February - May 2025
Tending to Grief & Facing the World with Soul
The Grief and Soul theme opened with two lectures by Francis Weller, which are available to download below.
This was followed by a 3 month grief ritual facilitation training that nearly 300 people attended.
We continue to weave this thread into our core work by offering an ongoing monthly opportunity for you to tend to your grief for the world and living in a time of loss.
You can book your place in the link below.
Tending our Grief for the World
(Ongoing Monthly Practice)
“Tending Our Grief for the World” is a monthly online grief ritual that creates space to express and witness our feelings in response to living in times of loss.
“Cultivating the skills of grief work is critical in these days of wild uncertainty and rampant loss. We must fortify our inner and outer connections not only to weather the storms but to be tempered by them. We do this work not solely for our own healing, but to make us capable of responding to the critical needs of our times.”
— Francis Weller, soul activist and author of ‘The Wild Edge of Sorrow”
An Apprenticeship with Sorrow
(Live recorded lecture)
In a time marked by deep uncertainty, rising grief, and the undeniable unraveling of many systems we once relied on, we are asked a profound question: How do we face the world with soul?
Facing the World with Soul
(Live recorded lecture)
In this lecture, Francis Weller talks about the the Long Dark, a period of descent that will be with us for generations to come, and how we can cultivate a life of soul to meet these times.
In times of collapse and transition, grief work is resistance against numbness and despair. It is a refusal to let go of our reverence for life. We cannot turn away from grief without also turning away from joy, beauty, and connection. As Wendell Berry reminds us, "It all turns on affection."
— Francis Weller author of “the Wild Edge of Sorrow”
Teachers
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Francis Weller
Francis Weller is an American psychotherapist, writer, and Soul activist.He is the founder of Wisdom Bridge, an educational project that synthesizes psychology, anthropology, and mythology. He has taught at Sonoma State University and the Sophia Center, and he has been the featured teacher at the Minnesota Men’s Conference. He is author of “The Wild Edge of Sorrow”, The Threshold between Loss and Revelation, In the Absence of the Ordinary: Essays in a Time of Uncertainty, and “A Trail on the Ground: The Geography of Soul”.
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Holly Truhar
Holly Truhlar (she/they) is a grief therapist, group facilitator, and community organizer. She’s most known for her collaborations with politicized grief tending, collapse psychology, and soul activism. She earned a Doctorate in Law and Masters in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, though she learns the most from her relationships with the Wild, including the land she inhabits, Ancestors, Hekate, and donkeys. Over the last decade, she’s facilitated small and large groups (700+) using ritual, storytelling, creative processes, and Deep Democracy work. She’s co-facilitated with Francis Weller since 2021, including the previous online grief ritual training.
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Steffi Bednarek
Steffi Bednarek is the founder and director of the Centre for Climate Psychology. She is a Gestalt psychotherapist, trauma therapist and climate psychologist.With extensive experience in managing trauma services and pioneering community-based grief-tending initiatives, her work centres on the interplay between climate change, complexity, and trauma-informed approaches. Steffi teaches, facilitates, and lectures widely, supporting individuals and organisations in navigating the psychological challenges of the metacrisis while fostering resilience and cultivating cultures of care and regeneration.
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Sophy Banks
Sophy Banks has been working towards the transformation of systems of harm for many years, as a therapist, constellator, and grief tender. She has been leading Grief Tending spaces for over 10 years, drawing on the teachings of Sobonfu Somé, Joanna Macy, Maeve Gavin and many others.