An Apprenticeship with Sorrow
7-week peer support circle
Starts 7 pm Mon 29th Sep
The Soma Rooms, Chepstow NP16 5LL
Thank you for your interest in the upcoming Apprenticeship with Sorrow peer circle. This will be a peer-support circle (not a therapy group) facilitated by The Soma Rooms Ali ROSE assisted by Georgina Holt) to explore grief using Grief Activist Francis Weller’s book The Wild Edge of Sorrow.
We will be a small group of between 8-10 people including myself and Georgina, we will be meeting for 7 weeks on Monday evenings 7-9pm, running from September 29th - November 17th with a half term break on the 27th Sep.
You can find out more about Francis Weller’s Grief work via his website . The book we will be exploring is The Wild Edge of Sorrow which can ordered from local bookstores or online sellers. I will also have a few copies that can be borrowed for the 7 weeks, let me know if you think you would like to use one of these.
This group is being offered into the community without charge in an act of what Weller calls ‘soul activism’. Bringing the change we wish to see in the world, our hope is that through gathering in grief we begin the slow but necessary process of weaving ourselves back into connection with each other and the wider web of life. Whilst there is no charge for participating, we do ask you to consider before signing up if you can commit to the following group agreements as we want to create a safe space in which to explore the tender subject of grief.
Group Agreements:
I commit to arriving on time and attending all the sessions, unforeseen circumstances allowing.
I commit to confidentiality - that outside of the circle, I can speak of my own experience but not of other peoples or anything that might identify them.
To take responsibility for my own process, recognising the limitations of a short-term peer support circle and to consider what wider support I have to resource me through and beyond the process.
You don’t need to have any previous experience of groups like this but our sense is that those who are like to get the most out of this process have some experience of a self-reflective practice. What does that mean? That you are willing to look inwardly and deeply as we explore the Five Gates of Grief: Everything We Love, We Will Lose / The Places That Have Not Known Love / The Sorrows of the World / What We Expected and Did Not Receive / Ancestral Grief.
Over the 7 weeks we will explore these Five Gates through reading, reflection, and sharing so you may well want to consider if this approach sounds like a fit for you. We will be learning and practising the skills of active deep listening, we are not here to fix or offer advice but through our presence, seek to reclaim the healing power of community.
If, having considered all the above, you would like to enrol for the group then email me and we’ll arrange a quick phone call so we can have a brief check in as to what you hope to get from the process aswell as answer any questions you may have.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Warmest regards
Ali ROSE
Ali ROSE is a body-oriented Somatic Therapist whose work can combine dialogue, clothed bodywork and movement offering an integrative approach to body-mind wellbeing. Resonating with Francis Weller’s phrase of soul activism and feeling her own grief for the world too much to hold alone she feels her own healing journey lies in gathering in circle with others.
ali@thesomarooms.co.uk