RAW Grief – Collapse Care
A 6-week exploration for grievers & facilitators
Let’s get better at grieving TOGETHER.
Welcome grievers and tenders, mourners and space holders. In this small group gathering, we’ll be using the Radical Attunement Work (RAW) model to explore different aspects of grief from a soulful, collapse-aware perspective. This offering of RAW Grief has been tailored for people who are wanting to explore grief tending within a collapse-aware context. This group is for people who identify as both grievers and tenders; people who are community building, consulting people and groups, and/or caring for the human + more-than world. This includes people in helping professions and activist work, such as therapists, social workers, somatic practitioners, facilitators, and community organizers.
There will be six 2-hour sessions with educational topics, including outlining the gates of grief, grief sensitivity, ritual, and animism. There will also be time for exploration of the personal and collective grief each of us are holding. We’ll be using writing prompts, dyadic exercises, and group sharing. Questions we’ll explore are: How do we hold the immense grief of these times? How do we work with people as we descend further into The Long Dark? What are most promising collapse-aware grief practices?
General routine: We’ll open with a poem, check-ins and a somatic practice. Then Holly will do a piece of teaching around grief work with time for questions. There will be a short break and we’ll move into a small group grief practice such as a writing prompt or sharing & witnessing. Once we’re back in the big group we’re invited to share how the practice impacted us. Last, we’ll close with short check-outs and a poem.
Schedule
(changes may occur as called for in the group)
Week 1: INTRODUCTIONS — Introductions, Agreements & Ground
What is grief? What does it mean to be collapse aware?
– Lesson: RAW Model, Defining Collapse Awareness, Approaching Grief, informed by the work of Kai Cheng Thom, adrienne maree brown, and Craig Santos Perez
– Practice: Writing Shuttle and Altars
Week 2: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT — Types of Grief
How do we name grief and begin to touch it?
– Lesson: Gates of Grief by Francis Weller
– Practice: Dyadic Questioning and/or Writing Shuttle
Week 2: AWARENESS — Going Deeper
How does grief express itself? Who and what are we grieving?
– Lesson: Expressions of Grief, Polyvagal Theory, ATTEND Model
– Practice: Somatic Tracking, informed by the lineage of Generative Somatics
Week 3: ACTIVATION — Supporting Grievers, Creating Ritual
What can we do to integrate our grief more deeply?
– Lesson: Grief Rituals & Ceremonies + Supportive Practices
– Practice: Ritual (Part 1), informed by the work of Malidoma Somé
Week 4: ASCENSION / CONNECTION — Ancestors & More-Than Grief Support
Who are our grief allies and competent protectors? What worlds can we imagine beyond collapse?
– Lesson: Working with the More-Than-Human World, including plant & animal kin; Visionary Fiction
– Practice: Ancestor & More-Than-Human Connection, informed by the work of Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Week 6: CLOSING — Questions & Goodbyes
What have we learned? What are we committed to in our grief work?
– Lesson: Questions & Commitments
– Practice: Closing Ritual (Part 2) & Goodbyes, informed by the work of Joy Harjo
PRACTICAL DETAILS
What: Small group, 6-12 participants. You will need a stable internet connection and relatively quiet space where you can connect with yourself and others with your camera on during check-ins and breakouts.
When: The next cohort of this program will likely be starting in spring 2023, exact day/time TBA; 6 sessions, 2 hours each with a short break.
Where: We’ll be gathering on Zoom. We’ll also be connecting on the haven Mighty Network in between sessions.
Cost: Sliding scale $400 – $600. Lower equity rates available for those with significantly oppressed identities.
Application: https://forms.gle/ywfWvB94V7gQjd9n7; please email me at HollyTruhlar@gmail.com to confirm your application submission.
NOTE: This group is likely not appropriate for people who are very recently bereaved. If you’re acutely grieving and would like to be a part of a processing group please email me.
Facilitator: Holly Truhlar, JD, MA, is a two-time sibling loss survivor (Ivy & Brett) and has a Masters in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology. She’s most known for her work in collapse psychology and politicized grief tending. She’s apprenticed in The Sacred Work of Grief ritual training and one-on-one mentorship with Francis Weller, Comprehensive Bereavement Skills Training with the Center for Loss and Life Transition, and The Art of Traumatic Grief Counseling with the MISS Foundation & Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Family Trust. She works as a grief therapist and group facilitator, having co-facilitated many community grief rituals. Her style is soulful, community oriented, and anti-oppression informed.