Offerings

somatic grief for QT/BIPOC

Loss is one of the most complex and unpredictable of human experience.  The impact of loss is often what we call grief.  Grief can be “simple,” but more often, it is complicated, unresolved, and ambiguous.  Complicated because we experience loss after loss with little time to process it.  Unresolved in that we may not get the opportunity to heal relationship wounds before one leaves this Earth. And ambiguous because the circumstances of loss is layered– like losing someone many times due to Alzheimer’s disease. Not only can it be complicated to experience, but it can be complicated to name, feel, and express.  

There is no one “socially acceptable” way to express grief.  For QT/BIPOC this may be additionally layered because of the ways society has policed and confined our bodies – worldwide.  It is of utmost importance for us not only to reclaim the power of our bodies but also the ways our body needs to move, or not move, in grief.  Unexpressed grief can get stuck, creating more toxicity in one's own body, impacting how one moves in the world.  The inability to move freely has been amplified in these pandemic times and we can see worldwide how it is breeding illness in every facet of society from the land to the digital world.  

How to grieve is a practice in every culture has and done in community.  Community has become an evolved word which now encompasses not only those physically around us, but may extend virtually.  We are now in a space to reconnect to culture loss and also create one that fits for the intersectional now.  This is our space as QT/BIPOC to grieve together. This is our space to honor the intersections of our cultures and our stories. This is community care.

In this space we will learn different expressions of grief, speak to our own intersections, practices, and learn skills to help hold community.

Confluence: Community for Black Mental Health

Here we are at another moment of reckoning.  It is clear the ability to create lasting change does not happen in mind alone.  It is also clear the opportunity to (re)member supports the interruption of repeating harms and dis-ease of the not so distant present-past.

i have often been asked how i do my work and often it is hard to explain to people that what i do is a practice. In an age that presses mastery, i understand this healing practice as inseparable from a spiritual path – one of helping others realize the illusions about the essence of who they are and live their lives from a space of clarity. It is a walk alongside another to engage with the unknown. 

We don’t speak to spirituality enough; for me it is the bridge between art and science, both of which inform my work (and my obsessions hehe).  i am not a traditional scholarly type (tho i geek out on things) so i feel people learn best by observing, having discussions, and walking the path with me.  So let’s practice together! 

During our 60 minute gatherings, we will 

• engage in discussion & embodied practice around our own development as a Black practitioner

• contemplate the issues facing participants accessing care  

• share the stories of our personal & collective practice

• explore ways to widen the knowledge sharing with community

Most importantly, it is my hope this will be a refuge where you can be held as you arrive at a way that feels most aligned to you.

While this space centers Black practitioners in mental health at any point of their journey, i also welcome any Black healing practitioner. There are so many divisions in how we regard health and these power dynamics and capitalist-bound divisions continue to truncate the overall health of the people we serve.