprofit organizations and community agencies
Justice system professionals and interventionists
Educators and academic institutions
Government departments and public service agencies
Conference keynotes and professional associations
Content can be tailored to emphasize clinical frameworks, embodied leadership, mental health, mindfulness, trauma-informed education, violence prevention, leadership development, team culture, burnout prevention, trauma-informed systems, innovation, creativity, or community wellbeing depending on the audience.
Participants will:
Develop a working understanding of nervous system regulation and trauma-informed care
Learn practical micro-practices that can be integrated into academic and clinical settings
Explore rest as a protective factor against burnout and secondary trauma
Reframe leadership as embodied, congruent, and relational
Leave with tools for sustaining their work without sacrificing themselves
Jamila Jackson is an Interdisciplinary Artist and Educator, Director, Equine-Assisted Learning Facilitator, Certified Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher and IFS-informed coach based in Massachusetts. For more than 25 years, she has supported youth and families, particularly in underserved communities, through creative expression, mindfulness, leadership development, and trauma-informed practice. She has experience teaching and facilitating in public schools, businesses, community centers, organizations, departments, colleges and universities.
Her work creates spaces of rest, authentic expression, and community care that support long-term healing and transformation.