It is clear that grief is an everyday part of life. Grief comes from both tangible and intangible losses. These losses mark an ending and a new beginning. The objective of this service is to co-create a ritual or ceremonial space to provide closure for a loss in the client’s life.
 

Grieving is challenging. Throughout this time of destruction, war, and violence, we find ourselves not adequately prepared to hold this great amount of loss alone. We don’t have to grieve alone; I provide an intentional space to grieve and create deep meaning within loss. Grief takes us to the edges of who we believe we are and challenges us to find growth to live with our grief. When we have lost a loved one, for example, that relationship doesn't end with their death, but rather it transforms. It is human nature to use song, fire, incense, togetherness, symbolism, story, to help move the heart through grief. 

The ceremony can include a collection of items that signify the loss; it can involve friends, family, and community. Music, poetry, artwork, silence, and spoken word/storytelling are all practices that open the atmosphere of the ceremony. We will work through the symbols, practices, and meaning-making you would like to coordinate. It will be designed to facilitate a release and letting go while also welcoming what is waiting to begin.

 

For those who have not had the communal support or not aligned with funeral practices, I invite you to consider this service as an alternative way to get the support you need during a time of grief. 

 

Outline 

A Grief Ceremony is a personalized experience that provides you, your family, or your friends the creative power to make a ceremony that best suits your own relationship to death or other losses you have experienced. 

 

First, there are four one-to-one meetings where we will work through various dynamics of the grief. If more than four is needed, that can be arranged

The first session involves storytelling. What is the story of the loss? What has been your story of grief surrounding that loss? This will also include a complicated grief assessment, imaginal revisiting, tracking anniversaries of losses, and coping with situational revisiting.

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The second session helps give an illustration of what you are needing currently that can make up our intentions for the grief ceremony. Based on the discussion with the first session, I will inquire about what needs balancing.  

 

In the third session we will collect items and discuss the symbolism of each item. Collecting mementos can help give presence to the loss and bring us closer to what your grief work is needing.

 

The fourth session provides time to put the ceremony all together and establish a ceremonial arch. I will facilitate the conversation and provide options but it is your connection to the loss that will drive the process. 

 

The Ceremony session we will have ceremony and bring to life all that was discussed.

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The Integration session asks how the ceremony's impact can be integrated into your relationship with the loss and how might everyday life look a little different.

 

The whole process is a minimum of 6 sessions.

 

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As the heart breaks, there is an opportunity for opening. If you are seeking greater capacity to hold the story of your grief, please consider the grief ceremony to help move the heart closer toward resolution.