Grief! The shambling beast that forces shocking, unwanted surprise, sometimes so far out of your control that you experience helplessness and overwhelm. Whether events are completely unforeseen, or even expected, grief can take over your world, leaving you with only a guidepost marking forever how it was before, and how it is ever after. Grief can demand all your attention and very often leave us unable to carry on as we have done in the past.
Grieving practices vary across the world, and are designed to address the traumatic potential of loss and to restore those who grieve to a state of wholeness within themselves. The world has changed, and those who grieve can restore their ability to be present to the new world facing them.
Central to restoring wholeness is the ability to embrace the powerful feelings that often have been avoided by dissociation, and to share the experience of holding that which seems impossible to hold. Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is a set of simple and powerful tools designed to promote surrender and trust as we live through life-defining event(s).
In this four-session, eight-hour workshop we will identify qualities of thinking and expression that help us notice when dissociation has occurred, and use these realizations as invitations that invite us back into full presence. Together we will practice skills that promote our collective abilities to become whole together.
Learning Objectives
Learn the theory and application of NVC principles that can be applied to your understanding and experience of grieving
Understand the cultural landscape of grief and grieving
Identify qualities of language use that indicate dissociation within ourselves and others, and practice translating these usages into invitations to presence.
This event will take place on the first four Wednesdays of May.
Meet your instructors!
Fred Sly PhD
Fred has been working with people longing for peace since 2003 when he taught his first class in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to men on probation in domestic violence cases; Fred was certified by the Center for Nonviolent Communication in 2005.
Since then Fred co-founded and managed the Safer Communities Program in the SF Bay area, teaching NVC in San Quentin State Prison. Fred moved to Oregon in 2008 and started the Oregon Prison Project (OPP) beginning in 2009. Fred was Program Director of OPP until he retired in 2018.
Fred earned a doctorate in Psychology in 2013 that focused both on the causes of violence, and effective interventions to address violence.
Fred began formal grief work while partnered with Hospice to address the grief of those looking to Community Mental Health for grief support. Fred will complete a grief-tender’s training at the end of May of this year.
Alyssa Rose
Alyssa Rose is a grief counselor, end-of-life doula, and licensed massage therapist who supports transitioning and grieving clients, families, and loved ones through one-to-one care and community ritual. Alyssa has spent many years working and volunteering at local hospices and End of Life Choices Oregon while maintaining a private practice offering somatic grief work, grief ritual (remote and in-person), integration & spiritual coaching, and energy healing, to facilitate soulful and holistic care of the body, mind, and spirit.