Hi, I’m Caitlin Marquis (she/they)

About Me

I am a straight-presenting-queer, white, genderfluid woman of European descent from an upper class background, currently living an upper class life on lands forcibly stolen from the Pocumtuc and Nipmuc tribes (present-day Leverett, Massachusetts). I am a commitment to connecting through our shared longings. I am passionate about radical white antiracism, fat liberation, pleasure activism, radical systems change, and centered accountability, and I long to support clients on journeys that align with my passions. My core values are liberation, aliveness, effectiveness, and connection. I am deeply skilled in facilitation, program planning, equitable governance methods, writing, and community organizing.

For the Sake of What

I started Taproot Embodied Practice after over a decade of working as a community organizer because I wanted to help other community organizers work from a healed, grounded, and centered place. The mission of Taproot Embodied Practice is to help people and organizations build their capacity to advance collective liberation through community organizing. Though Taproot, I provide coaching and consulting that connects people and organizations to their personal stakes in getting free so that they can free others.

Why Taproot?

Taproots inspire me because they are so dang resilient. You know what I mean if you’ve ever tried to harvest carrots or pull a dandelion root out of the ground. Not only do taproots center and support the growth of plants, but they are also fabulously nourishing to the soil, bringing much-needed resources to their environments more deeply and effectively than other roots do. Our struggles for collective liberation need us to be like taproots: strong, centered, deeply resourced, and nourishing to our environments.

What is Embodied Practice?

The dominant forces in U.S. society (white culture, patriarchy, ableism, diet culture, and many others) have taught us to prioritize intellectual reasoning over the innate knowing in our bodies. When we try to make decisions from an exclusively intellectual place, our bodies will eventually revolt in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. The connection between mind and body is a continuous feedback loop--our bodies tell us what they want us to practice, and by heeding those calls, we can find new, more aligned ways of inhabiting our bodies.

Everything we do is a practice, and everything we practice tests a hypothesis: “If I brush my teeth every day, they won’t all fall out of my head,” or “If I communicate the same thing in a different way, maybe it will be heard this time.” I love to think of life in terms of practice and experimentation because it removes attachment to outcomes and makes room for more play. How will you know when what you practice brings you into deeper alignment? Your body will give you the data. And how will you know when your practice becomes embodied? It will become so automatic that you barely have to think about it (for many, like brushing your teeth every day).

My Professional Lineage

Bachelors and Masters degrees in Sociology, specializing in Women’s Studies and Rural Sociology

15 years of organizing to improve community food systems and reduce health inequities

Winner of WalkBoston’s Golden Shoe Award and Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture’s Local Hero Award

Member of the Western MA Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Core

Completed trainings in:

  • Supervisory Skills with the Human Service Forum

  • Transforming White Privilege with Racial Equity Tools

  • Foundations in Somatic Abolitionism with Education for Racial Justice

  • Liberation at the Level of the Tissues with Ream Somatics

  • Unmasking Whiteness with AWARE-LA

  • Wayfinder Life Coach Training with Martha Beck Inc.

  • Fundamentals Part 1 with Coaching Constellations Ltd.

Some of my Teachers

  • adrienne maree brown

  • Resmaa Menakem

  • Martha Beck

  • Audre Lorde

  • Brene Brown

  • Robin Wall Kimmerer

  • Aubrey Gordon

  • Prentis Hemphill

  • bell hooks

  • Richard Schwartz

  • Marshall Ganz

  • Mariame Kaba

  • Jane McAlevey

  • Staci Haines