Loss, Trust, & Change - A Grief Retreat
With Sascha Demerjian and Laura Green
June 26 - 29, 2025
Nature knows how to process loss, there’s nothing new to invent. Many of us live outside naturally directed cycles. Long work weeks, industrialized food and computer moderated communities can make it hard to remember we’re part of nature. This shows up brightly in the ways we’ve come to manage grief. We struggle to trust in systems we haven’t designed and cannot control. It makes it easy to feel lonely and afraid a lot of the time.
In our experience we’ve found, with help, support and encouragement, we can make our way back to being held and guided by this big, trustworthy thing we never left and that will never leave us. It isn’t easy, but it’s simple and quite possible. We feel lucky to get the chance to try with all of you.
We’re excited to gather in the complex wellness of the woods and water at Breitenbush, in the presence of our individual and communal grief, to practice moving with, learning from and trusting the system we belong to.
What to expect at this gathering:
We’ll spend the weekend exploring what it feels like to let go. We will work closely with the river to find ways to let feelings, habits, and stories that have gotten stuck in us in troubling ways be loosened and washed out.
- Sharing and witnessing
- Silence
- Meditation
- Movement
- Yoga
- Sound
- Touch
- Gentle tending
Our goal will be to watch this process as it unfolds in the river and learn from it. To become more intimate with this particular movement in the non-human guided world. To see how other beings trust it and how we, as part of this balanced system, might find our way to trust.
Retreat Itinerary
Thursday
Afternoon – Arrive at Breitenbush, check in, settle in your weekend home.
Walk about, have a soak, get familiar with the land.
Before dinner at 6pm, find a place to sit and greet the river privately and share your washed free wish list with her.
6:00 – 7:00pm – Communal Dinner at the lodge – Look for Sascha and Laura, we will find a good-sized table for those who want to join.
7:00 – 9:00pm – Gather in the River Yurt as we welcome and orient for the weekend ahead and begin our communal grief work with our first Grief Spill. We will close with some gentle somatic practices to help us settle for the night.
After the Spill– Private time to soak, journal, stand with the trees by the river, do the thing that calls you before you rest.
Friday
8:00 – 9:00am – Breakfast at The Lodge, silent or conversational, as you choose.
9:30 – 12:30pm – Exploring movement and change in the River Yurt.
Expanding our exploration of how stuck things find movement we’ll offer yoga and guided meditation in 20-minute cycles that draw attention to our particular physical holding patterns and what helps them change and let go. You have the option to stay at the yurt during the meditation portions of this practice to sit, draw or journal, or walk by the river or in the labyrinth.
1:00 – 2:00pm – Lunch in The Lodge, silent or conversational, as you choose.
2:00 –4:00pm – Private time to walk, soak, rest or whatever calls you. The River Yurt will be open with oracle cards, blankets and cushions, and prompts for journaling, meditation and self-care.
4:00 – 6:00pm – Gather at the River Yurt for guided sound and movement work and for our second grief spill.
6:00 – 7:00pm – You are invited to join Sascha and Laura for a silent dinner at the lodge if you wish.
7:30 – 9:30pm – In the River Yurt, we’ll practice inviting in wise & caring energy and allowing it to bring change to our systems. Sascha and Laura will lead physical care activities including tapping, hand, foot and head massage which can be exchanged or done on your own body, and all-natural aroma therapy with items from around the yurt.
This will be followed by read-aloud/restorative yoga time – Sascha will read aloud while you rest in restorative yoga poses, with the option of hands-on care from Laura.
After – Private time to soak, journal, stand with the trees by the river, do the thing that calls you before you rest for the night.
Saturday
8:00 – 9:00am – Breakfast at the lodge, silent or conversational, as you choose
9:30 – 10:30am — Meet at the welcome station and head out for a quiet walk along the main road. Practice noticing and not fixing, allowing and sending love to the land as we walk. You will see the remnants of devastation from the 2020 fire. You will see the new growth. You will see complexity and be a part of it.
10:30 – 12:30pm – Convene back at the River Yurt as your walk concludes for cycles of writing, art, meditation and movement. During this round, we’ll offer guided practice and prompts that explore balance of how we offer and receive.
1:00 – 2:00pm – Lunch in the lodge, silent or conversational, as you choose.
2:00 – 4:00pm — Private time to walk, soak, rest or whatever calls you. The River Yurt will be open with oracle cards, blankets and cushions, and prompts for journaling, meditation and self-care.
4:00 – 5:30pm – We’ll shift our focus to the interaction between grief and gratitude. We will offer guided movement, yoga and sound practices to move with and integrate these deeply connected states.
6:00 – 7:00pm – Dinner in the lodge, silent or conversational, as you choose.
7:30 – 9:30pm – Meet at the River Yurt for our third grief spill followed by yoga nidra for deep rest
After – private time to soak, journal, stand with the trees by the river, do the thing that calls you before you rest for the night.
Sunday
8:00 – 9:00am – Breakfast at the lodge, silent or conversational, as you choose
9:00 – 11:00am – In the River Yurt, we will close with a final grief spill and thoughts about moving back into the busy world, then quietly walk to the river together to offer our thanks and devotion.
After the retreat:
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Private time to soak, journal, meditate, walk or just be at Breitenbush
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Check out of lodging by 1pm if leaving Sunday
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Participants are welcome to stay for lunch at Breitenbush at 1pm and on the grounds until 3pm
This retreat is intentionally capped to not exceed 16 in order to work within an intimate container for our weekend.
About the Leaders
Sascha Demerjian
Sascha Demerjian is a partner, mother, sister, friend, animal lover and Grief House Tender. The road she took to get here took her through a MSW from the University of Michigan, a PhD in Sociology from Emory University, several moves across the country, parenthood, pet parenthood, and so many deep connections and losses. At the Grief House […]
Learn more about Sascha Demerjian
Laura Green
Laura Green is a massage therapist, Grief House Tender, friend and partner, daughter, sister, niece and many times a cousin. She feels many things, knows very little, is good at asking questions and better and better at not having answers. You can listen to her talk for many hours on the podcast she makes with Sascha […]
Learn more about Laura GreenCategory : Event
