PWI Faculty Spotlight: Dawn Menken
PWI Faculty Spotlight: Dawn Menken The dream that started it Dawn Menken’s first dream was of a man who climbed up out of
Dawn Menken’s first dream was of a man who climbed up out of a sewer and appeared on her television screen. One way she reads that dream: The man from the underground is going into the part of the world and herself that is discarded, deemed as garbage. Appearing on television is the part of her that brings it into the light. Believes in its importance and its message. She’s been doing both for 47 years.
She grew up as an outsider, facing exclusion and bigotry at a young age. It shaped the questions she’s spent her whole life asking.
When she was 18 years old, her professor, Ben Thompson read from Arnold Mindell’s unpublished manuscript: The Deathwalk. Text that would become The Shaman’s Body. Hungry to understand her own inner workings and the workings of everyone around her, she flew to Zurich to learn directly from Arnold Mindell.
She encouraged her closest friends to journey across the ocean and join her: Julie Diamond, Amy (soon to be) Mindell, Jan Dworkin and others. Together they lived, breathed and developed the material that would become Processwork as we know it today.
Moving back to the United States, she helped found the Process Work Institute, co-created its master’s programs and served as academic dean for more than a decade.
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Motherhood changed how she saw the world and the trajectory of her work. She wrote and performed a one-woman show, MamaSpeak, about her own path into motherhood and the essence of the divine mother.
Parenting widened her sense of who needed nurturing and pulled her toward young people directly. This is how Teens Rise Up came to exist: a leadership program bringing teenagers from every kind of background into the same room to relate and build connection across differences.
She wrote a book on parenting, a book of essays on love, marginalization and community, and a guide for politicians and leaders trying to hold public life together without losing themselves in it.
Forty seven years into this and Dawn is still in the room. Helping us find our way through the human experience with wisdom, truth and tenacity.
Dawn is a true elder of Processwork. She has been foundational in making Processwork what it is today. She has influenced countless lives. We are grateful beyond words for her essence, her dreamland beings and her consensus reality contributions 💚
She is an internationally respected educator, therapist, leadership coach, facilitator, and conflict resolution specialist. She co-founded the Process Work Institute, a not-for-profit graduate school dedicated to the training of facilitators, where she co-created its master’s programs and served as academic dean for more than a decade. In all of her endeavors she is moved to improve social discourse and inspire more meaningful civic engagement.
Dawn is a thought leader and change agent who brings her gifts to a variety of sectors. Her award-winning parenting book, Raising Parents Raising Kids: Hands-on Wisdom for the Next Generation, offers a groundbreaking approach to parenting and has been described as “… a must read for everybody who cares about the state of our relationships and our world.” She is the creator of Teens Rise Up (TRU), a cutting-edge program that empowers and educates young people to step into their leadership, engage in honest dialogue and co-create more welcoming school communities. She is also the author of Speak Out! Talking About Love, Sex and Eternity, a book of personal essays that explores themes of marginalization, relationships, and the essence of community. Her latest book Facilitating a More Perfect Union: A Guide for Politicians and Leaders, offers practical tips to anyone stepping into a leadership position. She is based in Portland, Oregon.
Visit her website: https://www.dawnmenken.com/
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