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Community Grief Ritual

Saturday November 15th, 3:00 - 4:30 pm Eastern

Grief is natural, normal, and universal. When we feel it, release it, and transform it, we make space for new energy and new life. In contemporary life, grief, death, and loss are often taboo topics; they are not to be discussed or expressed. If they are acknowledged at all, they are often considered private, to be experienced alone.But when we don’t grieve, we live numbed-out, half-lived versions of our lives. And when we grieve only alone, we miss out on the support, connection and healing available to us in community.This grief ritual is for you if you would like to work with and through sorrow, anger, fear, numbness... if you are drawn to embodied/somatic healing work... if you can access and express emotion when you’re in a supportive community... if you desire more lightness, freedom, creative energy, and a greater sense of possibility.

You can find registration information here.

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Grief is natural, normal, and universal. Everyone grieves. We grieve for people we’ve lost, life changes, and ecological crises. We grieve for old traumas, ancestral suffering, and community challenges. We grieve experiences of rupture, disappointment, and existential concerns. We may have grief for illness or injury, for disconnection or estrangement, for political upheaval or personal loss. We may experience grief at beginnings or at endings.

There is an infinite list of causes for grief, and for how it might show up. Our emotional expression of grief can take the form of tears, shaking, vocalization, movement, silence, numbness, rage, despair. However it is expressed, grief must be experienced, released and transformed to make space for new energy, new life.

Why set aside time for grief?

Grief goes under-expressed in much of North America. There are often cultural expectations—limitations—about what we ought to grieve, how that grief ought to be expressed, how long the grieving ought to last. But grief is not rational, circumscribed, or simple. If our grief remains unexpressed or unreleased, parts of us remain frozen. We stagnate.

Making time to encounter and express grief allows us to get clear on what might be confusing, and find movement where we might be stuck. By making time to grieve, we acknowledge the depths of feeling that are part of human life. We accept ourselves and one another more fully. And yes, we heal.

Moving through grief may help us reawaken creativity, renew parts of our lives that have gone dormant, grow in self-love and compassion for others, and deepen intimacy in myriad relationships. We may find that we can experience life more fully, that we are more dynamically responsive in the here and now.

Grieving together

We come together to express, embody and release our grief. We come together to hold space for one another in care and community, whatever we may be grieving. Together, we create a safe container for emotion to move through us as individuals and as a group. Grieving together may help us to recognize and reckon with previously unknown aspects of our grief.

Bearing witness to the grief of others helps us to find more compassion for ourselves and for people around us. It helps us soften, to understand that we are not alone, and to release any shame we might be carrying about our feelings. Supporting and being supported by people who are also expressing their grief, we find deeper connection and healing, individually and collectively.

“We often say in my tradition that you’re either doing a ritual, thinking about getting into one, are in the middle of one, or just finished one. The purpose of ritual is to connect us to our own essence, to help us tune into the collective spirit, or to mend whatever is broken, whatever wires have been pulled out of one’s life, so we can start anew. Ritual is to the soul what food is to the physical body.”

- Sobonfu Somé via Cultural Survival

Who is this for?

We extend a deep welcome to people of all races, gender expressions, income levels, nationalities, sexual orientations, communities, physical ability, and faith traditions.

Whether your grief is fresh or decades old, interpersonal or existential, ecological or ancestral, you are welcome to bring it into the ritual space for expression and release.

This ritual is for you if you have noticed feelings of grief, anger, sorrow or numbness that need to be accessed and transformed.

It is for people who want to embody and express their emotions.

It is for people who want to be part of a safe and compassionate community space, in which they can be seen and witness others.

Your Facilitators

Sara Nics

Sara Nics is a story maker, a dancer of waves, a wanderer in the woods, a minder of the moon, and a ritualist. Her primary spiritual community is 5Rhythms (a community dance meditation developed by Gabrielle Roth) in NYC. She and Bernadette created this online grief ritual practice. In the fall of 2025 she is also co-facilitating a transitions lab for people going through major life shifts. In 2026 she'll study to become a 5Rhythms teacher. You can follow her via social media.

Bernadette Pleasant

Spirited and energetic, Bernadette Pleasant is a fiery and sensual speaker, somatic healer, Founder of The Emotional Institute and Creator of Femme!, a mind-body wellness program, and 400 Years, a somatic-based anti-racism program. She is known for channeling her personal journeys and radical empathy into transformative, immersive experiences that support and celebrate people of all genders, colors, ages and sizes. You can learn more about her at The Emotional Institute.

Ben Brown

Ben Brown is a massage therapist, sound practioner, and visual artist. He seeks the intersection of mediums that provide a haven from social-emotional isolation, and that support our adaptive capabilities to self-soothe and heal. Much of his work comes from the impulse to create more space in the nervous system and body through vibrational frequencies that connect us to our ancestral wisdom and being. You can learn more about his work at HND + TMPL.