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Grief Labs: Essentials (Monthly Jan-May 2027)

Tue, Jan 12, 7:00 PM UTC · Totnes, UK

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{
  "$type": "community.lexicon.calendar.event",
  "createdAt": "2026-10-12T14:40:14.015Z",
  "description": "### Grief Labs: Essentials\n\n#### A Community Practice for Love and Loss\n\n**Dates:**  \n2nd Tuesday of month, Jan-May:  \nJan 11th (Tuesday)  \nFeb 9th (Tuesday)  \nMar 9th (Tuesday)  \nApr 13th (Tuesday)  \nMay 11th (Tuesday)\n\n**Time:** 7–9pm  \n**Location:** Birdwood House, Totnes  \n**Price:** Pay-What-You-Can\n\nA guided, structured space to meet grief in community — rooted in Grief Tending traditions and shaped by contemporary nervous-system approaches, with choice of depth and regulation \"return-paths\", so strong feeling can be held without overwhelm.\n\n**Participant reflections from our May–July Essentials:**\n\n_\"Bilal has a gift for making grief accessible without being overwhelming. It's a beautiful way to dip your toe into the communal vessel of grief tending.\"_\n\n_\"A sacred, safe space to be with your grief. Bilal skilfully guided us to connect with our loss together as a group, while creating a space for us to express our sorrow. This was healing, cathartic and nurturing. I felt like a weight began to lift off me.\"_\n\n_\"A group-based meeting, to feel safe to let the grief rise however that happens, but without any pressure to talk and retell your story - just feel it rise, give it away to flowing water, and fall. Very special and gentle. And probably everybody needs it even if they don't realise they do.\"_\n\nThese October–December sessions are **Grief Labs: Essentials** - an accessible starting point for anyone. Essentials introduces (and lets you directly experience) the foundations of Grief Tending as a practice, alongside the basics of nervous-system-informed pacing: how we can meet strong feeling with choice, support, and reliable return paths.\n\nWe're also running **Grief Labs: Returners** - a parallel monthly track for those who've come to Essentials or have equivalent prior experience. Returners keeps the same principles and safety, but with less intro/framing so the group can move more quickly into sustained practice and deeper work.\n\nGrief Labs is a 2-hour, small-group community practice for meeting grief with support. Grief isn't limited to bereavement. It can include endings, change, world sorrow, and the things we've carried quietly for a long time. Most of us carry some form of grief, named or unnamed, and you don't need to have \"the right kind of grief\" to belong here.\n\nThis is not group therapy and it's not a space for \"processing everything.\" Instead, we practise a simple rhythm: touch what's here, then return to support - again and again - so you can stay connected to yourself and to the room, even when feelings are strong.\n\n**Designed for choice and different depths**\n\nThis practice is built so participants can work at varying levels of depth, and that variation is welcome. You might move toward strong feeling, stay at the edge, or move between the two. Choice of depth is part of the design. We'll name options clearly, and you'll be supported to choose your pace as you go (including slowing down, pausing, stepping out, or returning to the room).\n\n**Why grief practice (and why in a group)**\n\nGrief can show up as heaviness, numbness, anger, disconnection, or a sense of carrying too much - which we can often keep private for years. In a well-held group, you don't have to carry it alone. Many people find that when their grief is welcome and has a place to be witnessed, it can soften isolation and open up more room for connection, energy, and aliveness.\n\nGrief Labs offers a structured way to:\n\n- Feel what's true without forcing it\n- Let emotion move in waves, with return paths\n- Be witnessed (and witness others) without fixing or advice\n- Develop more connection to self and others\n\n**Influences - Grief Labs is informed by:**\n\n- Polyvagal theory and nervous-system-informed pacing and return paths\n- Peter Levine's work, especially titration and pendulation (working in waves of contact and return)\n- Grief Tending lineages and teachings from Sophy Banks, Joanna Macy, Francis Weller, and Malidoma & Sobonfu Somé\n\nThese influences shape the pacing, consent, and return paths in the practice. (These are influences and lineages we learn from; the workshop is offered as a community practice, not a clinical service.)\n\n**What to expect**\n\n- A clear arrival: grounding, orientation, and brief agreements\n- Intro to Grief Tending and nervous-system foundations\n- A short check-in (kept intentionally brief)\n- Guided \"gateways\" to meet grief in different forms (not just talking)\n- A structured grief-expression ritual (with clear facilitation and boundaries)\n- Frequent return paths woven throughout (orienting, resourcing, settling)\n- Integration and a slow closing so you can leave gently\n- An aftercare / integration handout to support a gentle transition afterwards\n\n**Participation options**\n\nThroughout the workshop there will be gentle invitations to touch into grief. Each invitation is entered in full choice, with return paths close by - so you can come closer, soften, pause, or step back at any time. Choosing not to connect with your own grief in a given moment is part of the practice. Simply witnessing - being present and steady for others - is a complete and valued way to take part.\n\n**Agreements**\n\n- Everything is optional\n- Confidentiality\n- No fixing, advising, or coaching each other\n\n**Who it may not be for**\n\nYou're looking for therapy, clinical treatment, diagnosis, or acute crisis support. If you're in acute crisis or need urgent support right now, a dedicated support service will be a better fit than this group workshop.\n\n**Practical details**\n\n- Duration: 2 hours\n- Group size: ~20\n- What to bring: water, layers, anything that helps you feel steady\n- Accessibility: chairs available; you can stand/move; you can step out anytime\n\n**About the facilitator**\n\nBilal is a co-founder of Embracing Grief (griefsupport.org.uk), and since 2019 they have facilitated 80+ grief-tending events and workshops with 1,500+ participants. His work explores what it means to be alive, and how we relate to loss, change, and what we carry.\n\nAlongside open spaces, Bilal has also created and delivered workshops specifically for people of colour and for those identifying as men. In the past Bilal has run programmes on confronting death and trained as a Death Doula with Red Tent End of Life Doulas.\n\nOutside of Embracing Grief, Bilal is the Managing Director at Mycelium (myceliumgroup.co), where he leads award-winning programmes in nervous system resilience, inclusive leadership, and healthy workplace culture.\n\n**FAQs**\n\n_Do I have to speak?_  \nNo. You can witness and be part of community support the whole time.\n\n_Is this only for bereavement?_  \nNo. Bereavement is welcome, and so are any other forms of loss: endings, change, world grief, inherited or long-held sorrow.\n\n_I often feel numb - does this still fit?_  \nYes. Numbness is a valid way grief can show up. There's no pressure to feel anything specific; and we explore ways to work with our numbness.\n\n_What if I don't do it \"properly\"?_  \nThere's no right way to take part or playbook for \"right-feeling\". We are re-learning the ways to connect to ourselves and each other, whilst remaining always in our choice.\n\n_What if I get overwhelmed?_  \nThe practice is designed with return paths and explicit choice points. Stepping back, slowing down, or staying at the edge is part of the practice.",
  "endsAt": "2027-05-11T20:00:00Z",
  "locations": [
    {
      "$type": "community.lexicon.location.geo",
      "latitude": "50.4334931",
      "longitude": "-3.6851061",
      "name": "Totnes, UK"
    }
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  "mode": "community.lexicon.calendar.event#inperson",
  "name": "Grief Labs: Essentials (Monthly Jan-May 2027)",
  "startsAt": "2027-01-12T19:00:00Z",
  "status": "community.lexicon.calendar.event#scheduled",
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      "$type": "community.lexicon.calendar.event#uri",
      "name": "Grief Labs: Essentials (Monthly Jan-May 2027)",
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