Tending:
Accompaniment at the Gates of Grief
A three month course to expand your understanding
and practice of grief work.
Grief is an ongoing journey integral to life itself.
It’s not something to be fixed or healed,
but something that needs and deserves tending.
If you have felt something missing
from your own experience or cultural context of grief, we see you. We are you. Grief winds itself through our lives, our relationships and our presence in our lives. It can be overwhelming alone.
Our society has not made space
for the true natures of grief. Grievers often feel their experience relegated to private spaces, though grief moves through everyone we know. There are so many paradoxes.
Grief is a solitary journey that we cannot do alone,
says Francis Weller the author of the Wild Edge of Sorrow. When grief is shared, when we have a deepened experience of entanglement with one another and the animate world, something wildly beautiful and necessary begins to alchemize.
Does This Sound Like You?
- You have a heart, mind and soul that are holding grief, sorrows and losses.
- You may be anticipating heavy-hearted times ahead.
- You seek something radically different than mainstream grief discourse.
- You wish to explore their coping in a strength focused and grief-informed way.
- You wish to engage in the alchemy of change that comes from making sorrow visible and held in community.
- You are a therapist and healthcare worker and have been witnessing and holding so much of our own loss during these times. (you do not have to be a therapist or healthcare worker to join this group!)
So many of us are holding space for other people’ sorrows, and need a soul-centered space to unfold into our own care. The sorrows of the world are not letting up anytime soon.
Have We Met?
This work is facilitated by Carmen Cool and Hilary Kinavey.
We have taught and written together for over a decade. We have accompanied each other through deep sorrows and loss with reverence, love, compassionate curiosity, and humor (ask us about our haikus). In this offering, we will be using the six gates of grief as our guide, as taught by Francis Weller. Both us have been trained by him as grief ritual facilitators.
Carmen Cool (she/her) is a queer, politicized and poeticized psychotherapist, psychedelic integration therapist, and certified mindfulness instructor. For over 20 years, I have been working at the intersection of eating disorders and weight stigma, activism in psychotherapy, and supporting youth leaders. Lately, my soul urgings have been taking me in the direction of earth-based practices, creative expression, and bringing love and magic back into the field of psychotherapy. I am constantly on the lookout for sensory joy. I love to cook, to read poetry, to sing under the bones, and I go out of my way to pet all the dogs.
Hilary Kinavey (she/her) is the co-founder of Center for Body Trust, where her work as a therapist, healthcare consultant, facilitator and writer, has been a study of what interrupts our sense of wholeness and how we can return to ourselves in a culture that profits from fragmentation. She is the co-author of the book Reclaiming Body Trust. She has worked as a therapist for over 25 years and works at the intersection of therapy and activism.
How will we work together?
We will meet over 7 two- hour sessions on Sunday mornings (pacific). One of these sessions will be a devoted grief vigil. Recordings of sessions with the exception of the vigil will be available in our class forum, where we can stay in touch between sessions. The dates of our meetings are:
October 20, 2024October 27November 3November 17December 8 (vigil)December 15TBDAll sessions, except for the vigil, will be recorded (so it is okay if you can't make it to all the sessions).We will be weaving teachings and perspectives on grief work, along with body-based practices, poetry, writing, and music to support our ongoing engagement with grief and sorrow.
You will be accompanied, supported, and offered buoyancy as we deepen into this part of what it means to be deeply alive.
This exploration will be personal, but will impact how you hold and respond to grief in all of your relationships and your work in the world.
Grief is inseparable from love.
Whether it is bereavement, nostalgia, regrets, anger, injustice, climate change, or missed moments – these sorrows accumulate and deserve to be felt, witnessed and expressed. The world needs our nuanced presence in the midst of so much darkness.
I bet you're wondering...
What is Included?
Two live zoom gatherings per month over three months
- Meetings will be held on Sunday mornings, 9-11 Pacific/12-2 Eastern
- All meetings will be recorded EXCEPT the grief vigil.
- The dates of our meetings are:
October 20, 2024October 27November 3November 17December 8 (vigil)December 15 TBD
A grief vigil to for our course community
- Our vigil will be held on December 8th, 9-11am Pacific
- The vigil will not be recorded, though all other course content will be.
- You will have access to course materials and the forum for 6 months.
Additional
resources
- Shared poetry and music
- Writing prompts
- Embodiment practices
- An online forum where you can connect with other course members.
We invite you into this soul work.
-Hilary & Carmen
What are participants saying?
"If you want to tend to your grief, on a journey facilitated by master teachers who are compassionate, open, caring and wise - you must sign up for TENDING with Hillary and Carmen. The community they cultivate facilitate your deep dive into the depths of your grief and allow you to emerge to a healing space where you feel less overwhelmed, less alone, and able to face the challenges that come up around anniversaries of loss of loved one or other type of loss. You will be giving the opportunity to experience embodied presence and body trust within the space cultivated for healing and growth. Highly Recommend."
Anonymous Participant
"Carmen and Hilary are more than just teachers; their vulnerability and raw honesty give you the sense that they are truly walking alongside you in this grief journey."-Anonymous Participant
Ready to join us?
Save your spot by registering below. We are offering a single payment or payment plan over three months.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will you offer this program again?
Will the sessions be recorded?
Who are the teachers you have learned from?
Do I have to be grieving the loss of someone to be in this course??
Do you have equity pricing?
"Everything is beautiful
and I am so sad.
This is how the heart makes a duet of wonder and grief."
~ Mark Nepo, Adrift
Stay in touch about this grief work including future offerings...
Add your name to our interest list. We will keep you up to date.
