RENÉ BENAVIDES
Image description: A photo of René smiling at the beach during sunset. They are wearing earrings and a white Mexican shirt with blue embroidery.
CALIFORNIA | online
COACH | Facilitator | designer
René Benavides (they/them/elle) is a somatic coach, bodyworker, movement facilitator and designer. René supports those whose purpose is to create change in the world. They work as a consultant at the intersection of design, embodiment, and social change; supporting individuals and groups from vision to action.
René was born and raised in Ventura County California surrounded by strawberry fields and citrus orchards. Shaped by the land of the Chumash; they grew up nourished by the Santa Clara River and coastal breeze between the Topatopa Mountains and Pacific Ocean. René was raised by working class Chicanx loved ones from los campos de Ventura and Oxnard by way of Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Monterrey Mexico.
René currently lives part of the year in the Bay Area, CA where they are raising their three beautiful children in loving community. René hosts in person space with clients in Oakland and San Leandro, CA. For portions of the year, René spends extended time doing healing and disability justice work in Borinkén (Puerto Rico) and Mexico.
René holds a Masters in Social Work, a Pupil Personnel Services Credential, and is an International Coaching Federation (ICF) and Strozzi Institute for Somatics certified somatic coach and bodyworker. They are a former school leader in the areas of Special Education and integrated mental health within Oakland public schools. René is currently the CEO of Vision to Action (VTA) an organization leveraging design to build leadership and power towards disability justice.
personal transformation
As a coach and bodyworker René does the work of accompaniment. Supporting individuals in their self-determined journey of personal transformation. Specializing in complex trauma healing, René emphasizes working with 2SQTGNC BIPOC and those navigating life with disability. Their practice is largely shaped by their lived experience as a reconnecting and remembering Chicanx, queer, and disabled person. To that end, René works to create a container that honors the legacy, ritual and ceremony of hands on and body up healing.
Image description: A photo of René offering bodywork to a client. René is standing over a person laying on a massage table. They are applying pressure to the client’s upper chest.
collective transformation
As a facilitator and designer, René weaves multiple design thinking approaches to lead groups and organizations to co-design solutions that promote equity, justice, and liberation. They invite participants into radical collaboration through a process that re-awakens their inner innovators to disrupt habits and power to create big change for communities.
Image description: A photo of René facilitating a workshop in Puerto Rico with a group of participants sitting in a circle.
vision to action (VTA)
René is the catalyst and lead designer at Vision to Action (VTA). VTA is an organization that leverages design to build leadership and power towards disability justice.