Restoring Human Solidarity Through the integration of Social and spiritual consciousness
The Soul Focused Group, LLC is a Social Change and Leadership Development consulting company. We are Human Performance Specialists who believe in people. We know that when people are in their power, they will achieve greatness.
We teach you how to integrate your social/political consciousness with your spiritual consciousness. When the integration occurs, your well-mind power is activated and the needle starts to move.
Our specialists bring over twenty-five years of experience in helping people unlock the power of their Natural Expression through Integrated Consciousness and Ego Reduction®.
With our formula we awaken the power, creativity, and innovation fermenting in our natural expression.
Our services
At the Soul Focused Group our mission is to provide individuals, organizations and businesses with highly effective, unforgettable, learning experiences that truly move the needle.
We bridge the social and spiritual consciousness gap, cognitively reconnecting participants to the full power of their Natural Expression.
Our mind is only well when we learn how to embrace our Natural Expression.
CEO, Berwick Mahdi Davenport presenting The Gatekeepers Academy workshop
Meet The Team
Berwick Mahdi Davenport, AKA “M” is a social justice, anti-racist facilitator with more than thirty years of experience. Mahdi is a pioneer in the field of Life Coaching. He is a coach who coaches coaches, facilitating and mentoring thousands of leaders from all over the globe.
M is the prodigy behind the Ego Reduction Formula, which makes possible the integration of social & political consciousness with spiritual consciousness. M is a celebrated author and loving father of three very beautiful daughters.
Dustin Washington is a Senior Consultant of The Soul Focused Group. Dustin has 25 years of experience and wisdom working as an Anti-Racist Educator and Organizer. Dustin grounds his work through the integration of social justice consciousness with spiritual consciousness. He knows that through the reduction of our Ego and the full embrace of our Beautiful thinking mind, we can solve every problem our world is facing. He is a martial artist, writer, poet and basketball coach. Dustin is the incredibly proud and loving father of Calin, Dominick and Elijah.
Dr. Jupiter is the founder of the Science of Life (SOL) University where the curriculum is centered around purpose discovery, self cooperation, self unification and “heal-thy self.” Dr. Jupiter applies her purpose (SOL University) to every aspect her life, including working as a podiatrist, where she is very intentional about bridging the gap between spirituality and medicine. Also Dr. Jupiter is the executive director of the Building Relationship Power Institute which has a mission of developing a healthy relationship system through-out the world by disseminating formal relationship educational courses to all citizens. She truly knows that a better world starts with better relationships.
Stephanie resides in Houston, Texas and is a native of New Orleans, La. The one thing that puts the biggest smile on Dr. Jupiter’s face is spending quality time with her two daughters.
Martina Tam is a resident in family medicine at Kaiser Permanente of Washington in Seattle, WA. In her work as a physician, she focuses on self-empowerment and increasing self-awareness of our body and mind to improve our health. She is especially interested in addressing the role of systemic racism in healthcare and raising providers' self-awareness of our biases and how this affects the care we provide.
At Kaiser Permanente of Washington she has helped initiate and lead anti-racism work in the residency. She brings a health perspective to her trainings, but is also able to relate more broadly about making systemic change in a large corporation from her experiences at Kaiser Permanente.
For the past 25 years, Martin has told the story of systemic, institutional, and structural racism with multiple antiracist training organizations. He’s previously served as the director of a race and social justice program, as well as the director of a nationally recognized transitional housing facility that focuses on the reentry and child reunification for formerly incarcerated individuals. Martin has co-founded several antiracist organizations in Seattle, WA, including the Coalition of Antiracist Whites (CARW) and Seattle European Dissent.
Martin is deeply committed to assisting people in their journey toward ego reduction and discovering their full power. He is dedicated to healing from the damaging effects of whiteness, as well as being connected to white supremacy, both personally and collectively. Martin organizes with antiracist, white Jewish people to further understand the relationship between Jewishness and whiteness in America. He is a martial artist, filmmaker, writer, performer, and Yogi in training. Proudly from Cleveland OH, he is newly married and currently resides in Pittsburgh, PA. He has three beloved grandsons from a previous relationship.
Jill L. English is a native of Indianapolis and a graduate of DePauw University, where she was the founding president of the institution’s first chartered historically black Greek organization. She began working with abused and neglected children in the 1990s and served in various roles, advocating for the needs of children and families, training foster parents, and addressing the needs of traumatized youth, with a focus on understanding diversity and the impact of trauma. Jill trained court appointed special advocates on cultural sensitivity and served as a guardian ad litem for Marion county youth for several years before transitioning to her role as the Director of the Interrupting Racism for Children at Child Advocates.
Jill is a facilitator for Spirit and Place’s Powerful Conversations on Race and for Interrupting Racism for Children at Child Advocates. She has been a guest speaker on the impact of racism on our children and community for several organizations, including the Indiana national state CASA conference, the Marion County Health Equity Summit, The Indiana Juvenile Judicial State conference, and the national College Mentors conference. Jill is the co-chair of the Equity, Inclusion, and Cultural Competence Committee of the Children’s Commission for the state of Indiana and trains individuals on facilitating difficult conversations.
Bonnie is a licensed clinical social worker, antiracist organizer and educator, and a Lifecycle Celebrant. She has worked 30 years as a family-systems therapist and group facilitator. She has devoted 20 years to the movement for racial and social justice. She received her Master’s in Social Work (MSW) from Adelphi University; her training as a family therapist from the Multicultural Family Institute of New Jersey; her antiracist training from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond; and her training as a Cleric Without Borders from the Celebrant Foundation and Institute of North America.
Ms. Cushing brings her combined curiosity and experience as a therapist, trainer, and organizer to the Soul Focused Group with a deep appreciation for freeing ourselves from the bondage of our egos and socialization in order to grow into the truth of our Divinity.
Albert Gay, M.S. has worked with young people of color for more than 20 years. Albert found his calling as a youth pastor at a local church in Gary, Indiana. He has continued to work with youth groups through his roles in the Urban Scouting program, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana, and urban coalitions for the prevention of substance use and violence.
Albert has held training positions as a master trainer and consultant at both state and national levels. Albert currently serves as the Education and Training Specialist and Research Associate within Indiana University’s School of Public Health. His areas of training, research, and development are mainly concentrated in violence and substance use prevention, strategic planning, coalition and organizational development, societal and health equity, social justice, cultural humility, historical trauma, and faith-based initiatives. He recently joined the Interrupting Racism for Children workshop as a trainer.
Annie has worked on social justice issues for more than a decade, moving from post-Katrina New Orleans, the mountains of North Carolina, Tanzania, and Vermont before returning to her native Indianapolis. She is currently an Interrupting Racism for Our Children project coordinator at Child Advocates. In her spare time, Annie wrangles two beautiful children and continues to organize with Showing Up for Racial Justice Indy (SURJ) and other local organizations.
Nicole Auffant is doctoral candidate in Urban Systems at Rutgers University. Her research is guided by social justice and anti-racist practices. Nicole began her Soul Focused journey in Summer 2018, after realizing that she was blocking her own growth. After training with the Soul Focused Group, she wanted to share these practices with others. She is dedicated to projecting the voices of youth and women of color, and helping people feel comfortable in their own bodies.
Dr. Arlene Coleman serves as an Interrupting Racism For Children Project Coordinator for Child Advocates. Her career in education spans four decades as a classroom teacher, administrator, and associate professor. She has dedicated her life to advocating for social and racial justice. Arlene is the proud mother of two daughters and three granddaughters. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, listening to music, and traveling.
Kelly Edwards is the founder and CEO of Local HOOPS Training Academy, the largest basketball academy in Washington State. Kelly started Local HOOPS in 2012 with the vision of developing and training young athletes to become future leaders of our society. Kelly holds a BA in Psychology from Lewis & Clark College. He is a practitioner of Soul Focused Psychology and believes Ego reduction work allows each of us to fully embrace our power and live as our highest selves. Kelly is committed to the belief that “Success is a Habit”. Kelly is a wise leader, charismatic public speaker and visionary thinker. He is the proud father of three and a devoted husband.
Ruth Purcell-Jones is a retired attorney who serves as a developer of organizations, teams, boards, and people. She has worked as a consultant, coach, connector, and facilitator for more than 25 years. Her clients appreciate her experience in leadership, personal and program development, community-building, and governance. She is a facilitator in training for Child Advocates’ Interrupting Racism workshops and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Arthur Dean Foundation.
Maya Savage is a natural educator who is deeply committed to helping humanity reach the next level. For more than 5 years, Maya has worked with students and school leadership to end systemic oppression in the education system. She has served as a classroom educator, dean, Youth Undoing Institutionalized Racism facilitator, and instructor.
She currently serves as the Director of Programming at YogaRoots on Location, where she has established new partnerships with organizations that want youth and staff to learn the 8 Limbed Path of Raja Yoga with an anti-racist framework. She also mentors and trains new yoga teachers to work with incarcerated youth in the juvenile justice system. She is a truth-teller and seeker.
Felicia Savage Friedman, M. Ed, 500 hr. E-RYT, is the Founder and Owner of YogaRoots On Location, LLC an AntiRacist Raja Yoga Teacher and Trainer who curates vulnerable spaces for organizations, community members and yoga practitioners to practice unlearning racist, sexist and capitalistic ways of being while honoring an integrative Raja yoga practice: body, mind and spirit, all in an effort for us to reclaim our humanity.
Our Story
After over a quarter of a century of being fully engaged in the social justice movement; marching, protesting, fighting the systems and often each other for the cause, we found ourselves defeated and having not produced any meaningful or measurable social change.
The sad reality was that no group was more out of their power, than we were.
Not so secretly, we were dysfunctional, unhappy, and resentful. We were just beginning to realize that something had to change. We were suffering from depression, poor health, going broke, addictions and toxic relationships with ourselves and others.
In fact, it was the sober realization of the state of our lives and work that brought us to our first awakening:
Our lives weren't working for us.
No matter how many anti-racism workshops we facilitated, how many radio or television shows we were invited to speak on, how many awards we received, secretly, our lives were a mess. We’re not ashamed to open up to you about this.
It’s time for someone be honest. We want it to be us.
On some level we believed our lives should have been working well, because we were doing exactly what we had been taught to do. We were leaving our families, traveling the country and exposing injustice. We came to find that this path was both delusional and an illusion.
Through our delusional thinking, it became apparent to us that fighting against something, no matter how noble, was not creating the lives we wanted for ourselves. Fighting against something never creates anything to take the place of what we’re fighting against.
It only works to perpetuate and sustain the status quo. A status quo of inner and external oppression.
Thus, in the midst of all our activism and protesting, we found that our lives actually worked better for others than it did for us. Other people were getting much more out of us than we were getting out of ourselves.
We decided to change all of that. This, we identified as “The Problem”. Our lives weren’t working for us. We weren’t being, doing, and having what we desired most for ourselves... and we wanted to.
Before, we hadn't even realized our lives were supposed to be working for us. We thought that being of service meant sacrificing our personal goals, dreams, and desires. In a way, we secretly expected to be unhappy.
We thought this was the price for the struggle.
Then we realized something.
We realized our life belonged to us and therefore, should work for us! The quest to uncover why our life wasn’t working for us, led us to our second awakening.
We realized that when your life doesn’t work for you, it’s because your mind isn’t working for you.
We weren’t operating inside the Power of Eunoia.
Power of Eunoia
Eunoia is a Greek word. It means, a well-mind; a beautiful thinking mind. It’s also a medical term with an opposite counterpart, called Paranoia, the opposite of a well-mind. Paranoia is a suspicious mind.
Eunoia is a mind in agreement with the natural expression emanating from Soul. Paranoia is a mind in conflict with it. Think of your mind, as if it were an engine and your natural expression, as the horsepower driving the engine.
As long as we’re altering, holding back, or suppressing our natural expression, there is conflict inside our mind. This confusion reduces the power of the engine. It weakens the power of our mind.
For years, we rigorously searched out the cause. We found there to be a cognitive split in our consciousness... a self-paranoia or suspicion.
Psychologists refer to this split as cognitive dissonance. In other words, our spiritual consciousness was not merging with our social consciousness. We weren’t making the connection.
Spiritual consciousness doesn’t mean religiosity. It’s referring to the state of our invisible internal relationship with ourselves. In other words, what we say to ourselves, about ourselves, inside ourselves. This is spiritual consciousness.
Social consciousness is the state of our visible, external relationship with others.
When both are integrated into one consciousness, we are unstoppable.
We found our path of least resistance. Knowing this, we explored what was causing us to operate out of a Paranoid mind.
This brought us to our third awakening.
The answer is Ego
Ego, as defined by famous psychologist Carl Jung, helped to sharpen our understanding of the role Ego plays in keeping our consciousness split.
Carl Jung explains the Ego like this. He says:
“The world will ask you who you are. If you say you don’t know, the world will tell you who you are. Who the world tells you that you are becomes your Ego.”
When translated this means Ego is who, or what, we’re attempting to be for other people. As we investigated Ego more thoroughly, we found five primary habits that constantly influence our choices and decisions. Those five habits are:
- 1The urge to Compare ourselves to others
- 2The need to Please or satisfy others
- 3The drive to Impress others
- 4The compulsion to Prove yourself to others
- 5The hunger to Compete with others
These habits make up what we refer to as the Ego-stream. An unconscious, reactionary flow in society.
This flow creates the default life circumstances of everyone that gets caught up in it. Default, in this case, means out of reaction to other people’s choices. In other words, we make decisions and choices out of reaction to other peoples choices and decisions without us even realizing that we are doing so.
In a manner of speaking, we’re reacting to a reaction to someone else’s reaction to a reaction.
Sounds crazy doesn’t it, yet it’s true.
Someone else’s choices were setting the agenda for our lives.
As we continued to study Ego, we found that the average person was unable to distinguish their Ego from their authentic self. Their Ego footprint was far too large.
This brought us to our fourth realization. We needed to create something to help people reduce the size of their Ego footprint.
Ego Reduction Formula
The process we developed became known as the Ego Reduction Formula… the solution to the problem. Our life wasn’t working for us, because it was working off our Ego.
It was then, we experienced our fifth realization. The world is running on Ego-Focused Technology… artificial intelligence. We knew then we needed to either create or uncover a way to reduce the size of our Ego Footprint.
We uncovered this technology in Soul. Think of Soul as the unique, one-of-a-kind, tailor made blueprint for our lives. Soul Technology was what we realized we needed to focus on to reduce the size of our Ego.
We decided to call it, Soul Focused Technology. By focusing on our own blueprint, we would develop the discipline to sustain and support our well-mind. Not too long after, we found the Ego Reduction Formula inside of Soul. The formula is simple: 3+5+1= ER.
3 + 5 + 1 = ER
Three new rules to live by + five new goals to aspire to + one solid practice to support us fulfilling our new goals = Ego Reduction.
By embracing Soul Focused Technology in every area of our lives, we began to grow and experience a new and abundant state of happiness, purpose and creativity. We became physically healthier, began healing relationships with ourselves and others, found new love, out-grew addictions and became better and more present parents to our children.
In essence, we began to live fully in our power.
This immeasurable joy to live led us to create the Soul Focused Group with the vision of bringing the light of Soul Focused Technology to the world. It is our sincere belief that Soul Focused Technology can support YOU in growing into your most powerful self.