Introducing the Mourning the Matriarchs Guest Facilitators 💚

This summer, I am excited to run a grief group called "Mourning the Matriarchs." Mourning the Matriarchs will be a small, 7 weeks long peer-led support group using cultural identity, creativity and storytelling to practice grieving. Each week, a participant will get to share about their matriarch(s) while the rest of us listen and help hold the grief. We’ll also have weekly themes like connecting to lineage, asking for care and how to navigate emotions like anger, guilt and regret in grief.

This group has been months in the making and is inspired by the amazing matriarchs who I’ve gotten to support professionally as a death worker and the mother figures who I love and am mourning in my own life. My hope is that Mourning the Matriarchs is a soft place to land and be witnessed in the fullness of whatever grief is like in that moment. Messy feelings, incomplete thoughts, complicated relationships and all.

Along with learning from and with myself and the other group participants, we will also have the honor of sharing space with two incredible guest facilitators: Kate Muehlemann Cataldo (she/they) and Tisha Satow (she/her). Kate and Tisha are both healers, leaders and community members who I respect. They inspire me and I am so humbled that they have said yes to supporting Mourning the Matriarchs.

Kate standing in front of art created with community as part of The Constellations Project.

In her own words: “Kate Muehlemann Cataldo (she/they) is an artist, registered nurse, and death doula who weaves creativity into care work. Kate uses art as a medium for social engagement and legacy preservation in the Queer community, with dying clients to facilitate conversation and connection, and in personal grief/continuing bonds rituals.

Kate believes that creativity is innate to being human and as a facilitator uses an exploratory approach to help find connection with our deepest self, experiences, and world around us.” 

I am thrilled for Kate to be leading our “Art as Ritual” week. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, Kate!

Tisha smiles from the joy of this beautiful, giant flower!

In her own words: “Movement has held me, taught me and helped me keep an open mind and heart throughout my life. And the movement I’m talking about is expansive and inclusive of movement such as clouds across the sky, the light changing in a room, the dance of waves, wind blowing through the trees, birdsong lifting up, the vibration of music, the heartbeat and breath of loved ones, the twinkle of stars. Movement holds my joy and grief, and is a solace and a home for my spirit to live and rest.

I have been supporting people in being in loving relationship with their bodies since my first (favorite) job as a teenager, teaching swimming lessons to little ones, eventually teaching yoga and now offering reiki and craniosacral therapy to folks in all stages of life. My current movement practice loves are dancing in my living room, walking in the woods, floating in the Salish Sea, and feeling my breath move my body. In my facilitation, I draw from practices of qigong, yoga and developmental movement. In my work and in my life, I call in rhythm and flow to support ease and connection.”

Tisha will be guiding our “Supportive Movement” week during Mourning the Matriarchs. Thank you, Tisha, for generously caring for us!

Are you craving a community to help you bear witness to the grief of losing a maternal figure? There is still time for you to join this tender group offering. Early bird pricing is live until July 1st and sliding scales/trades are available. Please join us 🧡