A nonprofit in formation
Arc Continuum Consulting presents
Community healing. Somatic practice. Restorative justice. The pause, the insight, and the forward motion — aligned with radical healing in care of self, family, community, and planet.
Our Mission
"The pause, the insight, and the forward motion aligned with radical healing in care of self, family, community, planet."
What We Are
Catalysis is a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation in formation — the community healing counterpart to Arc Continuum Consulting. Where Arc Continuum serves organizations, Catalysis serves people. Where Arc Continuum consults, Catalysis convenes. The two entities share a founder, a framework, and a mission — and maintain separate governance, finances, and operations.
The name Catalysis is deliberate. A catalyst enables a reaction without being consumed by it. We are not here to save anyone. We are here to create the conditions under which people can save themselves — and each other.
For communities
C&A — Contemplation & Action
An 8-session BIPOC healing workshop in continuous facilitation since 2022. Community members are invited to examine the interior landscape of their own trauma history and build the capacity for deliberate, chosen action.
For practitioners
Decolonize: A Strategy, A Practice
A 3-week community series on decolonizing the self, the family, and the systems we inhabit. Not abstract theory — somatic practice, honest inquiry, and collective witness.
For specific populations
Somatic Healing Cohorts
Targeted cohorts for domestic violence survivors, substance abuse recovery communities, women exiting the prison industrial complex, and refugee communities — meeting people where they are.
For scholars
The Dark Matter Institute
Research, credentialing, university internships, and the Trauma Science publication. Building the scholarly infrastructure for a field that doesn't yet have one.
Programs
Every Catalysis program is rooted in the same framework: the pause before the reaction, the insight that changes the trajectory, the forward motion that is chosen rather than conditioned.
01 — Community
Contemplation & Action (C&A)
8-session BIPOC healing workshop. Interior examination, somatic practice, collective witness. In continuous facilitation since 2022. Peer-supported, trauma-informed, community-accountable.
In operation since 202202 — Curriculum
Decolonize: A Strategy, A Practice
3-week series on decolonizing the self and family. Developed 2025. Sessions address the Five Prison Constructs and the Behavioral Transmutation Framework through somatic and relational practice.
Curriculum complete 202503 — Targeted
Somatic Healing Cohorts
Population-specific cohorts: domestic violence survivors, substance abuse recovery, women exiting incarceration, refugee communities. VIMBASI-informed somatic methodology.
In development04 — Scholarly
The Dark Matter Institute
Research division: trauma science publication, somatic practitioner credentialing pipeline, paid university internships and fellowships. Building the academy the field deserves.
In formation05 — International
Global Partnerships
Active partnership development in Ghana and Belize. Connective tissue between all the ways that communities arrive at the moment of awareness and launch their healing — across borders.
Partnerships in development06 — Publication
Dark Matter — The Manuscript
The book that names the framework, traces its origins, and maps the pathway forward. 8 chapters, 44 citations, Preface through Conclusion. Pre-publication 2026. Presented through Arc Continuum.
Pre-publication 2026Somatic Framework
After Resmaa Menakem. VIMBASI names the seven intelligence domains of the body — the nervous system's innate world wide web, with data incoming all the time. Every Catalysis somatic program is grounded in VIMBASI awareness: the understanding that healing is not primarily cognitive. It is felt, sensed, imagined, and moved through the body before it is understood by the mind.
VIMBASI framework: Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother's Hands (2017) · Application in Catalysis programming: Paula Celeste Neeley, MA
The Catalysis Mission — 20 words
"The pause, the insight, and the forward motion aligned with radical healing in care of self, family, community, planet."
— Paula Celeste Neeley, MA · Founder, Catalysis: The Dark Matter Collective
Global Reach
Catalysis is building connective tissue between healing movements in Philadelphia, across the United States, and into the Global South. Not importing Western frameworks — building mutual exchange.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — Home Base
C&A workshops, Decolonize series, somatic cohorts, and the Dark Matter Institute. The city where the framework was built.
Ghana — Partnership in Development
Community-based partnership exploring somatic healing and restorative practice rooted in West African relational traditions. Mutual aid, not extraction.
Belize — Partnership in Development
Cultural exchange programming with Indigenous and Afro-Belizean community organizations. Healing justice grounded in local epistemology.
Theory of Change
The Warming Light Model
Catalysis operates from the conviction that healing is not linear, not individual, and not primarily cognitive. Our theory of change holds that when the conditions of safety, belonging, somatic awareness, and collective witness are present together — healing becomes possible not as an outcome to be achieved but as a process to be sustained.
The Dark Matter Institute
The Dark Matter Institute is Catalysis's research and credentialing division. It exists to do what the academy has not yet done: build rigorous scholarly infrastructure for the field of somatic and community-based trauma healing.
Coming 2026–2027
University Partnership Internship Program
Paid internship and fellowship placements for graduate students in social work, public health, psychology, and ethnic studies — earning academic credit while doing real community healing work.
Express Interest →Trauma Science Publication
Original peer-accessible research in trauma science, somatic psychology, and restorative justice — written for practitioners and communities, not only academics.
Practitioner Credentialing
A credentialing pipeline for somatic healing practitioners trained in the VIMBASI framework, ANCHOR methodology, and Catalysis community healing protocols.
University Internship Placements
Paid placements for graduate students from accredited programs. Building the next generation of trauma-informed community healers through supervised field experience.
Dark Matter — The Book
The manuscript that names the framework and traces its origins. Pre-publication 2026. Available through Arc Continuum Consulting.
Get Involved
01 — Donate
Support the Work
Catalysis is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in formation. Contributions are being accepted through our fiscal sponsor while we await IRS determination. Every dollar funds direct community healing programming.
Inquire About Giving →02 — Volunteer
Bring Your Gifts
We need: somatic practitioners, restorative justice facilitators, graphic designers, grant writers, social media support, community connectors, translators, and people who show up.
Join the Collective →03 — Partner
Organizational Partnership
Universities, hospitals, community organizations, and foundations: we are building. If your mission intersects with ours, we want to talk about what we can build together.
Start a Conversation →