Welcome to Liberating Grief
Finding Freedom through Sorrow & Soul
About Liberating Grief
Finding Freedom through Sorrow & Soul
“To be loving is to be open to grief, to be touched by sorrow, even sorrow that is unending. The way we grieve is informed by whether we know love”.
—bell hooks
This is an invitation for anyone grieving, for those who have been touched by loss, by systems of domination and oppression, and for people who hold the vision that bearing witness to grief in community is essential to our individual and collective healing.
Join us beginning in March for a three-month, two Sundays per month offering facilitated by Desiree Adaway and Holly Truhlar in which we'll explore four Gates of Grief together, with a systemic analysis, a grief practice, and a liberation practice offered for each session.
While centering belonging and compassion, this offering directly applies an anti-oppression and liberation lens to grief work, understanding that people rarely heal in isolation. We gather to learn and honor the myriad ways grief can initiate us into a deeper relationship with joy, freedom, and with each other.
To join us click one of the links below:
Full Payment Link: One-time Payment of $575 USD OR
Payment Plan Link: 3-Monthly Payments of $195 USD
“My love to my pod in all directions. The smooth and the not quite so smooth. Those of you showing your back and those showing your belly. Those of you breaking through the surface and those staying in the deep. It's an honor to be in the midst of you. Look around, listen out. Here we are.”
― Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals
Sessions Include
An overview of four Gates of Grief (h/t Francis Weller & Rachael Rice) with a systemic analysis of each gate
An accompanying grief practice & liberation practice in each session
Prompts, poetry, discussion, movement, and small group work
The kind of togetherness that moves us toward holding grief not just as a personal problem but as a collective cry
Learning that supports a more vibrant, shared future where our healing is a mutually shared response-ability
A private, interactive online community network
Snacks (the kind that feeds your soul)
Who This is For
Grievers and people going through bereavement or loss
Caregivers, activists, death-workers, people with chronic pain or illness, survivors, neurospicy humans, community organizers, non-binary + gender non-conforming humans, people with marginalized identities including those without economic privilege, and anyone in the struggle against systems of oppression
People who have done harm and wish to repair it
People sensitive to the amount of suffering in the world as a result of colonization, capitalism, and exploitation of the natural world
People grieving cultural erasure and loss of ancestral life-ways
Anyone interested in imagining a world with less suffering and then putting those visions into practice
Overview of Dates & Topics
Two Sundays a month in March, April and May we'll have 2-hour sessions that include a grief teaching and prompt, a systems teaching and prompt, and a liberation practice. These will be co-faciliated by Desiree Adaway and Holly Truhlar. Recording links will be posted with closed captions and an unedited transcript within 48 hours. Below is an overview of our sessions, content may change according to group needs.
Session 1: Sunday, March 10th, 12-2pm PDT / 3-5pm EDT
- Introductions & Agreements, Ethos of this Offering
- Overviews of Gates of Grief & Systems Analysis
Session 2: Sunday, March 17th, 12-2pm PDT / 3-5pm EDT
- Gate 3: The Sorrows of the World
- Colonization & Empire
Session 3: Sunday, April 7th, 12-2pm PDT / 3-5pm EDT
- Gate 4: What We Expected and Did Not Receive
- Community & Care, The Price of Whiteness
Session 4: Sunday, April 14th, 12-2pm PDT / 3-5pm EDT
- Gate 5: Ancestral Grief
- Epigenetic, Historical Trauma and Grief
Session 5: Sunday, May 5th, 12-2pm PDT / 3-5pm EDT
- Gate 6: The Harms We've Caused
- Characteristics of white Supremacy, Abolitionism
Session 6: Sunday, May 19th, 12-2pm PDT / 3-5pm EDT
- Imagination & Abolition
- Integration & Closing Commitments
Programming & Pricing
When you join Liberating Grief, you’ll get access to:
- Six 2-hour live session with recordings, available for 3-months after the training.
- The Liberating Grief Mighty Network with session resources and writing prompts.
- A "Connections" group for finding like-hearted folks to ponder and practice with.
Cost of the program:
*Note: Once you're registered we do not offer refunds. If you choose a payment plan, you're obligated to make all three payments regardless of your level of participation. Please email us with any questions at [email protected].
About the Facilitators
Desiree Adaway (she/her)
Desiree is founder and principal of the Adaway Group, is one of the nation’s preeminent DEI consultant-facilitators with over 25 years of experience creating, leading, and managing international multicultural teams in 40 countries through major organizational change. Known as an open facilitator, Desiree educates with straightforward, thought-provoking content that allows participants to confront their own biases and seek new paths forward.
Holly Truhlar (she/they)
Holly is most known for her work in collapse psychology and politicized grief tending. She has a Masters in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology and Doctorate in Law. Over the last decade, she’s facilitated small and large groups (700+) using ritual, storytelling, creative processes, and Deep Democracy work. She’s deeply passionate about collective liberation, community building, interspecies connection, and donkeys.
Interested in joining us?
Thank you for your interest in Liberating Grief. We're looking forward to finding freedom through sorrow and soul, together. We welcome anyone wanting to go deeper in undoing internal and external systems of supremacy. Deep gratitude to those who join us in this liberatory work.
To join us click one of the links below:
Full Payment Link: One-time Payment of $575 USD OR
Payment Plan Link: 3-Monthly Payments of $195 USD
Questions about this offering?
Please email us with any inquiries at [email protected].
“May you study the pink of yourself. Know yourself riverine and coast. May you taste the fresh and the saltwater of yourself and know what only you can know. May you live in the mouth of the river, meeting place of the tides, may all blessings flow through you.”
― Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals
