Originally, Amadeo facilitated a community care workshop for Columbia Riverkeeper’s staff. This workshop brought all the staff together to learn about Healing Justice and community care to explore how to create a culture of care at Riverkeeper. Amadeo is an amazingly gifted facilitator who takes an incredible approach to creating a space of safety and inclusivity for everyone involved in the facilitation even in an online session. In addition, Amadeo’s detailed follow up provided ideas for how Riverkeeper could build off of the workshop and what we learned. I was so deeply impressed by Amadeo (as was the rest of our staff) that Riverkeeper hired Amadeo to facilitate the drafting of the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) section of Columbia Riverkeeper’s three-year strategic plan. This facilitation consisted of one full staff workshop to begin to develop Riverkeeper values and a second follow up facilitation with the members of the JEDI team. Again, Amadeo’s style, preparation, trust building, and follow up allowed Riverkeeper to make tremendous steps forward and create next steps that we are still building off of. Without the planning and brainstorming that Amadeo led us through, Riverkeeper would not be as far along in creating both our organization’s shared values and our strategic plan. Amadeo’s unparalleled skills have continued to inspire our work long after the facilitation. If this is the safe, collective, community space Amadeo is capable of creating online, I cannot imagine what they can do in-person.

— Simone Anter, Staff Attorney, Columbia Riverkeeper.

Amadeo facilitated a day-long retreat for our development and communications team at Social Justice Fund, the first time we had all met in person for over a year. We all agreed it was a powerful and fruitful retreat and that we couldn't have accomplished what we did without Amadeo's support and guidance. They built the agenda, including a number of effective grounding exercises; led us through some difficult reflections and evaluations; and helped shape our work planning and prioritization for the coming year. Finally, they took detailed notes and put together a plan for next steps and a follow-up meeting. Ultimately, Amadeo's reflective, deliberate, and centered approach was exactly what we needed to reconnect in a personal space, and build for the work ahead.

-Burke Stansbury, Development Director, Social Justice Fund NW

“Amadeo and Christa together brought strong facilitation to our coalition at a time when we were defining a new leadership paradigm. More specifically as we welcome new leaders while supporting and honoring our long-established leaders to develop a strong multi-generational coalition. Helping a diverse group like this can be challenging but they were able to skillfully and thoughtfully take us through a process. I also appreciated how they honored and brought forth our cultures, values, and how we view our intersectionality when they created the space and activities for us to move our coalition to the next level. As a final point, I appreciated the timeliness of follow-up, productive planning meetings, and the debrief/post notes (which were superbly thoroughly and insightful). It's clear that they take a lot of care, heart and thought when they work with a group. The coalition would definitely like to work with them again in the near future.”

— Michael Byun, Executive Director, Asian Counseling and Referral Services; Asian Pacific Islander Coalition of WA

Amadeo created and facilitated a healing session during our last board and staff retreat, which for the first time ever was held virtually over Zoom. During an incredibly challenging year and after having not been in shared space together in over a year, Amadeo was able to bridge the distance and create a space where we could reflect, connect, and build with one another in a way that is unlike anything I’ve seen be able to be accomplished virtually. The way she created and held the virtual space for us was incredible, and months later, our team is still talking about how impactful their experience was and requesting more time together with Amadeo to continue building.

— Katie Carter, CEO, Pride Foundation

I invited Amadeo to create and facilitate a day-long self-care retreat for fellows in my program, and they loved it. They repeatedly told me, during and after the retreat, how helpful they found the content and Amadeo's skillful and sensitive shepherding of the process. Amadeo introduced a variety of self-care techniques to meet the diverse needs of our fellows, and I, in particular, appreciated how Amadeo used art as a way to help participants articulate difficult topics or emotional responses.”

— Alexander Lee, Project Director, Grantmakers United for Trans Communities at Funders for LGBTQ Issues

Amadeo is an extraordinary individual, bringing not only beautiful intuition and deep compassion to their sessions but also provide an authentic presence and joyful warmth to the healing process. Amadeo is able to hold space of such unconditional acceptance and intrinsic wholeness to the work and wisdom for all people. I am grateful to know that our communities, including myself, have learned simple tools and pathways to heal and take care of ourselves and our communities, especially during a global pandemic when we need it the most.

— -Juliet Le, Program Officer, Satterberg Foundation

“We worked with Amadeo to put together a customized two-part healing justice series, which was incredible. Amadeo was thoughtful and creative in creating a series for our Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy community, beginning with tools and ideas for practicing self-care, and then moving into how healing justice shows up in philanthropy and applying that to community care. I benefitted personally and professionally, and know I will return to my notes and the shared resources again and again. We weren’t sure how these conversations would work in a virtual cohort, but Amadeo immediately created an engaging and safe space for learning and personal exploration. I highly recommend Amadeo for just about everything!”

— Aviva Stampfer, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy Seattle; Washington Women’s Foundation

“Amadeo has been a supportive facilitator for both our Social Justice Fund Staff and Board. Considering the complexities that come with navigating a retreat in a pandemic and hosting it in a hybrid setting can be stressful. Yet for both our staff and board retreats, Amadeo was diligent in the planning processes and the commitment that they centered to ensure that participants would be cared for and that there would be room for us to process our respective journeys, complexities, dreams and hopes for the future. It made such a difference. Amadeo has a wonderful gift, and I look forward to working with them again."

—Valeriana Chikoti Bandua Estes, Executive Director, Social Justice Fund NW

“I was introduced to Amadeo at a time when I was doing a lot of self- reflection, and looking to improve my well-being and outlook overall. They provided me with so much insight and direction into many of the questions I already had, and suggested both broad and specific changes to implement to support my mental, physical, spiritual, and relational growth. Amadeo has an amazing gift in their ability to quickly establish a safe and supportive environment that allowed me to face some vulnerable and challenging aspects of my life. I left our visit with a sense of clarity, empowerment, and peace; as well as knowledge to improve my well-being for the present and future. Thank you Amadeo for sharing your knowledge with me.”

— Mike Clark

“Amadeo has helped our organization through a challenging time of transition. They bring warmth and compassion for different perspectives and navigate through discussions and situations involving race, identity, values, and culture. Amadeo approaches their work with a whole heart and has worked to make it comfortable for our staff to come to work as their whole selves. Amadeo never turns away from a tough conversation and encourages you to turn into it and face it head on. I recommend Amadeo for any situation that involves transition, conflict, feedback, or if you simply need a helping hand to guide you along your path.”

— Jaclyn Gault, Operations Manager, Transportation Choices Coalition

“Amadeo facilitated the most enlightening self-care retreat I've ever attended. Being a trans woman of color, I rarely feel like spaces are competent to my specific needs. Amadeo provided a safe space where I felt comfortable just to be myself. My colleagues and I were in desperate need to connect not only in our work but on a human to human level. We left that space connected like never before after we attend the self-care retreat. We participated fully (Amadeo made it fun) and felt more grounded after creating our self-care plans. I'm looking excited to attend Amadeo's next workshop!!”

— Ebony Harper, Director of California TRANScend