Grief Alchemy: A Somatic Ceremony
Grief, a universal human experience, lives in our bodies as well as our hearts and minds. In a culture that doesn't understand or welcome grief, it can often grow stagnant inside of us – like a pond of water with no outlet. The ecosystem of our bodies becomes backed up and life's vibrant flow diminished. Beholding and feeling our grief is an essential practice to keep our life-flow moving freely, opening us to experience the full color spectrum of the heart's river – beauty and grief existing side by side.
Many cultures around the world have used dance and ritual as containers for the waters of grief. With intention and a safe space for our grief, we offer it a chance to be felt and moved through the instrument of our bodies.
Our tools:
Community gathering – We come together as fellow travelers, allowing our common human experience be part of the container that holds us.
Sacred ritual – Ritual helps us externalize and make concrete the unseen and intangible processes of the heart. It also forms the structural support, the bones, of the container that will hold our grief. Together we will create altars – visual reminders of our loss, as well as reminders of the things that nourish us and bring joy.
Embodied movement – Using evocative music along with guided and spontaneous movement, we take an experiential journey, sinking into the resource of the body and exploring the multifaceted layers of grief, loss and connectedness.
Come honor the losses in your life as we weave a container of togetherness and move our bodies through grief's physical, emotional and spiritual landscapes. All kinds of losses welcome. No prior dance experience necessary.
What you can expect:
Nourishment and support through rituals, sharing and movement practices
Deepen into the resource of your body
A facilitated journey through movement, freestyle dance and evocative world music
“Dance transcends the limits of speech. It exists in that space between symbol and language, in the margins where meaning is more felt than understood, where reality is more experienced than explained, behind the veil of mystery where inspiration beckons us to follow, dares us to pursue and perhaps, invites us to be transformed. Dance has the capacity to move us on the deepest levels of being, to shift the tectonic plates of consciousness.”
Upcoming Ceremonies:
Stay tuned for the next dates and locations.
$40 per ceremony
Instructor: For over 10 years Anat has dedicated herself to personal and collective healing, exploring various holistic and embodied practices. In the creation of Grief Alchemy, she draws from her masters degree in Transpersonal Psychology, training in somatic bodywork through the META Institute and Dancing Freedom's flavor of embodied movement. Seasoned by her own encounters with grief and personal transformation, 8 years as a clinical hospital chaplain and her own experiences of healing through dance and embodied movement, she is a skilled and compassionate companion on your healing journey. In her private practice, she offers counseling support in the Portland community for grieving individuals and those affected by life-threatening illness.
