Grief Retreat near Olympia, WA

** This retreat is currently FULL. If you would like to be notified should a spot become available, please sign up on our Waitlist Form

Description:

Join us for an opportunity to gather and support each other in community to release grief, feel support and connection, and heal our tender hearts. The retreat includes talking circles, singing, poetry, movement, practice in sacred listening, witnessing and being witnessed, ceremony, sharing food and quiet time in nature. 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 
  • Intergenerational or ancestral grief

We invite you to ‘lean in’ with us 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 interconnection with all our relations, and the importance of working with the unseen realms, including our ancestors.

Description:

Join us for an opportunity to gather and support each other in community to release grief, feel support and connection, and heal our tender hearts. The retreat includes talking circles, singing, poetry, movement, practice in sacred listening, witnessing and being witnessed, ceremony, sharing food and quiet time in nature. 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 
  • Intergenerational or ancestral grief

We invite you to ‘lean in’ with us 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 interconnection with all our relations, and the importance of working with the unseen realms, including our ancestors.

Exchange:  Early bird registration is $550 USD by 10/28, $600 thereafter. Meals and lodging included. 

While our scholarship spots have filled, please reach out if you’d like to be put on a waitlist should a scholarship spot become available or to learn more about payment plan options: Mary at pacifichealingcircles@gmail.com.

Adults 18 and older. Limited to 30 participants.

Additional details:

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 can offer a 50% refund.

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. If you would like to be notified should a spot become available, please sign up on our Waitlist Form

Questions? pacifichealingcircles@gmail.com

Facilitators:

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 stands on the shoulders of many great teachers, including Sobonfu Some, Joanna Macy, Francis Weller, and many others.

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.

Thérèse Charvet is the founder of Sacred Groves and has lived on this land since 1977. She began leading grief rituals in 2002 after attending several grief rituals with her mentor Sobonfu Some.