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A weekend grief-tending residential, with Sophy Banks, Hannah Lewis and Alice McHugh.
At The Beeches, Bamford, Peak District
Friday 6th November, 3pm, to Sunday 8th November, 4pm
Cost on a sliding scale from £290-490
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A very warm welcome to you as you consider stepping in to join us for a kind and brave weekend of tending grief, in community, in the beautiful surroundings of the Peak District national park.
The intention of this weekend is to turn towards some of the pain and loss that we are each carrying, which may also create pathways to a sense of joy, grace, and gratitude.
We know it can be counter-cultural to choose to turn towards pain, particularly with a group of people who don’t know each other well. And, yet, doing so can offer new perspectives on old situations, and it can create pathways back to a sense of aliveness.
What will happen
There will be opportunities to connect in pairs, small groups and in the whole group, as well as time by yourself to write, draw or move. There’ll be shared silence and song.
During the facilitated sessions we’ll guide you through different processes, each gently building on the one before it, all with the aim of creating a container (within you, and withing the wider group) that allows the pain of grief to be felt, expressed, and witnessed. Whilst us three facilitators will be leading the group, the group itself will find it’s own unique ability to offer support the individuals in it, so by the end of the weekend it can become less about what the facilitators are offering, and more about the capacity of the group as a whole. And, at the same time, we encourage you to fully follow yourself and to stay with whatever is happening for you, including if that means not taking an active part in the life of the group at any moment.
We’ll be drawing on the tools and rituals that we’ve learnt during our practices in Grief Tending, psychotherapy, buddhism, Processwork, and movement therapy. We’re particularly drawing on Sophy’s work with Sobonfu Somé with the Dagara grief rituals, and the work of Francis Weller, who wrote the book The Wild Edge of Sorrow.
We hope you’ll feel able to be exactly as you are or need to be during the weekend – what we offer as prompts for reflection, connection or expression of grief are invitations, that you can engage with, or not, as you wish. You are welcome to join in or sit out for as much of it as feels right for you.
What kind of grief can I bring?
We’re using the word ‘grief’ in it’s broadest terms, to encompass any pain. You are welcome to bring any pain that you have felt about people in your life, including bereavement, ill health, ending of a relationship. You might bring in pain about your own losses – including about your own expectations from life that haven’t been met. We’re also welcoming in pain that has carried across the generations, or grief for ancestors. And, we’re welcoming in pain about the collective: about the shifting political atmosphere, about wars, genocide, climate change, and everything else.
What feelings are we talking about?
All of them. Grief doesn’t just look or feel in one way. It might look like sorrow, and it also might look like rage, or numbness, confusion, or fear. There might also be relief, and joy. It’s not a linear journey, and each person’s grief journey is unique to them.
