Grief Wisdom

Reclaiming Personal and Ancestral Practices for Grieving

Art Image: Offerings to Save the World by Christi Belcourt


An 8 week soulful and educational journey exploring grief and culture, body, ritual, animism, death and eldership in service to reclaiming personally meaningful and ancestrally-informed grieving culture.


Re-enlivening the spirit of our ancestral cultural life-ways that support grieving is a journey of re-membering and reconnecting to belief systems, values, rituals, and an animate ecology of relationships that teach us how to be right here, right now in ways that support life-affirming healing, grieving and loving.


Our hearts need this. Our world needs this. Our future needs this.


 

Only through the compassion and loneliness and love inherent in grief can we forge a world out of the fire that will not replicate ancient hierarchies, nor replace old gods with new ones that are just as arrogant and just as punitive. On either side of change is loss.

To re-imagine and reshape the world, grief is a skill we need.

Malkia Devich-Cyril

Scope of our time

We invite ourselves to become more intimate with the wisdoms of Grief and...

  • Culture
    • How we are shaped by dominant culture and severed lineages of learning
    • 8 cross-cultural principles that are ancestral portals to our re-membering Grief
  • Body
    • Somatic and energetic body awareness in service to grieving
    • Mapping embodied holistic grief expression
  • Ritual and Animism
    • The ecological self in reciprocity and belonging with kin, seen and unseen
    • Self-designed rituals to allow body, heart, and mind to be an offering
  • Death and Eldership
    • The rite of passage of death, and the needs of the dead and the bereaved
    • Relating to Grief as an elder spirit and as heart activism


When do we start?

We begin Wednesday, April 30th, with an online introduction and ritual opening.

How do I register?

Please read the remaining details to ensure a right fit, and then fill out the application linked at the bottom of the page. I will then be in touch soon with more details and a request for payment. If you have any questions about right-fit, please reach out; I would be happy to chat. shaunajanz-at-gmail-dot-com.


How is this program structured?

This is a blended in-person and online offering, alternating weeks from April 30th to June 25th, 2025


Four in-person gatherings, 6:30-8:30pm

Wednesdays, May 7, 21, June 4, 18 (location in Cumberland)

  • Our time will consist of teachings, personal and group reflections, journaling, guided exercises/visioning, ritual, song, poetry, and body-based practices. The arc of these evenings are structured and facilitated to support learning and practice.


Five online circles, 6:30-8:00pm (Zoom and recorded)

Wednesdays, April 30th, May 14, 28, June 11, 25

  • Our first online circle is our ritual opening and meet+greet.
  • The remaining online circles are for harvesting our learning, questions and integration, and are shaped by the curiosities and shares that folks bring. This is a Question/Share + Response format.

Folks will also have access to this online course platform where additional resources will be added to support our thematic exploration.


Group Size

Participant numbers will be capped at 15 to allow for spacious learning and sharing.

 

Will the content be relevant to me?

I welcome folks who are navigating personal, ancestral, cultural and/or collective loss. There is much that is grief worthy these days. I welcome those who are curious, who are seekers, and those who are seasoned in grief. Welcome counselors and therapists, coaches and mentors, activists and organizers, community volunteers, group facilitators, death doulas, healing arts practitioners, youth-workers, nature-based facilitators, and more. All grief is embraced and welcomed here, and will be met by the skills we are learning and practicing.

I welcome folks of diverse ancestries, faith-based and cultural traditions, and lived experiences. I am dedicated to offering a queer-celebrating, trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, and culturally-inclusive space focused on offering you a pathway to deepen into your own grief practices.

Please note: I offer a brave space for folks of diverse backgrounds and lived experiences (race, gender, class, etc) coming together to be in grief practice and cultural change work that acknowledges differences in power, privilege, and dominant cultural impacts.

Please reach out if you have any questions or want to talk about this more to discern if this course will meet you well. I am happy to connect with you in this way.


Are there prerequisites?

Prior experience with your own grief work is helpful and a willingness to engage in self-reflection and some sharing within our group process around your own experiences and insights is an important aspect of this learning experience. There is always choice, and, this opportunity is best suited to those that enjoy group learning dynamics.

It is important to also have your own support systems in place (family, professionals, friends, care practices, community, etc) that help keep you resourced and centered when needed.


Is this course the same as a therapeutic grief circle or grief ritual?

No. This is an educational program based in guidance, invitational ritual practices and self-inquiry within a group learning setting. This course offers therapeutic and ritual healing value and opportunities for personal sharing of your learning experiences, however it is not designed as an intimate witnessing circle for a personal healing process.

**Please note: If you are currently experiencing acute grief from a recent loss, I recommend having a counselor/therapist that you are already receiving individualized support from. In the immediacy of loss, your grief experience may need a personal attuned care and presence in addition to what the scope of this course offers.


Community Care

We will review group guidelines and brave space tenets when we meet. I request mindfulness around viral/flu/covid realities and those of us with immune-compromised conditions (of which I am one also). I request that anyone who is ill, please refrain from attending. If you have been sick, I request you take a flu/covid test before rejoining us to ensure you are no longer contagious, and to consider wearing a mask. Thank you. The space is large with high ceilings and fair ventilation.

 

Financial Reciprocity

This program is offered on a sliding scale which acknowledges folks' different access to resources within an inequitable capitalist system, and is offered within a commitment to economic justice and community care.

I invite you to read my Financial Access Commitments to learn about why and how I do this, and to review a more comprehensive framework to help you discern which pricing tier to choose given your financial situation and access to resources.


Pay it Forward - $475

You have access to wealth, can pay for this course without much financial consideration, and have the ability to pay extra to directly support someone else who needs financial access options to participate.

Program Cost - $400

You have access to reliable income, and/or are in a double-income home, and/or have personal savings/investments. You are able to pay for ‘wants’ and spend little time worried about securing necessities in your life, such as housing, food, transportation.

Reduced Cost - $325 (two available)

You have access to income that allows you to meet your basic needs, you may have some expendable income, and/or have access to resources through family/partners to request support from. You may need to budget or cut back in some other areas to make this program happen, but it won't cause any long-term harmful impact on your life.

Sponsored Cost - self-determined (one available)

Your access to resources and income stability is limited, and meeting your basic needs is stressful and inconsistent. Paying at any of the higher tiers would have a harmful impact on you.

I prioritize BIPOC, LGBTQI+ and disabled folks who are in financial need for the sponsored spots. There is a spot in the application to request this.


APPLICATION LINK


You may enjoy getting to know me and my relationship with sacred grief through this special podcast series, The Medicine of Grief with Jono Fisher, alongside other respected voices in grief - Francis Weller (The Wild Edge of Sorrow), Josh Schrei (The Emerald Podcast), Michelle C. Johnson (Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief), and more.


About Shauna

Shauna Janz, MA is a teacher, mentor, facilitator and ritualist who has been working in the field of grief, loss, and trauma-informed care for 18 years, and weaving ancestral and ritual healing guidance for the past 9 years.

She is a respected voice internationally in the field of grief, ritual and ancestral healing, offering programs, trainings and to folks all across Turtle Island and beyond. She is the founder of Sacred Grief, and has extensive experience as a grief educator and trauma-informed facilitation trainer with diverse organizations, such as Moms Stop the Harm, BC Hospice Societies, BC Bereavement Helpline, and as a former teacher and mentor with Ancestral Medicine. She founded the Victoria Holistic Death Care community in 2017, and was co-visionary of the Vancouver Island Deathly Matters conference.

The content and practices in this course are an outgrowth of an ongoing apprenticeship in the terrains of grief, ritual and ancestral healing - offering individual and family grief support, guiding community grief rituals, leading traumatic loss support groups, facilitating grief workshops within diverse cultural contexts, supporting marginalized communities in responding to loss, guiding immersive ancestral healing retreats - and informed by her years of both academic/professional study and self-study in grief support, ritual healing, ancestral reclamation practices, animist/spiritual ways of relating, and critical cultural, feminist and decolonizing analysis.

To learn more about her, and her professional experiences and learning lineages, please visit shaunajanz.com.