Who makes a good Movement Chaplain?

You do not need to be clergy or a trained healing practitioner. Movement chaplains are people who can stay grounded in high-intensity moments, practice consent, listen without fixing, hold confidentiality and safety culture, respect access as a right, and follow the leadership of those most impacted, including being accountable for naming and disrupting white supremacy.

Movement chaplains are not there to lead chants, direct strategy, or take on organizing roles in the moment. Our role is care, not control. We offer steady presence, de-escalation support when appropriate, and emotional and spiritual accompaniment by invitation, so the people doing direct action and organizing can stay resourced, connected, and safer. We stay in relationship with the group’s agreements and leadership, and we prioritize harm reduction, consent, and aftercare over urgency culture or escalation.

You do not need to be a licensed therapist or a clergy person to serve as a movement chaplain. You do need to be grounded, trustworthy, and willing to learn how movement spaces function.

If you are clergy, your seminary or theological training may have formed your capacity for prayer, presence, grief care, and pastoral listening. We also name clearly that movement chaplaincy requires additional skills that many faith leaders have not been taught, especially around consent, confidentiality, disability access, de-escalation, and navigating spaces shaped by surveillance and criminalization.

If you are a therapist, bodyworker, or healer, your clinical or healing training can be a gift. Movement spaces also have their own culture, risks, and history. Organizers may be cautious of unfamiliar helpers, especially in moments of crisis, because movements have been infiltrated, policed, extracted from, and harmed by people who did not understand the work or who centered their own role.

Because of that, relationship and trust come first. We move at the speed of trust. We follow community organizer leadership. We practice consent-based care, confidentiality, and non-extractive presence. We do not treat movement spaces as a place to observe, assess, or gather stories. We show up to offer care that supports people’s dignity and safety, and we commit to ongoing training so that our care strengthens, rather than disrupts, what communities are building.

All 805 Movement Chaplains complete our 2-hour movement chaplain training (offers will be online and in person as available), whether you are clergy, a longtime organizer, a therapist, or someone new to chaplaincy. Movement spaces carry real risk, grief, and surveillance, and good intentions are not enough. Our training builds shared practices for consent, confidentiality, disability access, de-escalation, and anti-racist accountability, including naming and disrupting white supremacy, as well as spiritually grounded care that does not control or coerce. 

We also encourage participants to attend trainings with 805UnDocufund and VCDefensa.

There will be other opportunities for continued trainings around de-escalation, trauma response and healing, non violent action and more.