Ancestral Roots
Welcome to our workshops that explore our relationships to our ancestral roots. This is a creative process will visit our connection to ancestral themes while integrating breathwork, writing, art, & creativity. This virtual process will be a creative group experience exploring ancestral themes while integrating breathwork, writing, art & creativity. It is led by Krista Augius and Lilita Matison.
We started this course from a mutual interest of personal growth from our awareness of our shared baltic ancestry and its similar effects on our generation in terms of values, honoring nature, mysticism, topics of war and freedom and tribal culture and how it has shaped us and our communities. The powerful work of family constellations that Lilita Matison leads along with the artistic elements Krista Augius instills forms a creative transformational process with an opportunity to archetype and create lasting personal symbolism for discovered revelations.
We wanted to give a creative opportunity to explore what feelings, memories, images and even sounds arose to the surface when led into guided ancestral themes. Our ancestors have influenced us consciously and unconsciously. Their personal stories, life experiences and beliefs have influenced us in direct and indirect ways. How can we explore what lies beneath the surface of these connections? Do we see links of how they affect us as well as our families and communities? What are the elements of your foundation given by your ancestors?
It can be empowering to feel the effects on your life from your ancestors and to feel the history of a cultivation of values over time that have been preserved inside of you. This can elicit feelings of joy, pride, anger, relief and become moments of celebration, rebirth or greater understanding. It can be a relief to understand why you feel a certain way in life in relation to your ancestors that present in unconscious or conscious behavior. When we give ourselves the opportunity to explore that, we have the potential to consciously recognize something that we can honor, release or explore further. Lilita’s work with family constellations is a testimony to the powerful and transformative property of this type of exploration.
The creative process in this journey allows us to open and express ourselves freely. The artistic path gives us an opportunity to alchemize or transform a feeling, idea, memory or inspiration into reality. It is a mystical process that we are happy to share and hold space with you.
Join us for this online group journey and bring your curiosity for the exploration of the roots of your being in a creative and sacred space!
Lilita Matison, LCSW
Lilita Matison, LCSW is an integrative social worker. For the past 20 years, she has served as a teacher, clinician, and program manager in various university and educational settings.
Lilita is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Social Work. After receiving her MSW, she served as the Administrator of the University of Michigan Complementary and Alternative Research Center. Her work focused on developing clinical & educational programming within the Integrative Medicine program. As the Co-Director of University of Michigan Stress Management Services, Lilita counseled individuals, facilitated mind-body skills groups and trained graduate students in stress management and self-care skills.
For the past decade, Lilita has created, implemented and directed Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs in K-12 schools. She continues to supervise educators, school counselors, school social workers, and leaders in education in bringing mindfulness practices into the classroom.
Lilita is a Fulbright scholar and leads professional training workshops in mind-body therapies for social workers, counselors, psychotherapists, and teachers from around the globe. She is a first generation Latvian-American and is deeply connected to her heritage. Lilita has offered integrative healing workshops and courses at the University of Latvia in Riga. She is interested in trans-generational trauma and the impacts of war and resettlement on family systems.
Lilita is the author of “Bye-Bye Butterflies: Seven Ways To Breathe Out Worry”, a children’s book that was published in English, French, Spanish, and Latvian. In the Spring 2020, a video version of the book was created with the intention of offering mind-body tools to children worldwide.
Lilita has been a faculty member at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine since 2006 and holds social work licensure in Michigan.
Krista Augius, artist, DPT, KYT
Krista Augius is a Los Angeles based multimedia artist. Raised in Chicago as a Lithuanian American, she grew up around her grandparents who were artists. An artist from an early age with a vigor for the imaginative and wonder in life, Augius explored painting, writing, photography, film, singing and songwriting throughout her life. Studying science, her appreciation of life and form grew with a developing analytical eye and led her to be a doctor of physiotherapy and kundalini yoga and meditation teacher. Evolving her style of expression came alongside exploring all that life offered her from world travel to over 35 countries with feasts to the senses of immense beauty, culture, and experiences. Her personal life challenges of experiencing murder, sexual assault, betrayal and surviving illness shaped the depth and fortitude of her character and the depth of her art and her expression. Her work as a healer and a meditation teacher has offered insight and inspiration with deep connection to humanity and all that it offers and all that there is to explore...
Augius has shown her art in international exhibitions such as Art Market, the LA Art Show and museums such as MAACA in Italy. Her artwork has also appeared in movies such as Iron Man III and Fast and Furious 7.