Two Day Community Grief Retreat - Spokane, WA
- October 7-8, 2023
- Saturday at 10 am - 9 pm PT & Sunday at 10 am - 5 pm PT
- Location: Harmony Woods Retreat Center, Spokane, WA
- Total cost: Early bird rate is $250 before Sept 10th. $300 rate after Sept 11th.
- Facilitators: Laurence Cole, Mary Hart, and Siena Tenisci
What to Expect:
We are offering a two day grief ritual in Spokane, WA. This is an opportunity to gather and support each other in community to release grief, feel support and connection and heal our tender hearts. There are so few places in this culture where we can bring our strong emotions. Many of us yearn to unburden ourselves with others, but find ourselves alone with our grief all too often. This is a place where your tears and heart-ache are welcome. The retreat includes talking circles, singing, poetry, movement, practice in sacred listening, witnessing and being witnessed, ceremony, sharing food and quiet time in the woods. The heart of the retreat is a ceremony inspired by Sobonfu Some.
Our work is also inspired by the Five Gates of Grief from Francis Weller:
- Everything we love we will lose,
- the places that have not known love,
- the sorrows of the world,
- the things we cannot even name that we ache for, and
- intergenerational or ancestral grief.
We will lean in together and trust, surrender and open to vulnerability as we remember how to grieve in community.
Spiritual Framework
The spiritual framework for this ritual includes time-honored and earth based modalities, utilizing the power of drumming and chanting, the belief that the natural world is a rich place of inter-connection with “all our relations,” and the importance of working with the unseen realms, including our ancestors.
EXCHANGE: Early bird rate of $250 before Sept. 6 and $300 after Sept. 7. Payment plans and limited partial scholarships and work trades are available upon request: pacifichealingcircles@gmail.com.
Refund Policy:
- If you cancel anytime before 2 weeks prior to the retreat for other reasons, we retain a $100 handling fee.
- If you cancel less than 2 weeks prior to the retreat, we cannot guarantee a refund due to the low likelihood of someone from the waitlist being able to fill your spot. If we are able to fill your spot, we will offer a 50% refund minus a $100 handling fee.
COVID Protocol: We will adhere to state and local guidelines for COVID safety protocol. Knowing that these guidelines will likely shift over the coming months, we will be in touch with retreat participants at least one month ahead of time about our requirements. Please note that testing may be required.
To Register: This retreat is currently full. Often spots do open up with last minute cancellations. If you’d like to join our waitlist, please sign up here.
Questions? Please email Mary (pacifichealingcircles@gmail.com).
Facilitators:
Laurence Cole is a well-known song leader and respected elder with long involvement in grief work, men’s work, and many other aspects of healing and enlivening the human spirit. He has been co-facilitating Grief Retreats since 2009 and was blessed to have experienced this ritual with Sobonfu Some. In addition, he has been offering a ritual called “Grief Song,” at singing events for the past 5 years.
Mary Hart brings her commitment to authenticity, vulnerability and transformation to the team. She is trained in Internal Family Systems therapy, Hakomi therapy, workshop facilitation, The Wheel of Consent and is a personal coach. She has participated in many healing rituals over the years. In 2014, she was introduced to Grief Ritual and began mentoring with Therese Chavret, Tere Carraza and Laurence Cole. Since then, she has helped to create and facilitate many healing rituals. She has sought and studied with many great teachers and has been inspired by the work of Sobonfu Some, Richard Schwartz, Krishna Das, Stephen Levine, Jon Kabbat Zin, Francis Weller, and many others.
Siena Tenisci brings her background in body-based somatic healing practices, group therapy, and ceremonial work to circles. She is committed to a lifelong practice of cultural sensitivity and to dismantling systemic and internalized oppression. She completed her Masters in Counseling at Antioch University in Seattle and thanks her many teachers, including Sobonfu & Malidoma Some, Francis Weller, Sharon Blackie, and many others.