Meeting Grief
A COMMUNITY GRIEF WORKSHOP & RITUAL
The experience of grieving is one we all share, yet seldom do we grieve together.
This workshop creates a safe space to explore grief in community. You don't have to carry it alone.
Like banking, education, and therapy, grieving has become privatized in the western world. We've lost indigenous practices of grieving together. We face the impossibility of containing grief while releasing it alone. When we grieve together, we find we are not alone in our despair. We are welcomed and held in community.
Kim partners with Linda Anne Goulet—a certified End of Life Doula and Tai Chi/Qigong instructor—to work through the 5 Gates of Grief as outlined by Francis Weller. At each gate, participants write, share, and learn an accompanying movement practice.
These workshops provide a safe container to explore how grief presents in the body—how it arises, makes itself known, and fades away. We will not eliminate grief, nor analyze it clinically or critically, rather we will become curious about it, sit with it, and move with it. In one another’s company we become a bit more familiar with and fluent in grief’s particular soul language, and in doing so, create a bit more ease and space in our hearts.
Special Offering: We can facilitate private workshops for your group (therapists, caregivers, bereavement groups, first responders). Please Contact Us for more information.
2025 & 2026 Workshop Dates
Workshop Details
Format: Small group weekend workshop (limited to 8 people)
Schedule:
Friday: 2:00-9:00 PM (with dinner break)
Saturday: 9:30 AM-5:30 PM (with lunch break)
Sunday: 9:00-11:30 AM
Location: Private home in Carmel, CA
Registration Fee: $595 beginning with 2026 events
Scholarships may be available - note your need on the Interest Form
Meals: On your own (local, chain and organic options are easily accessible)
Housing: Workshops are Non-Residential (lodging is available nearby)
A Note on Physical Accessibility
At the conclusion of the event we typically take a walk to the ocean for a releasing ritual. This requires navigating a long set of stairs (100) with no handrail and a brief trail walk. Unfortunately, this portion of the event is not handicap accessible. We can arrange to drive to a level spot, but a short trail walk and small steps remain. Hiking poles or a cane may be helpful.
How to Register:
Complete the Interest Form below and indicate your preferred dates.
You will be added to our mailing list and receive an email from Kim regarding your eligibility and with further details. When registration opens (typically 6-8 weeks before the workshop), simply return to this page and use the link below (#3) to register. The registration page is password protected. If you completed an Interest Form and did not receive a reminder email containing the password, simply email Kim and she will provide it.
Workshop reservations are limited to 8 people and are filled on a first-come-first-served basis. Using the registration page link, provide the requested information, sign the cancellation and liability waiver and you will be directed to complete the payment process to secure your place.
You will receive an email verifying receipt of your payment and confirming that your spot is reserved.
If the event is at capacity, you will have the option to be placed on the waiting list.
Your spot is reserved only after payment is received. Submitting an Interest Form does not guarantee a reservation.
Praise from Past Participants
Kim Birdsong & Linda Anne Goulet
Linda Anne and Kim hold the deepest gratitude for this work and for the opportunity to support you as you become more fluent in the language of grief.
Wherever you are in process with your grief, whatever you are grieving, we have a safe place for you at this event.
Kim Birdsong
Linda Anne Goulet
“Where there is Sorrow
there is holy ground.”
— Oscar Wilde