Seasons of Renewal

The workshop is a space to bring any change, loss, and grief that has touched your life, whether in your past or something more present.

We'll use the seasons to honour whatever you bring to the gathering. Each season offer wisdom and connection that can guide and anchor you through times of change. 

Honouring important life experiences is like a 'rites of passage' that helps deepen trust in yourself and your inner-wisdom. 

Seasons of Renewal circles provide communal time and space for welcoming and honouring your experiences in the presence of supportive others.

Join me in co-creating a space for the gentle witnessing and honouring of all emotions.

This witnessing not only allows the body and mind to process these often-challenging life experiences, but also expands your capacity to feel love, vitality, and joy in everyday living.

Whether you’re joining me for a two day event or shorter online circle, you'll gather with others to co-create a transient community that serves as an enriching resource towards feeling better and living well.

We'll use the indoor and outdoor spaces to deepen the connection with whatever you bring.

There is no hierarchy of loss and change. You are welcomed without obligation or expectation. You will each contribute and use our time together in your own way. Without judgement or comparison, we will hold a space and be with whatever emerges.

I will guide you through reflective and written exercises, grief and gratitude ceremonies, group exercises, personal reflections and self-soothing. You'll spend time harvesting what you can take forward into your life to feel better supported day-to-day. 

You can read my motivations for this work on the link here.

We each learn in our own unique way. Throughout our time together, you are encouraged to take care of yourself, to stay grounded and connected in ways that are right for you. There will be plenty of quiet time for integration, which is a vital part of the process.

Gratitude is an integral part of each circle. Learning the skill of holding gratitude and more difficult experiences means you can live with more authenticity and aliveness. 

Whilst the circles are therapeutic, it’s important to know that this is not therapy. I encourage all participants to have supportive resources available to them before, during, and after the event.

Tending to whatever is weighing you down means you can learn to be with and move through your loss with a greater sense of wellbeing.

Grief and praise are the beating chambers of the heart of love (Pretchel). 

Grief Tending is a tradition of sharing a space with others to welcome and witness loss, gratitude, and joy. 

As a culture that values individualism, many of us have gotten used to aloneness. At times when we most need connection and support, we can feel isolated and lost.

We are touched by and exposed to many sorrows and painful experiences in day-to-day life, where our expression of emotion is softened, diminished, and even deadened in families and societies.

At each gathering we'll hold space for grief tending rituals, which are an ancient tradition that are still honoured within natural cultures. Tending to loss, sadness and stuckness keeps individuals and communities healthy and resilient.

Sadly, many of those traditions have been lost. So much sorrow is left unspoken and weighs heavy on our emotional and physical wellbeing. 

The online circles are a way to try out this way of connecting with whatever you're holding on to right now.

Meeting online offers you a space wherever you are in the world, where you can take care of your own needs and comfort, while connecting with others as much or as little as you want to.

Many people try out the online circles before committing to a weekend gathering.

Likewise, those who have attended previous events find they can drop into the online spaces with more ease and get what they need in the flow of every-day life. 

If you’re more seasoned with tending to change, loss and grief in community rituals, then meeting online can offer a validating, familiar space to touch into whatever you’re holding right now.

In short, people like you. If you're reading this, then you're likely to be someone who's up for this kind of personal reflection and connection. Inner soul work tends to attract like-minded folk of all ages, identities, intersectionalities, and life experiences. 

I'm proudly multiply neurodivergent, aware of my privilege, blind to my blind-spots and internalised biases (work-in-progress!), and respect my unique intersectionality.

My desire and determination is to offer spaces where each person can feel safe. I respect 'safety' will be different for everyone and we will take time to co-create an environment for all. 

Hate speak, intolerance of how others identify and move through the world, and micro-aggression has no place at my gatherings. I have a zero tolerance policy. 

This is, as ever, a work-in-progress as I continue to learn to make my work more socially, environmentally, and systemically anti-oppressive.

As such, I invite each of you to learn and participate in your own way. The exercises, format of the gatherings, and rituals are created to be neuro-affirming, culturally appropriate, and welcoming to all. That said, if something doesn't work for you, don't do it!

What's important is your experience of being part of the gatherings. Being takes precedence over doing. 

In person Seasons of Renewal circles at held at The Affinity Centre, Cheadle, nr. Manchester. 

Located a short walk from Abney Hall & Gardens, this offers us a 'hybrid' indoor /outdoor location, with access to the historical woodland (Woodlands Trust) nearby. 

Cheadle is a pretty town on the edge of Manchester is a semi-rural location close to transport links and a range of accommodation. We're fortunate to have lots of parks and green space as well as a vibrant high street on the doorstep. 

Online gatherings will be on Zoom. These 4hr gatherings are ideal if you want a shorter experience before delving into the weekend workshops. Online spaces are also great if you've attended an in-person event and want to touch-in to the grief tending community on a regular and/or ad-hoc basis. 

Hello, I'm Joanna and I've been involved in grief work since 2020, personally and professionally. 

My private practice as a psychotherapist began in 2011 and I've been facilitating groups since 2016. I work with individuals, couples, and groups who are interested in deepening their relationships, especially the relationship with themself.  

My learning and mentoring has taken many forms. Below captures some of my more formal learning over recent years. I'm also thankful to and influenced by the work of Sharon Blackie, Joanna Macy, Kate Codrington, The Red School, Fullcircle Learning Collective. 

• Entering The Healing Ground: Grief facilitator training, Francis Weller (Live)
• Facing The World with Soul, Francis Weller (Live)
• Apprenticeship to Grief, Sophy Bank and Jeremy Thres 
• Menopause seasonal cycles and medicine circles, Kate Codrington
• Clinical development group, Bill Cornell and Mick Landaiche (ongoing)
• Fullcircle Learning Collective (2024/25)
• Provisional Teaching & Supervising Transactional Analyst Psychotherapy (PTSTA (P))
• UKCP. reg Clinical Supervisor 
• Certified Transactional Analyst - Psychotherapy (EATA)
• UKCP reg. Integrative & Humanistic Psychtoherapist 
• Certified Imago Relationship Therapist (IRI)
• Certified Imago Workshop Presented (IRI)

You can read more about my motivations for bringing grief tending to our communities here.

And here's some more info about me in my role of psychotherapist.