Wednesday, October 7

4–6 PM

Grief is a natural expression of love. While it can feel overwhelming or isolating, it is also something we are not meant to carry alone. This experiential workshop offers a gentle space to slow down, turn inward, and explore what it means to live alongside grief with greater compassion, steadiness, and connection. Through guided somatic practices, reflective exercises, and principles from positive psychology, participants will explore how it is possible to make room for sorrow while remaining connected to hope, curiosity, meaning, and moments of joy.

Together we will cultivate the capacity to be with grief rather than push it away, learning practical ways to support the nervous system when life feels uncertain or unmoored. Participants will also experience the healing power of authentic presence—both in witnessing themselves and being witnessed by others.

This is not a therapy group but an educational and restorative workshop designed to offer practical resources, meaningful reflection, and a compassionate community experience. By the end of our time together, participants will have experienced how grief and love coexist—that even in loss, the heart can continue to expand.

No prior experience with somatics or psychology is required.

The price of participation is $40–$55, on a sliding scale.

Participants will:

• Cultivate a more compassionate and sustainable relationship with grief.
• Learn somatic practices that help regulate the nervous system during times of loss and transition.
• Discover ways to hold grief alongside resilience, hope, and meaning.
• Expand their capacity to be present with difficult emotions without becoming overwhelmed.
• Experience the healing potential of authentic, non-performative connection and being witnessed by others.
• Leave with practical resources to continue supporting themselves beyond this workshop.

Why somatics?

Somatics is the practice of listening deeply to the wisdom of the body. It invites us to slow down, become present, and notice how grief is experienced not only through our thoughts, but through sensation, breath, posture, movement, and the nervous system. Rather than asking us to "move on" from grief, somatic practices help us develop the capacity to be with what is here while remaining grounded and connected. As our nervous system becomes more resourced, our window of tolerance expands, allowing us to experience painful emotions without becoming overwhelmed. In this way, grief becomes something we can accompany with greater steadiness, self-compassion, and curiosity.

Why positive psychology?

Positive psychology does not ask us to "look on the bright side" or deny suffering. Instead, it explores the conditions that allow people to flourish even in the midst of life's greatest challenges. When integrated with somatic practice, it helps us reconnect with the inner strength and resources that allow us to live alongside loss with greater meaning, connection, self-compassion, hope, and an openness to moments of beauty, love, and possibility. Together, these approaches remind us that resilience is not the absence of grief, but our growing capacity to hold both sorrow and joy, loss and love, vulnerability and strength.

About Holly

Holly Holbrook, MSW, MAPP, is a grief educator, facilitator, and yoga teacher whose work brings together lived experience with evidence-based practices in grief, well-being, and meaning-making. She holds master’s degrees in social work and applied positive psychology, from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied the science of resilience, hope, and what helps people remain connected to life after profound adversity. Having experienced multiple significant losses herself, she understands grief not as something to overcome, but as something we learn to carry with compassion and intention. Through writing, reflection, movement, and conversation, she helps others explore ways to live alongside loss while remaining open to connection, purpose, and moments of joy.

About Kate

Kate Gamble, BFA, MSPT, is a somatic educator, movement practitioner, and founder of Open Door Integrative Wellness. Trained in physical therapy at the Mayo Clinic and with a background as a professional dancer and choreographer, she has spent more than 30 years exploring how the body speaks—through movement, sensation, held stories, and relationship. Her somatic work draws from embodied mindfulness, the Feldenkrais Method, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Body-Mind Centering®, the Alexander Technique, and somatic approaches to trauma. Kate brings these diverse perspectives together with a deep curiosity about movement and embodiment as a way of listening, knowing, and connecting. Through workshops, retreats, and individual work, she invites people to become more attuned to themselves and discover greater resilience, creativity, and possibility in how they live and relate.