Grief Medicine: Tending the Broken Heart in Community

1 Buchanan Street,Albany CA 94706

18 December, 2022

Description

Come join us as we ritualize our grief in a circle of compassion to acknowledge, listen to, and tend to the broken heart. Grief and its accompanying emotions like anger, frustration, loneliness, and confusion can be overwhelming to process alone. Whether your grief is from surviving the loss of a loved one, a breakup, a life transition, or bearing witness to the calamities of our planet including climate grief and the multiple pandemics from police violence to COVID-19, this gathering is for you. Whatever leads your heart to a place of being broken is enough. Some of the oldest artifacts known to humankind are from grief rituals, yet in modern times this sacred and necessary space is hard to come by due to our collective discomfort around loss. During our time together you will be guided through movement, meditation, creative practices, sound healing therapies, and group sharing. Inn our ritual space we will have the opportunity to metabolize our losses and transmute them into a gift for our own hearts and the heart of the collective. To bring: Please bring a lawnchair, beach towel ,blanket, or yoga mat, journal, any art supplies, and an object of significance that represents the grief you are holding (if possible). A note on fee: If the supported rate tickets are sold out and/or you are in need of a reduced fee, please reach out with a sentence or two about why you are seeking a partial scholarship at this time. We have a couple of spots available for this with preference given to BIPPOC, trans/nonbiniary folks, and those with disabilities. Is this gathering a good fit for me? Here some things to consider before joining: 1. This would be a good fit if your grief is not overwhelming (i.e. you can still be present in daily life and have some capacity to talk about your grief even if it's just a sentence or two). 2. This would be a good fit if you already have some support and help in your life - relationships and self-care practices - and this offering is a supplement to those. 3. This would be a good fit if you are open to sharing your grief in a welcoming and confidential space, and feel it would be supportive to your experience, and you are open to witnessing and being present with others as they share their grief, even if it's a different kind of grief than yours. COVID-19 protocol: If you are experiencing a high temperature or any symptoms that may indicate signs of Covid, please do not attend this event. The entire event will be outdoors and masks are optional. If you want to bring any snack item to share, please consider individually wrapped items. About the Facilitators Amy Hyun Swart (she/her) is a yoga and meditation teacher, visual artist, and somatic and expressive arts-based psychotherapist specializing in grief and trauma. She has had the pleasure of leading grief gatherings since 2015 and is under the apprenticeship of Francis Weller, author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow. As a mixed race second-generation Korean American coming from a blended family, she honors the unique impact that these identities have upon one’s life story. It is her intention to provide a welcoming space for those of all intersectionality of identities to feel seen and accepted. To learn more please visit griefmedicine.love Phoenix Song (they/them): I believe that everyone can sing. When you free your voice, you free your life! Sing your story & transform your life narrative. Let's play together in rhythm and harmony! I am a queer, non-binary Korean American adoptee performer, teacher and healer featured in SF Magazine's Best of the Bay for yoga music. I also am a Tamalpa Associate Teacher of Expressive Arts and completed level 3 of Somatic Voicework, the Lovetri Method. I love to help people become more embodied and transform through creative expression. I specialize in helping free people's voices and rhythm. I am a world fusion musician and play percussion (djembe, Arabic tambourine, cajon), didgeridoo, esraj, Native flute, harmonium, and sing like an angel. I work with both private and group clients to facilitate somatic and expressive arts workshops to help people explore grief and ancestral healing and offer sound healing. To learn more please visit https://phoenixsongmusic.com Testimonials from past participants: "It was my first time participating in a Grief Ceremony and I'm so grateful to have experienced it with Amy and Phoenix. I appreciate the beautiful sacred and safe container that was created to grieve and celebrate together in community. Amy and Phoenix are skillful facilitators and wonderfully wove together poetry, music, and movement into a deep and heartfelt ceremony." "I appreciated the guidance provided during that time as well with the visualizations. Spending a lot of time in the head space around grief, it really helped me to connect somatically." "I'd recommend this group. There is a lot packed in a short time. Definitely worthwhile" "Grief Gathering with Amy and Phoenix is a wonderful invitation to deeply acquaint with whatever grief is present. The care and intention they both offer creates a safe, healing space to hold everything that comes up. The practices they facilitate lend to an embodied grief experience contributing to healing, deeply honoring the capacity of the heart." "This was so needed. It gave me space to release more grief from a familial loss I was dealing with before COVID-19. Then allowed space for releasing even more specific to COVID dynamics and anti-Blackness/violence in a way that felt contained and supportive. Thanks for this space!" “I loved the diversity of people and experiences.” “This experience was different in a good way. I’m so used to expressing myself through words so it was interesting using sound, movement, and art.” "I really liked the EMDR work. This was surprising to me -- I appreciated the guidance provided during that time as well with the visualizations. Spending a lot of time in the head space around grief, it really helped me to connect somatically." "I really enjoyed all of it and am thankful that I was able to start my week building in capacity. I liked the free writing, drawing and just being present with myself."