Grief, Risk and Grace

 About the Series 

"Those who risk their lives to protect marine mammals, and those who risk jail to stop paying taxes for weapons, and those who risk their jobs to 'blow the whistle' on corruption and deception — they also draw on vaster powers of life. Grace happens when we act with others on behalf of our world." - Joanna Macy

"Relinquish an inch of your privilege so that an entire people (Palestinians) doesn't have to lose everything"! – Francesca Albanes

 

How do you face these challenging times of fascism, militarism, livestreamed genocides, overt racism, blatant propaganda, double-standard laws, accelerated rate of ecocide, potential nuclear war, etc.?

How do you overcome a by-design sense of paralysis and barriers to disentangle from the system of oppression?

While it may have been hiding under “rule of law” or “free market”, colonialism and supremacy function as the scaffolding of the industrial capitalist world. This series is an invitation to decolonize our mind, body, and heart. We will deepen our conscious and unconscious awareness of the systemic patterns of power. We will be working on how to avoid replicating tools of the dominant system, moving away from performative action and care, and centering underrepresented voices.

Together, we aim to sustain discomfort and uncertainty, bolster courage and compassion, strengthen our solidarity and our contribution to collective liberation. 

This course is designed to be experimental and experiential, unlearning institutionalized knowledge and recognizing different forms of knowing and being.

 

A five-week experimental and experiential journey

Week#1: Political Awareness: anchor our journey in justice, healing, and mutual care

Week#2: Social Awareness: identify our entanglement within the system of harm

Week#3: Decolonize Grief: extend our circle of empathy

Week#4: Reconnect with Wide Community & Ancestral Wisdom: learn, unlearn, and embody new paradigms

Week#5: Go Forth: orient our actions towards finding/building community and collaborative actions

Zeinab Benchakroun is a somatic coach and facilitator of Good Grief Network and the Work That Reconnects. After more than two decades working in different fields, including social justice and climate activism, she transitioned to supporting people and organizations seeking agency, courage, resilience, and transformation. Focused on how the ecological collapse is braided with colonialism, patriarchy, and oppression, she is committed to bridging her attention and energy between the current injustices and the seeds for a regenerative life. She is a Moroccan woman Muslim animist, and a mother of three children.

At present, Aparna Bakhle (she/her) works as an independent researcher and freelance consultant around decolonizing care, nurturing coherence and attuning to presence through climate collapse. She holds a BFA in Film (Emerson College) and an MA in Engaged Ecology (Schumacher College, UK). She has trained as a F.L.O.W. Facilitator with Good Grief Network and in Conflict Transformation with The Whole Partnership. Aparna is also the mother of two daughters who inspire her commitment to supporting just transitions towards regenerative futures for the more than human as well as humans

 

Timing & Logistics

Please read the following section carefully to avoid confusion about meeting times and time zones. Good Grief Network does not offer program refunds, so please check that the timing of this group works with your schedule.

 

The reference/anchor time** for this meeting is Eastern Time Zone in United States: 

 

This group will meet for 5 Thursdays

30 April - 28 May 2026

12:00pm - 2:00pm ET / 9:00 - 11:00am PT

[check your time zone]***

 

 

Program Fees & Scholarships

This amount can be paid in one payment or in two payment installments. 

Redistribution Rate: $300 USD
Full Rate: $250 USD
Solidarity Rate: $200 USD

FLOW Member (Acorn Level): $175 USD
FLOW Member (Oak Level): $125 USD

Scholarships/Work Exchanges: 50% and 100% scholarships and Work Exchanges available! 

 

Interested in a scholarship or work exchange?

Please DO NOT complete this form.

Click here for our scholarship/work exchange application.

 

We don't want finances to be an obstacle to participation. We offer full and partial scholarships or work exchanges to folks from marginalized communities or who are fiscally constrained and need support accessing this healing work.

For more information on our sliding scale payment, please see the Program Payment section below for details.

 

Informational Session

 

Time Commitment

We prioritize small groups, so spots are limited. Please only sign up for this group if you are able to attend the full two hours of all 5 meetings (barring unexpected circumstances, of course).

  

Accessibility

Each session will be hosted on Zoom. Access and familiarity with the Zoom platform is recommended. 

This series will be hosted in English. We would like to be able to offer our events in other languages, but are still a very small nonprofit organization and do not have that capacity at this time.

Please let us know if you have any accessibility needs the facilitator team should be aware of.

 

Final Notes

• To get to know your facilitators by exploring their bios on our facilitation directory.

• GGN does not offer refunds for our program, even in the case of time-zone mix-ups. Please read our refund policy below before signing up for this group. 

Program Payment

Good Grief Network offers three tiers for payment for our 5-week series (this payment may be made in full or over two months):

 

Redistribution Rate: $300 USD
This rate is for community members who have access to structural wealth such as a stable job, investment income, or inherited wealth, and are able to pay a higher rate to support the participation of folks who pay at the solidarity rate. If you are funded by a for-profit employer who is covering the cost of this program, please opt for the redistribution rate.

 

Full Rate: $250 USD
This rate reflects what it costs to run our program so that we can continue offering a solidarity rate, scholarships, and work exchanges. If you are funded by a non-profit employer who is covering the cost of this program, please opt for the full rate. 

 

Solidarity Rate: $200 USD
This rate is for folks who live in fiscal discomfort or uncertainty, or otherwise lack access to financial resources.

 

Please consider the following questions, as well as your relative levels of wealth and privilege when choosing what pricing tier is most appropriate for you:

• How do you value the following support and education?
  • Help reframing the global predicament
  • Understanding the interconnectedness of the climate crisis & social injustices
  • Learning and practicing emotional regulation techniques
  • Access to curated resource lists
  • Space to share your feelings in a tender, brave, and supportive group with other participants who are experiencing similar challenges
  • Building a live, intimate, and trusted community for 10 weeks
    
    
• How do you value the team of facilitators that will support you?
  • We have teams of two GGN-trained FLOW Facilitators that will guide you through the 5-week journey
  • How much do you value their expertise, time, energy, and leadership?
  • Do you pay other practioners full price for their services?
    
    
• What is the value, per hour, that your culture has assigned to your time?
  
  • Please consider supporting this program with a fee that is equal to at least 10 hours at your average hourly rate
    
    
• Are you able to comfortably meet your needs?
  • If you have ample expendable income, savings, investements, inherited wealth, or otherwise have had structural advantages or access to financial resources, please consider paying the redistribution rate on the payment scale, in order to support our community members with less access to resources 
  • What payment offering feels like both a meaningful contribution for our 5-week journey and is within your means to pay?
     

Scholarship & Work Exchange Information

Please do not complete this form, instead please click here to apply for scholarships.

We do not want finances to be an obstacle to participation, so if you are experiencing financial limitations, we encourage you to apply for a scholarship. 

GGN Refund Policy

We are unable to offer refunds for this 5-week series.

GGN offers a small group experience, which means that spots in our programs are limited. Because this series involves progressive work and intimate trust-building, we are unable to fill the spots of participants who withdraw last minute or in the middle of the program. We ask you to please practice discernment and mutual care by being intentional with your registration.

This includes time zone mix ups. Before booking a space in this series, please double check your availability and the time zone of this offering. Please double check your time zone before continuing.