Grief is an inevitable and important aspect of being human, and our plant allies can play an irreplaceable role in walking us through times of grief. In this intensive, grief counselors, herbal educators, and passage ritual facilitators collaborate to bring us insights on how herbs can best support the grieving process.
Honoring grief means not just moving on, but moving forward, a nuanced and complex dance supported by holistic tools such as body work, movement, ritual, mental health tools, and herbs. When we think of herbs for grief, we think about heart-tending plants like rose, hawthorn, and mimosa, along with many more in the materia medica. These plants can help us throughout all the messy, non-linear stages of grief, but especially with the step of making meaning out of our grief. In the midst of the fear, anxiety, shock, and trauma that go along with death and suffering, herbs step in powerfully to help body and mind move through.
In this series, you will find three sessions–each including a video presentation–offering practical tools and profound insights on the human experience of grief. Brought to you by experienced herbal educators in the field of grief support Alison Birks, Jovan Sage, Naomi Ullian, Nora Toomey, and lara pacheco, this intensive shines a gentle light of compassionate understanding through the darkness.
Session 1 | Herbal and Holistic Support for Grief: We begin our journey with Alison Birks, RH(AHG), clinical herbalist and certified grief educator, who facilitates an insightful conversation on the intersection between beneficial herbs and grief support and what role herbalism plays in a grief toolkit. This session focuses on many aspects of the multi-layeredness grieving process, including tending the needs of the grieving, a three-pronged approach to healing, and psychosomatic models of how grief affects the body.
Session 2 | Grief and Loss for the Whole Self: In this session, Jovan Sage, an herbalist who explores the intersection of plants, death, and transformation, discusses different types of grief, from ancestral to individual, collective to anticipatory, along with various herbal and lifestyle supports. Jovan speaks from a whole person, trauma-informed, and holistic lens, examining grief as a whole body process which requires skills and strategies for embodying and healing the entire self in the face of deep loss.
Session 3 | A Materia Medica for Grief and Passage: In this session, three herbalists share their experiences with grief and the materia medica that can offer profound support. Clinical herbalist Naomi Ullian discusses a comprehensive materia medica for grief, along with some ideas for herbal preparations that may be supportive for various phases and manifestations of the grieving process. Clinical herbalist and poet Nora Toomey invites in the subtle power of flower essences, offering insight on how to tend grief and trauma with these emotionally potent preparations. And finally, in a video, lara pacheco, a Taíno, Boricua (Puerto Rican) Latinx herbalist, explores herbs that support us navigate difficult life transitions through a lens of ancestral traditions.
We are honored to go on this journey with you. Let’s begin.
