ep0028: Serving Our Communities in Crisis

Darcy Adams

If it was wellness for wellness sake, kind of like, okay, then we’re all just kind of like, happy and fine. But it’s not wellness for wellness sake, right? It’s wellness so that we can change the world in a positive way. And the way that I see it is I can change the world in the way that I’m uniquely qualified by helping my clients feel better in their bodies. And each one of my clients can go out and do the same in their life in whatever way they’re uniquely qualified. And so, you know, I really feel strongly that continuing to empower people to do what they’re uniquely qualified to do is what this work is all about.

Joanna Sapir

Today, we’re talking about what it means to be a wellness practitioner when your local community is experiencing crisis and upheaval. I’ll be talking to Darcy Adams, a movement practitioner that lives in Chicago, Illinois, in the U.S. a city that’s been the target of daily ICE raids for many weeks now. This is not an episode about politics. It’s about our role as wellness practitioners in our communities in times like these. I’m recording this episode in fall 2025, during a time when communities across the United States are experiencing increased political violence, immigration raids, mass job losses, and an overall sense of upheaval and instability. In today’s show, we’re exploring what it means to support people’s health during moments of crisis like this. I’ll be talking with movement practitioner Darcy Adams. She lives just outside Chicago with her husband, two daughters, two dogs, six chickens, and a bearded dragon. Darcy’s work as a practitioner focuses on strength, mobility, and particularly core and pelvic floor function. Recently, Darcy’s work has taken on a new dimension because in her community, families are now living under the constant presence of ICE raids, with people literally being taken from their schools, homes and workplaces, and many others protesting against these raids and organizing to protect their targeted neighbors. Here’s Amy Goodman of Democracy now reporting on what’s been going on in Darcy’s community.

Newscaster Amy Goodman

Protests are continuing over the Trump administration’s massive immigration raids. Over the weekend, federal immigration agents reportedly pepper sprayed a father and his one year old daughter at close range in the parking lot of a grocery store in the Chicago suburb of Cicero. On Friday, police arrested 14 mothers who are protesting outside the Broadview Immigration Jail.

Joanna Sapir

There aren’t enough, um, people speaking up. There are people protesting here at this Broadview ICE facility every Friday, but not enough. We are in our communities being terrorized by ICE and Border Patrol. They are tear gassing neighborhoods for Fun. We saw that in court this week. Video of them saying, have fun as they blew tear gas cannoners in a residential neighborhood. They ran in this week to a daycare center and pulled a teacher out in front of toddlers who were screaming and crying. In my school, at the elementary school, we have to walk children to and from school because their immigrant parents are afraid to leave the house. Our entire community in Chicago and across the suburbs are being terrorized by ICE and border Patrol. We are moms. We are mad. We are coming together to say that families, families should not be torn apart. Immigrants should not be targeted.

Joanna Sapir

The fear and activation that Darcy’s clients and community are feeling impact everything. Their thoughts, their breathing, their sleep, their movement. Darcy has been adjusting her work and response, helping people build particularly rest and resilience at a time when their nervous systems are in a prolonged stress response state. We’re going to talk about what happens when the systems people live under are harming their health and how we as wellness practitioners can meet and support those being impacted in this way. So let’s get into it. Hi, Darcy. Welcome to the show. Thank you for being here.

Darcy Adams

Thank you for having me.

Joanna Sapir

You have described to me that the current atmosphere in Chicago is one of fear and high alert. It’s what we’re hearing on the news as well. Can you share with us what that looks like and feels like in your community and how it’s affecting the people that you work with?

Darcy Adams

Yeah. So let me count the ways this is affecting people. This morning, I dropped my daughter off at school and I came back home. I parked, and my neighbor kid who’s a junior in high school, walked his dogs by and he has a whistle around his neck. This is just like, what is going on? Everyone has whistles around their neck because ice, so border, you know, immigration enforcement will come through. This has happened in the city of Chicago neighborhoods all around Chicago, in suburbs of Chicago, they’ll just come through and snatch people off the streets. So on Saturday, I got a group text from my neighbor who lives around the corner from me with a video of an ICE agent on her porch questioning one of the men who was doing their lawn service. And she took a video of herself asking him questions like, why do you have your face covered? And he’s like, because otherwise people would hurt me. And she’s like, oh, what about these people that you’re hurting? You know? And all of her lawn service guys are US Citizens. There’s another woman in our town who is, um, had painters on Saturday. They did like a Huge sweep in our neighborhood. And so you would hear in the distance, like, horns honking and whistles blowing, because people would be like, ice, ice. That’s how we know that there’s an ICE unmarked minivan with tented windows and out of state plates that’s coming through and just grabbing people. So on Saturday, my kids were jumping outside on the trampoline and my niece and nephew were over. And right before they had come over, there had been a minivan driving down their street with all these cars following it, honking and blowing whistles. And my niece got really, like, kind of nervous about it. And then they came over here, which we live, you know, just a few blocks away, and they were jumping on the trampoline and then they started hearing whistles.

Joanna Sapir

In case you haven’t heard about how Chicagoans are using the whistles, this is what NBC 5 Chicago reported.

Darcy Adams

Some Chicago communities are using new tools, hoping to ease anxiety about immigration arrests in their neighborhoods. Their whistles to alert each other when federal agents are spotted nearby. NBC 5’s JC Navarrete live tonight downtown to explain exactly how this all works. JC.

Joanna Sapir

Hey there, Stefan. Good evening. Tonight we got a chance to see how neighbors are stepping in and lending a helping hand. And you’re absolutely right. It’s something like a whistle. You usually see it at a soccer game. Now we’re seeing it in neighborhoods as those are looking out here for undocumented migrants. They’re blowing the whistle literally on ICE to let neighbors know that federal agents are in their community.

Darcy Adams

You don’t know what’s going to happen if these guys get out of the car. Like, they, they don’t ask questions before. They just start slamming people into the ground. So it affects every single person because the entire environment is just super tense. People are scared, on high alert, like, looking around all the time, like, you know, is it going to be safe for me to go to this place? Even, even if they’re not necessarily a target of, uh, these ICE agents, they’re still totally affected by what’s going on.

Joanna Sapir

And how about your clients, specifically in your client community, how is that impacting them and your work with them? What are you seeing? What’s happening for your people? Because you work with their bodies and their minds. What are you noticing and how is this impacting the work you’re doing with your clients

Darcy Adams

So I have one client in particular who is an immigrant and is a U.S. citizen, and she’s lived here for, you know, probably 20, 25 years. And she has an accent. Her husband is also an immigrant. And in, uh, the work that I’ve done with her, one of the things that we have discovered is that walking is her happy place. She feels so good when she’s walking. It’s such a great movement tool for her to work out the things that are going on in her body in particular. And the last time I met with her last week, she said, you know, I haven’t been walking at all because I’m just so scared to go outside. And she, you know, even when I do go outside, I make sure that I have my passport. I make sure she works for the government. I make sure that I have my, you know, my federal id. So she works for the government. But of course, she’s furloughed right now. So she has been out of, you know, not going into work for like five or six weeks, but she’s afraid to go outside and go for a walk. So everything in her body is just getting more and more tense. And, uh, as she, you know, as we talk through, what are some of the things that she can do to provide herself with a sense of calm, with a felt sense of safety. And there’s only so much you can do to help someone stay calm when they are literally in danger. Even though she’s a US Citizen, she’s in danger because if they see her and question her, they don’t necessarily wait for her to show her ID before they start getting really aggressive and violent. And that’s so scary for her. And she has a young child. It’s all just very scary. Then I also have clients who are politically active and are, uh, going down and protesting what’s happening. And their people are getting arrested. People are getting targeted by government agencies. Like, it’s just. It’s a very. If you’re, if you’re getting involved with what’s going on, you are totally in the crosshairs of, of the government, which it sounds. I feel like. It’s crazy for me to even say that, but it’s. I mean, this is. This is actually like the situation that we’re in. I’m not exaggerating. You know, it just feels bonkers. Everyone is kind of clenched. They’re nervous. And when you get nervous, I find that people tend to clench up in the areas that they hold tension. So, you know, a lot of people hold tension in their neck and shoulders. Some people hold tension in their digestive system. Some people tend to get headaches. And all the things that tend to happen, like in your body when you get stressed, those are all the things that are showing up. So I had a client session yesterday with a client who has a family member who’s in a tricky political situation right now due to what’s going on. And I was like, okay, so a lot of times when we get together, we want to kind of get super worked up so that our heart rate is high and we’re lifting heavy weights. And today she’s like, I’m too stressed. I just need to do stretching. Right. And so she’s. She’s identifying in her body that she’s totally overstimulated. And so when people get overstimulated, they just kind of want to shut down a little bit. And, you know, everybody handles it differently. So some people want to shut down. Some people get, like, hyper mobilized. They just want to go fight. And even the people who want to go fight, if that doesn’t work out for them because they get in trouble, they end up shutting down. I don’t know if that makes sense, but there’s a lot of fear, not just around the people who are being targeted and getting. And getting picked up by ICE and taken to the detention center. There’s also a lot of fear that’s being purposefully put out there to anybody who’s standing up against what’s happening.

Joanna Sapir

I’m curious what you think our role as practitioners is in times like these. We can’t solve systemic issues. We can’t make, like, big systemic change as individual practitioners, but we sure can. I mean, I would say it’s why I’m having you on the show is you’re an example of somebody who is supporting individual clients through, you know, feeling more grounded and connected. What do you think our role or responsibility is in moments like this?

Darcy Adams

Yeah, that’s such a great question. Because, you know, one of the things that I have spent, I don’t know, probably the past eight years working on for myself is just like what you were saying is this. This nervous system that’s on overactive, high alert all the time for seemingly for no reason. Obviously there’s a reason, but it seems like that. And then like you said, here we are in a situation where we actually do need our nervous system to go into. To the states that it goes into when we are at risk or in danger. So when I work with my clients, I think that it’s important for us all to recognize that these. These times of activation and deactivation that happen in the nervous system happen in the system at all. That’s what’s supposed to happen, right? This is there for a Reason. So we’ve been kind of in this. Well, I have been on this journey of, uh, how can I calm my nervous system? How can I find more calm? How can I allow for more ease in my life? Which is very important, so that when I need my whole system to go into a state of like, okay, I’m ready to fight now, it can. And it has the resources and the resilience for that to happen in a healthy and functional way. And then when things are safe, to calm back down again. So this is something that I’ve been talking about with my clients. And actually, um, about a week and a half ago, I hosted a four hour local rest and resilience retreat. And this was for people who are living here now, experiencing what we’re experiencing now. Many of them are politically active, many of them are in various ways getting involved in what’s going on. And part of it is that in order for us to show up the way that we feel called to show up, either, you know, at a local school for the teachers who are trying to renew their contract, or the political situation, or protesting at, uh, the Broadview Detention center, or, you know, just feeding people through the soup kitchen, you know, whatever it is that you feel called to or like, these are all things that my clients do. Right. So we talk about whatever it is that you feel called to do. You want to be able to do that with all the resources possible. So if we are staying up late, scrolling all these horror stories on Facebook and, uh, glued to the news and not able to sleep because we’re so stressed out and not recharging our batteries, we’re not going to be able to show up in an effective way in the world to do the things that we think are important. So that is something that I’ve been repeating, uh, a lot with my clients, is like, how do we take care of ourselves so that we can show up and do the important work that we need to do. Yeah.

Joanna Sapir

And I’m glad you highlighted that sort of in person retreat you had. I just want to say to everybody listening, I think, you know, some people listening are online practitioners serving their people online. But for any of you listening that do work with your people in person, or even if you work online but have local clientele, I think now more than ever really is a time to bring people together in person for that community and that connection. Specifically in these times, of course, that’s always a wonderful thing. But I think it is really, really important right now. And from a, uh, business lens, since this is the Business revolution for practitioners from a, uh, business lens, I really suggest and advise and recommend creating in person community based experiences for your folks right now. So you know, regarding this like retreat you made, uh, I believe that you’re planning some more these like, opportunities for your people to come together. It was like this retreat was a four hour thing, right? I don’t know what the future ones are looking like, but it’s just, I know you’re having a book club that’s coming up soon. Really like wonderful forms of human connection and community. What do you think is the result of that? What’s the power of that? What do you hope that that’s helping people with? Uh, like I’m really hearing about the power of community and building resilience together. What is it to you when you’re bringing people together for those experiences? In this context that we’re talking about, it’s so powerful.

Darcy Adams

I think that there is something about the energy that we get from just being. My body is in the same room as your body. There’s an energy and a vibe that it just feels helpful for us to be together. And at, uh, the Rest and Resilience retreat that I hosted a week and a half ago, the general sentiment afterwards and I had feedback forms and everyone responded similarly was like, oh my gosh, it’s so nice that I’m given permission to allow myself to rest as part of my movement practice and my healing practice. So you know, a lot of times when people think about fitness or movement, they think about the active part of it. But if you want to build muscle, you have to rest your muscles. If you want to build stamina, you have to challenge yourself. But then you have to rest and recover. And so much of the time I think culturally we just push, push, push, push, push and don’t leave the space. We don’t value the recovery and the rest. And so being allowed to rest, being given permission, giving ourselves permission, and then recognizing like, I’m not alone. Actually all these other people signed up for this as well. We’re doing this together. We’re holding space for each other to do this. It’s really powerful in not just individually but as a group that we’re prioritizing this as a group. So I think that I got a lot of positive feedback. When I asked people, would you do this again? Every single person said yes. So I’m like, okay, this is definitely something that people need and want. And so I will. I already have my next one scheduled in January.

Joanna Sapir

Beautiful. And what are some of the things you did there. What are some of the activities that you really loved that you included?

Darcy Adams

Yeah, so, I mean, I took. I could talk about this for a very long time, but I won’t. The highlight reel. Yeah, the highlight reel. Um, I started out with talking about the cycles in nature and how important it is to recognize that everything in nature has an activation and a deactivation. And so as we identify with like right now I’m looking out my window at, uh, the trees with the yellow leaves that are falling on snow, that we’re going into this period of rest in the winter, that we allow our understanding of nature to give us permission to let that happen in our own bodies, that just because we have electricity, we don’t just keep pushing. And so then we went through cycles in the retreat, cycles of activation and movement, getting our heart rate up a little bit and the deactivation and rest. We did some guided meditation. And then at the end we had a sound bath and it was just a very like big warm hug. It was wonderful, beautiful.

Joanna Sapir

And what is it that you’re hoping to bring people in book club? Which, by the way, I mean, I’m bringing this up, but that’s an in person, right? You all are meeting on some regular basis. What is it that you’re hoping to provide? What are you hoping people walk away with? Like, what are your objectives there?

Darcy Adams

So we’re going to meet in my living room and I’m hoping to provide people with a different kind of a book club, which is a little bit more of a study. And the book that we’re going to read is called the Relaxed Woman by Nicola Jane Hobbs. And actually one of my clients told me about this book and I read it before the retreat that I held and it was so perfect. She did a really good job of defining some specific words that are kind of like buzzwords, like resilience. How do you define resilience? So I think that for my clients, for anyone who’s interested in wellness, movement, fitness, anything like that, we spend time on social media learning things from people and we take for granted these words that people are using without actually knowing what mean. And so to me, having a book club where we’re kind of studying something that someone has written specifically to define certain things just allows us to get way more clear on what our understanding of some of these really ambiguous topics that are just thrown around all the time. So, um, we’re going to meet, we’re going to divide the book into three different sections and go through it a little bit at A time so that it’s not like, what are your overall thoughts about what she said? No, we’re going to really dig into it. Um, I’m so excited. Everyone that came to the retreat was like, yes, I would love to do that. It’s interesting. Just this morning I was thinking about how sometimes crisis can bring clarity, that you can just kind of be going along with your life and then something happens and it makes you realize, oh, all these things that I’ve been spending my time on aren’t really serving my highest and best. And when that crisis happens, it’s like, okay, what can I get rid of that pulls me away from what’s really important. This book club to me is more of a. Of accomplishing a few things at one time. So one, we’re studying something that’s so important for all of us. So all humans need rest. But women specifically, over, you know, hundreds, maybe thousands of years, have done a whole lot of work that is invisible. And then they beat themselves up that they can’t do it as well as their mom did it, or their grandma did it, or, you know, the neighbor down the street who’s posting all these amazing things on social media that they do for their families. Uh, I want to create space for women to really study that, to understand the role that that plays in their life, but then also to be together and talk about it with each other so that we can see that we’re all sharing this experience, that it’s not just that we’re comparing ourselves to, you know, our neighbor who does such a good job of keeping their yard clean or something like. No, there we all are coming at this from a different perspective. And if we’re studying this together, if we’re really diving into these topics together, we can support each other in a more holistic and balanced way as we, as we face all these challenges of what I see as like, pressures that are pulling us in different directions. So I think that the togetherness of it kind of sitting around in the living room, having a conversation and studying something that’s so important are all like, really important aspects of it.

Joanna Sapir

Mhm. And anything specifically about, I mean, that was all stuff that is not particular to the current context in your area. Anything specific to that?

Darcy Adams

Yeah, I guess the concept of like, crisis bringing clarity that when you are faced with a crisis, like what’s going on right now is a crisis. I mean, we’re. This is new. I mean, six weeks, eight weeks new. This isn’t how it has been to live in this neighborhood for you know, for the past 20 years, this is new. And it provides us with this sharp contrast of, I can’t keep going on the way that I’ve gone on in the past. I have to make a change. And the change that I need to make is what’s important. How do I prioritize what’s important, and how do I have the capacity to continue to focus on what’s important? And that capacity, I believe, comes through providing space for yourself to rest.

Joanna Sapir

Awesome. So this episode is inspired by the Clarissa Pinkola Estes quote, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. If you could speak directly to other wellness practitioners, Darcy, who are feeling overwhelmed or heartbroken by what’s going on in their communities, what would you tell them about how we were made for these times?

Darcy Adams

I think that anyone who goes into wellness of any in any capacity is doing it because they want to help people, and they have probably experienced help. And like, I know in my. In my case, some of the most profound experiences of human connection I’ve had has been with people who have a particular perspective in. In a time in my life where I really am struggling and need that perspective. And I think that as we are all struggling together, you know where I am or where you know where you are, it might be a different set of challenges. Can we remember that these gifts that we’ve been given of receiving the help and healing that we’ve received and then passing that on to the people that we come in contact with is what this work is all about, right? Like, if. If it was wellness for wellness sake, kind of like, okay, then we’re all just kind of, like, happy and fine, but it’s not wellness for wellness sake, right? It’s wellness so that we can change the world in a positive way. And the way that I see it is I can change the world in the way that I’m uniquely qualified by helping my clients feel better in their bodies. And each one of my clients can go out and do the same in their life in whatever way they’re uniquely qualified. And so I really feel strongly that continuing to empower people to do what they’re uniquely qualified to do is what this work is all about. And so I’m going to keep doing that as well as I can.

Joanna Sapir

I really appreciate what Darcy said about how we don’t pursue wellness for the sake of wellness. It’s wellness so that we can change the world in a positive way. That’s what I hope you take from today’s episode. A reminder of the important and powerful role you play in the fabric of your community. If this conversation resonated with you, please let me know and consider sharing it with another practitioner who might benefit from it too. And please take care of your own body, your mind, your heart, and your own energy so that you can keep showing up for others in the way that only you can. Thanks for listening. 

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