“Grief will be the keynote for the coming decades.”
– Francis Weller
goodGrief is an ongoing offering within otherWise designed to cultivate our communal capacity to face, feel, and move through grief in this time of unraveling.
It is a space for those who choose to see the world as it is – holding the joyous and beautiful in entanglement with what is ugly and full of sorrow – and refuse to look away. It is where we may discover otherWays to fully step into our wholeness, holding and tending to the wide array of emotions we carry through experience, relation, and memory.
photography by © Niels Devisscher, 2025
As the world we once trusted fractures and the promises of modernity prove false, grief is everywhere. We grieve the loss of lives, ecosystems, identities, kinship structures, ancestral practices, and promised futures as entitlements we were taught to expect. Many of these losses are slow, compounding, and hard to name. Others are sudden, encompassing, and unbearable. Most, if not all, have the potential to be transformational, yet we rarely acknowledge them as such.
Modern systems, in their emphasis on productivity and progress, actively suppress grief. But grief denied becomes disorientation, burnout, or numb complicity. To navigate the ending inherent in collapse with integrity, we must build relational practices that help us feel what is happening. Together.
Grief is not a distraction from action; it is a condition that must be honored for honest participation in the work ahead.
As we attend to the uncertain future that lies ahead of us with grief as the keynote, we must find within us the capacity to be present with our grief. We must be ready to allow it to move freely and be metabolized, to release the parts that we cannot be nourished by, and to open ourselves to the wisdom it offers as both a companion and a guide.
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goodGrief Offerings
Monthly Grief Circles
These loosely guided spaces for the individual and collective expression of grief and sorrow are designed to bridge the space between what we are losing and what we long to co-create. Participants are invited to witness, listen deeply, and share as they are moved by curated resources and prompts aligned to the otherWisdom lunar cycle themes.
Holding Space for Emergent Grief
Additional offerings will become available to hold space for grief as it emerges over time and space. These sessions seek to complement themes and conversations held in the otherWise circles that crave more expansion into the grief that surfaces within these explorations.
Living Grief Library
A curated and co-created archive of grief resources will be accessible to all Good Grief participants, including, but not limited to: essays, poems, rituals, songs, practices, and provocations.
Grief Guide Facilitator Toolkit & Community Template
Grief Circle guides will be made available as structured outlines that participants can use to host local grief gatherings, encouraging a practice of place-based grief work at the cosmolocal level.
“I had come across the work of Francis Weller before, but didn’t really understand what it was like to do grief work in community until the Good Grief program. To be really heard and acknowledged, rather than grieving alone, is incredibly powerful. For me, it was particularly moving when our ancestral grief about genocides set off echoes among others in the group and we got to both express our sorrow and our forgiveness to each other.”
– Greg N.
Is goodGrief for you?
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goodGrief is for those who:
- seek more space to release the powerful emotions that ebb and flow as we bravely face and begin the work of processing endings.
- wish to expand their capacity to tend to and hold the personal, political, planetary, and ancestral grief we carry, both individually and as a collective
- choose to integrate their joy and their sorrow – who live deeply into the understanding that our grief is an extension of our love, and to cut ourselves off from grief is to sever ourselves from that source of love.
- see grief not as a pathology or a problem to solve, but rather a natural condition that has much to teach us about the world and the ways that we exist within it.
goodGrief might NOT be for you if:
- your personal exploration of grief requires support beyond what an online space can offer.
- you’ve recently found yourself in the wake of a very personal loss, which may require more in-person support or time before entering a collective grief circle space.
a personal introduction from the facilitator
“Emily’s generous, warm-hearted, validating, and attuned facilitation style made every Good Grief session that I participated in super helpful and valuable in my grief healing journey. She made thorny topics surrounding grief feel accessible by relating experiences, stories, and wisdom from her own deep understanding of grief and expertly weaving in perspectives from foundational thinkers in grief psychology. She encouraged us to remain open, curious, and present to the nuances and context of our experiences of loss while noticing the ways in which grief immerses us in our shared humanity. This group is for you if you’re ready to explore the complexities of grief and loss in a safe, brave, and richly affirming space.”
— Frieda M.
Upcoming goodGrief circles
August 2025
Unsettling Grief
Unsettling Grief
Unsettling Grief is an opportunity to collectively explore grief and genocide, tending to the unnameable sorrow for the unjust mass death of Palestinians at the hand of empire. Through collective witnessing of the shared grief we refuse to look away from, we gather online for this grief circle to honor the unfathomable sorrow in our hearts for the mass death of Palestinians at the hands of empire. So we may discover a different kind of opening. An overlooked crack in the foundation of modernity's violences, a way of moving through sorrow that resists apathy, passivity, or acceptance. A way for our love of life to outweigh our fear of death – strengthening our endurance for witnessing so much grief and sorrow – and build our capacity to show up to fight what presently feels overwhelming.
Upcoming goodGrief circles
Unsettling Grief
Unsettling Grief
Unsettling Grief is an opportunity to collectively explore grief and genocide, tending to the unnameable sorrow for the unjust mass death of Palestinians at the hand of empire. Through collective witnessing of the shared grief we refuse to look away from, we gather online for this grief circle to honor the unfathomable sorrow in our hearts for the mass death of Palestinians at the hands of empire. So we may discover a different kind of opening. An overlooked crack in the foundation of modernity's violences, a way of moving through sorrow that resists apathy, passivity, or acceptance. A way for our love of life to outweigh our fear of death – strengthening our endurance for witnessing so much grief and sorrow – and build our capacity to show up to fight what presently feels overwhelming.
FAQ
How many participants will there be?
Our Grief Circles can range from a very small group of 4 or 5 to up to 20 participants. We try to cap it there to ensure that everyone has a chance to share and have their grief be witnessed during our time together.
Do I need prior knowledge or experience?
No prior knowledge or experience necessary. We all bring our own unique prior knowledge and experience which enhances the experience of gathering together for these sessions. While each Grief Circle will center around a theme and some resources will be provided, they only serve to help orient the group towards a shared entrance point by which dialogue can flow naturally and are not required to join the Grief Circle.
Do you have group agreements for participation in goodGrief?
Grief is not a problem to be solved.
In Good grief we accept that grief is not a problem to be solved. Doing so allows us to sit in the space where there are no solutions. Good Grief is not a space where advice should be given. We ask that participants resist the temptation to provide answers. If you do identify as a solution-oriented problem solver, be mindful of when the urge to provide solutions is coming up, and instead practice responses like “I hear you” and “thank you for sharing that.”
Be here now.
This is a space to practice deep listening to allow others to feel seen and heard by community. We agree to be present in the Grief Circles because witnessing the grief of others with full presence has the power to unlock a grief may not have known lived inside of you, strengthening the communal grief we create through these spaces. If you are not in a place to enter a Grief Circle or other Good Grief offering with that intentional presence, we ask that you take a moment to ground, or hold off on joining until ready to do so.
Step into the space.
Everyone is encouraged to share in Good Grief. Stepping into the space requires that we allow ourselves to be witnessed. Sharing can happen through spoken word, storytelling or sharing experience, resources, poetry or song. It is an opportunity to practice speaking from the heart, opening up in a space of safety and unconditional positive regard. It can come in disjointed parts, in flowing rambles, in mumbled attempts to grasp the grief that begins to flow through us. It might appear in the form of tears, sobs, shakes, or wails. It may be all of the above, whatever it is, it is welcome here.
Confidentiality.
This space is especially tender as it encourages a practice in sharing vulnerably together. As grief tenders and witnesses, we agree that personal stories, names and personal information are not to be shared outside of Good Grief – what is shared during the Grief Circles is to be witnessed by those presently sharing the space. For this reason, none of our sessions are recorded.