Finding Strength in Togetherness: Holistic Grief Support Workshops, Groups and Rituals
group and community offerings
While many of us do, we were never meant to grieve alone. Communal spaces where we can witness each other, share the stories of our broken hearts, and feel seen, heard, and validated can powerfully contribute to and expand our healing. Gathering to share in ritual, healing practices, and storytelling not only helps us feel less alone on our grief journeys but normalizes our varied experiences of grief.
From grief support groups and workshops to ritual offerings, I’m honored to create and hold space for grieving, healing, and connection in your community, organization, or workplace.
Offerings include:
grief support groups
Weekly or monthly, open and ongoing with no fixed end date. Sessions run for 1-1/2 hours. This is a safe, nurturing facilitated space for participants to share and express their grief. While guidance and support are provided, the primary practices are witnessing and affirmation as a reminder of how connected we are in this very human experience.
A six-week grief support group, exploring how we take care of ourselves while grieving, some of the challenges grievers face, and how to navigate grief with more compassion, grace, and trust in the process. Includes tools and practices for moving through grief.
Writing Our Grief: support focuses on shared poems and passages about grief, with specific prompts offered to help participants reflect on their own grief journey.
grief workshops
A 2 to 3-hour guided grief experience providing awareness, care, and support. Workshops may include ritual, movement, meditation, writing, drawing, and other creative exercises, as well as personal sharing and reflection.
community grief despacho
A despacho, or prayer bundle, is an Indigenous Andean tradition of making ritual offerings to the Earth and the Unseen World (the animate beings and ancestors who surround us), which provide us with support and sustenance in our daily lives. This mandala-like creation is reverently made from a variety of natural elements and infused with our prayers and intentions as a way of creating beauty from our grief in shared community and expressing gratitude and love for the Earth. This is also a beautiful ritual to incorporate at the end of life, honoring the gifts that our loved one has given us.
community apacheta building
Also from the Andean Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, an apacheta is a pile of rocks or a stone cairn built ceremonially in a specially chosen location. Building an apacheta is an invitation to unburden ourselves of our griefs and struggles by transferring them to the stones we leave on the altar. Prayers and offerings of cornmeal, tobacco, coca leaves, fragrant waters and more also deepen our connection to the Earth. An apacheta is meant to evolve and be tended over time by those caring for it, and if in a public place, serve as a site of pilgrimage, rest and prayer for passersby, who can leave their own offerings behind.
*** Note: the above offerings can also be tailored and customized to specific events and communities
death cafe
A Death Cafe is a group-directed discussion of death, dying and grief with no agenda, objectives, structure or themes. Rather than a bereavement or grief support group or a counseling session, this is a free-flowing, organic conversation. There is no intention to steer anyone toward a particular belief, set of values, conclusion or course of action. This is an accessible, confidential and safe space for whatever surfaces.
testimonials
“I worked with Naila to support my church community after the expected loss of our pastor. Naila held a virtual group grief session with members of my church community to help us come together, share stories, and learn ways to support our grief. Naila was very warm, kind, and held space for our group in such a gracious and loving way. She answered questions and safely allowed us to express our emotions during the group session. Naila's work is unique and a true spiritual gift. I am so grateful to have connected with her and experience her services.” - Sondrina Bullitt, Los Angeles, CA
"I had the pleasure of witnessing Naila Francis’ grace, empathy and compassion during a grief event. She creates a beautiful safe space, filled with warmth and support, even over Zoom! Naila’s connection to people is evident from the start, and her ability to touch your soul and allow you to share whatever is in your heart is a gift. I can’t say enough about Naila as a writer, a grief coach, and a person.” - Rosanne Corcoran, host and creator of Daughterhood The Podcast
The Guided by Grief workshop was a part of my week that I looked forward to and enjoyed. Even though the subject, grief, is a tough one, the workshop brought light and lightness into my life. From the poems read at the beginning and ending of every session, to the meditations to the various practices, all provided a plethora of options to utilize as I move forward on my own outside of our group. Thank you seems not enough. I am beyond grateful to you, Naila, for your emotional quotient, your soothing, caring, calming, nurturing self/spirit, your beautiful energy...Spending six weeks with you was such a privilege and a joy. - workshop participant
“[Naila] guides and leads and teaches and speaks from her experience as a writer and human and healer. She’s just the best thing ever.” - workshop participant
“Naila was very prepared, kind and gentle with all of us. She truly is a gift.” - workshop participant
“You helped all of us move some heavy burdens, and I found new connections in all of the attendees. What you do is monumental, moving, and beautiful. Thank you for holding the space for us, for creating the container, and for being such a wonderful soul and beautiful heart. I am still so moved every time I think of the experience, and how powerful it was.” - Tianna Godsey, Natural Lands Trust