maria renée johnson
HOLDING EARTH
A four-week series of grief tending through the lens of ecology and animism
Many of us are directly experiencing the effects of a quickly changing world, socio-ecological unraveling and rearranging, as well as the anticipatory grief of what's to come. Many of us are carrying the question - how to live during times like these? Many of us lack connection to attuned community, to the natural world, and to spaces where we can openly and honestly share how we feel. Many of us were never taught how to tend to our grief and experience overwhelm when faced with the task, limiting the experience of the fullness, vibrancy, and soulfulness of life.
Holding Earth is a four-week virtual grief workshop series that provides a space to collectively encounter our grief, co-create relationships, and to deeply connect to the ecologies in which we are embedded. We do this through somatic, creative, and ecological practices and space to reflect with one another. We will make space for heavy feelings while also welcoming joy, curiosity, and beauty. It is the underlying essence of this group that through connection -- to ourselves, one another, and to the places we live -- that we can strengthen our resiliency, capacity, soulful presence, and sense of belonging to the wider world. The skill of grieving is a fundamental part of being human, particularly essential while living in tumultuous and uncertain times. It is through grief tending that we find our way through the dark with our hearts open.
WHERE WE'LL GO
Session One: Containment and Flow
To understand grief, both individually and collectively, while developing the skill of grief-tending.
How can we create the conditions to make space for our grief as well as the grief of others?
Session Two: Connection and Interrelating
To understand the role of relationship to others, both human and more-than human, when encountering grief.
How can grieving be a process of deeper connection and belonging rather than isolation and individualism?
Session Three: Resiliency, Presence, and Staying With
To honor losses while loving the living; placing ourselves in the context of place as a source of connection + resiliency.
How do we cultivate presence and hold complexity in times such as these?
Session Four: Transformational Processes
To recognize that grief is a transformational process that is an essential part of life, reflected in the natural world.
How can we look to the natural world to inform how we move and change through dark and uncertain times?
THE DETAILS
+ Registration of Holding Earth is currently closed. It will re-open in winter 2026.
+ Each gathering contains some foundational grief education, practices (creative, somatic, and/or ecological), and guided space to share, process, feel, and connect within community.
+ In an effort to keep this affordable, this is offered by sliding scale payment. The price is $80 - $200 for all four gatherings. If this is inaccessible to you, please email me and we can discuss options; all are welcome regardless of financial means. Please plan to attend all four sessions to help maintain the integrity of the group.
+ Grief tending belongs to people and should not reside exclusively in the realm of mental health. That being said, sometimes additional support is needed. This space is not therapy and I am not a licensed mental health professional. Please ensure you have any additional support you may need outside of this group.
GUIDING THREADS
+ In speaking about the climate crisis, we recognize that this is not solely about the environment, but is ultimately, a social and relational topic. Our climate grief is tied to all grief and our grief is not solely about death, but all experiences of loss, change, transformation, and longing; all of this is welcome.
+ We find paths toward respectful relationship with other human beings and the more-than-human world. We assume one another's best intentions and approach others with curiosity and space to grow. Discrimination of any kind is not tolerated.
+ We all bring different perspectives, identities, experience, and access points while coming from varied backgrounds that will inform our understanding and relationship to both the climate crisis and to grieving. We recognize that time and space to grieve is not a given in our society. We respect our differences and learn from one another; our variation creates a rich and strong ecosystem.
+ We bear witness to one another's grief while not attempting to fix or change it. What comes up is welcome. Simple witnessing is powerful.
+ Emotional, social, and spiritual health are essential to dealing with socio-environmental crisis. These matter just as much as political action. While we may touch on other dimensions of the crisis, this space makes prominent and specific room for our grief.