The Radical Act of Grieving Well

A Community Gathering for professionals on the front line in veterinary medicine.

We are living in a death and grief-phobic culture where many people—especially those in the medical field—are trained to turn away from feeling any emotions related to loss in the workplace. Subsequently, grief is bypassed.

Care for the Healer is honored to welcome Debra Rosenman as the facilitator and guide of our May Community Grief Ritual.

“We see clearer when our eyes are glistening with tears. —Bayo Akomolafe

The daily pressures that veterinary professionals experience is daunting. Ceaselessly caring for injured animals and other medical emergencies, supporting animal guardians who are expressing highly emotional responses and navigating the burden of euthanasia discussions and decisions are all a tremendous responsibility to carry, especially if there are no outlets for any of your own feelings.

Add to that, possibly dealing with one’s own deep personal feelings related to making decisions that might go against your own moral fabric.

When we disconnect from our own feelings over a long period of time, a vital connection to our heart is lost, and can eventually lead to burnout.

How do you hold grief for your clients? For yourself?

When we deal with our clients’ grief, it naturally can trigger our own sorrows, but what happens when we don’t allow that openness and vulnerability for ourselves?

What happens in our bodies when we are not able to feel our grief, anger, worry, fear, overwhelm, or even joy? 🧡🧡🧡

Together, we can make our sorrows (and joys) visible while being deeply held in community.

As grief therapist Frances Weller says, “Grief is a solitary journey that we cannot do alone.”

During our community grief gathering, we will center our personal relationship to grief by:

~ Engaging in guided somatic meditation to connect with our hearts

~ Participating in a community healing ritual

~ Writing into deeper more vulnerable parts of ourselves

~ Sharing personal reflections

~ Community comments and /or questions

---

What to bring to this community gathering:

~ one candle, matches

~ small bowl of water

~ a stone, any stone that you feel a connection to

~ journal or writing pad and pen

---

Friday May 16th | 4:00 - 6:00pm MT

Join us in our virtual meeting space (Zoom)for this community event.

Through the support of the Care for the Healer nonprofit - this event is free to the community. There is no cost for this event.

Set the sliding payscale to $0 when registering.

Dr. Steve Kruzeniski, of our community, speaks about the upcoming event and his interactions with Debra.

---

A Note from Debra:

I am really looking forward to working with Care for the Healer’s community of health professionals to traverse the territory of grief. Looking forward to seeing you on May 16^th!

With deep care, debra rosenman

~ writer, editor, story midwife,

~ grief tender /ritualist, wild beauty forager, somatic archaeologist

~ Founder of Sacred Sorrowing, Story Power and Voices for Wild Souls

~ Author of the multi-award-winning book, The Chimpanzee Chronicles: Stories of Heartbreak and Hope from Behind the Bars

~ debrarosenman.com

---

More about our facilitator:

Debra Rosenman

Beautifully entangled with nature, spirit, and nonhuman animals, Debra Rosenman traverses the wild terrain of soul as a Somatic Archaeologist, grief practitioner, grief/nature ritualist and heart activist.

Debra has been on a life-long journey exploring the emotions and somatic language of grief—her own, her clients, and that of nonhuman animals. She has dedicated her life to holding space for the deepest sorrows of others.

---

She developed a deeply healing approach of working with grief called Sacred Sorrowing, which synthesizes rituals, meditation, breathwork, writing and expressive art. All these methodologies support powerful expressions that honor the love that remains after our losses.

Debra is the editor and designer of the multi-award-winning anthology, The Chimpanzee Chronicles: Stories of Heartbreak and Hope from Behind the Bars, which has garnered 15 national awards for best narrative nonfiction, new nonfiction, anthology, and animal/nature book.

Working as an advocate for captive chimpanzees for twenty-five years, Debra’s pioneering voice for animals in peril continues to raise awareness of the rights of nonhuman animals. Her advocacy also includes developing children’s educational programming that fosters deep respect and empathy for nonhuman animals, while inspiring actions that make measurable differences in their lives.

In addition to working as a grief practitioner, Debra is a story guide and book midwife, supporting clients in writing memoirs and nonfiction books that orient readers towards a more inclusive humanity. She loves helping writers fully embody their writing by digging deep into the emotional depth and rich marrow of their life stories. Her coaching sessions focus on content that is honest, expressive, and ultimately, wildly alive on the page.

---

Debra lives in the high desert mountains of New Mexico. She is the founder of Sacred Sorrowing, Voices for Wild Souls and Story Power.

Debra adopted her first beloved soul dog, Lilly, at the ASPCA in NYC when she was 6 months old. They had a spectacular life together in New York and New Mexico. Lilly died April 30, 2009, 2 months before her 18^th birthday. They greeted each other every morning making direct heart and eye contact, along with a few nose kisses.