A training programme for those wanting to gain skills and confidence in holding space for grief, whatever your context
Join one of the longest running Grief Tending training programmes, to grow your skills and confidence in holding space for grief, whatever your context.
Together we will explore the journey of grief tending to enable robust design for many different contexts. We reflect on the challenges, and the power of creating ritual space together, and calling on wider holding in contexts where this will mean different things to many present. We look at the practice of group facilitation, questions of safety and ethics in holding grief spaces, and the relationship between grief, trauma and the wider systems of harm and times of disruption we are living in.
The course offers experience of practices and ceremonies for expressing and witnessing grief, as well as the opportunity to facilitate and receive feedback from peers and tutors. It is led by a team who all have considerable experience holding grief spaces in many different settings, and been holding this programme since 2019. See more information about us here
After the training you will be invited to join a growing network of Grief Tenders who have completed the programme, currently around 150 people. You have the opportunity to share your events through the Grief Tending in Community Newsletter, reaching around 1,000 people and growing. With regular meetups, this network provides support, potential collaborators, and a huge resource of wisdom and experience that is generously shared.
There is an application process for this workshop; you can see more about our criteria for accepting people here.
See below for more information about:
| “..a gathering of folk dedicated to bringing back the sacred art of grieving… Reassured by the extensive knowledge and humility of the facilitators, we spent an alchemical week weaving stories, dance, laughter and tears, deepening our knowledge, finding our gifts and establishing what feels like a strong support network as we went forth. It was a week of pure soul food.“ |
We ask that all who come have done some work with us beforehand to get a feel for our approach, and to be familiar with the journey of tending grief as we offer it. This could be a residential, or 2 – 3 day event; or 2 or more shorter one day or half day workshops. This could be with anyone in the team or wider network of Grief Tending apprentices. If you are wanting to facilitate Grief Tending spaces we strongly recommend attending a longer journey.
“A rare and special training with two highly experienced and skilled elder facilitators. This work is deep & powerful. The programme holds that by being trauma informed, culturally sensitive and playful when needed!” Sarah
Why “Apprenticing to Grief”? We’ve used this name to reflect that the real source of wisdom in the room is Grief itself, and that all of us, however much experience we have, are still learning from this powerful teacher.
In this short programme we cannot equip you to hold deep and transformative spaces from scratch. But we will share specific practices that give in depth understanding of the design, facilitation, and principles of holding space for grief well. Many who have found the programme invaluable already hold spaces in which grief arises – including group facilitators, therapists, doctors, social workers, parents, doulas, hospice workers and many others.
Please read all the information below before applying.
Information for 2026 Programmes
About costs and sliding scale
We’ve changed the pricing structure a little this year, separating out the cost of the programme from the accommodation and food cost.
We are open to payment in instalments, and sometimes can arrange for some exchange or work as part payment. We want this programme to be accessible to those who want to do it, and will do our best to be flexible, valuing the skill, time and energy of the large holding team.
When considering what to pay for the programme we invite you to consider the scale in this way:
| Low end of scale | People on less than average income, i.e. less than £28,000 per year, or with children or other dependents, and without savings |
| Middle of scale | People with average income, or with some financial security from savings, partner or other |
| Top end of scale | Those who are comfortable financially, or have considerable savings or security |
| Bursary place | Those on benefits or with very low income – get in touch if this applies to you |
Apprenticing to Grief On line 2026
“This is an amazing journey that blends learning, exploring and skill building with community, heart and ritual and ceremony! I have left feeling full in a good way, more confident as a facilitator and feeling this is just the start of my apprenticing grief journey, Thank you to all the creators, teachers, wisdoms keeper of this work. This is soul work!” NL, 2024 participant
- Three weekend modules in February and March, plus two in-between evening sessions – see dates and times below
- Cost: £600 – 1200 sliding scale. Bursary places and paying in instalments are welcome.
- Led mainly by Sarah, Jeremy and Dita, with Sophy and others contributing (see information about us here)
- You are welcome to use this form to apply for a place.
Dates and Times – all times are GMT (UK time)
| Weekend | Friday time (GMT) | Saturday time | Sunday time |
| MODULE 1 Friday February 13th – Sunday 15th | 16:00 – 18:00 19:00 – 20:30 | 12:00 – 14:00 16:00 – 18:00 19:00 – 20:30 | 12:00 – 14:00 16:00 – 18:00 |
| In between session | Weds Feb 25th | 18:00 – 20:00 | will be recorded |
| MODULE 2 Friday March 6th – Sunday March 8th | 16:00 – 18:00 19:00 – 20:30 | 12:00 – 14:00 16:00 – 18:00 19:00 – 20:30 | 12:00 – 14:00 16:00 – 18:00 |
| In between session | Weds March 18th | 18:00 – 20:00 | will be recorded |
| MODULE 3 Friday 27th March – Sunday 29th March CLOCKS GO FORWARD! | 16:00 – 18:00 19:00 – 20:30 | 13:30- 17:30 19:00 – 20:30 | (BST not GMT – starts Sunday morning!) 12:00 – 14:00 16:00 – 18:00 |
We provide a store of on line resources, recordings of any talks, presentations and other content, and offer links to encourage further reading and learning.
We have been repeatedly surprised at how powerful on line grief tending can be, and found this on line format to be an effective and far reaching way of offering this body of work.
Apprenticing to Grief in person
We’re offering two residential programmes in 2026. Groups of approx 14 participants are supported by a team of up to seven including facilitators and assistants. All the team have completed the programme, and most are already offering Grief Tending in some form, so there is a lot of experience and many different perspectives present.
High Heathercombe, Devon April 18 – 24th
The first, in April, is at our traditional Devon venue, High Heathercombe. High on Dartmoor this is a remote and more basic venue which offers us access to the wild moor and great value. Beds are in small dormitories of up to 3 sharing, and camping in your own tent or van is available
- Dates: Saturday 18th 3pm – Friday 24th April 1.30pm
- Cost of the workshop EXCLUDING accommodation & food: sliding scale from £500 – £1000 with some lower cost places avalable
- Accommodation and food cost: Camping / campervan: £300; dormitory space: £390
- Facilitated by Sophy, Jeremy and Dita with experienced support (see information about us here)
Braziers park, oxfordshire 28th sept – 4th oct
If you prefer more comfort, and less travel from the South East, come to our Braziers Park autumn programme. Braziers is a long established community set in 50 acres of grounds close to Oxford, easily accessible by public transport. We’ll have a beautiful group room in the main house, and our own separate kitchen and space in the Barn. It offers more spacious bedrooms, singles or doubles, as well as a large camping field.
- Dates: Monday 28th September 3pm – Sunday October 4th 1.30pm 2026
- Cost of the workshop EXCLUDING accommodation & food: sliding scale from £500 – £1000 with some lower cost places available
- Accommodation and food cost (add to the workshop cost above): Camping / campervan: £395; double room: £545; single room: £695.
- Facilitation team: Sophy, Sarah and Aama Sade plus experienced support (see information about us here)
Information about Apprenticing to Grief
Our intention
The intention of bringing this workshop at this time is to share our learnings around holding grief spaces, and to help support and resource others that are stepping towards this work. We see that tending grief well is a vital component in healthy humans, in healthy relationships, and a healthy human presence on the planet. We believe it’s essential to understand the interconnections between the many forms and sources of grief, historic, present, cultural, personal, and more.
We recognise that we are still learning to hold spaces for grief as well as to participate in them. In a land and a time where most have lost the role of elders and other helpful traditions we are feeling our way towards forms and practices that can be both accessible and effective. So we are happy to share our understandings, hoping they can benefit others, honouring our teachers who have helped us to grow in this work, and knowing we will learn together when we gather a group around this intention.
See below for details of how to apply.
What you can expect from us
Residential: Seven-day immersive programme, with a team of experienced Grief tenders facilitating and support. Food is included, accommodation varies according to venue.
On line: Three modules using Zoom, usually not more than 4 1/2 hours screen time per day. There will be resources and practices to work with off line both during and between modules.
We will explore how to open pathways into the landscape of grief, hold space there, and guide the journey back, integrating our experience so we can go forward in our lives in a good way.
| “Sophy and Jeremy together share a deep passion for healing our relationship to nature and each other and skillfully created a communal space for us to approach grief with a slow gentleness. Going home, I feel more capable of serving my community in kind, inviting people to a monthly gathering where we can grieve together, and recognize our shared love of life.” |
Here’s a summary of what we will cover:
- Looking at the elements of a safe, held and deep journey into and back from grief. This includes –
- Welcoming and creating trust in a group and building the “banks of the river” – calling in resources that we can return to
- Introducing grief in ways that are inclusive and respectful
- Practices to stir and express grief
- Integration and soothing; making meaning and harvesting insights from grief tending
- Reconnecting to resources and supporting people to leave in good shape for the return to their lives
- Welcoming and creating trust in a group and building the “banks of the river” – calling in resources that we can return to
- Sharing different practices and philosophies around grief, trauma and healing; exploring the relationship between cultural norms of avoiding feeling pain; creating systems of harm and oppression; a system which is destroying the living web of life. Acknowledging we have different identities, spiritual beliefs, if any, and cultural contexts which affect how we step towards this work.
- Exploring “ceremony” and “ritual” and entering ritual space together. An optional ceremony to strengthen support from the ancestors, in the widest sense of the word (lineage, teachers, trees, nature, earth..)
- Reflecting on how we deepen into our own grief, and how this supports us to work with others – understanding that whatever we cannot face or facilitate in ourselves we are unlikely to be able to welcome or facilitate for others.
- Looking at skills of facilitation – reflecting on how we can continue to develop and hone these skills
- Recognising that this can be challenging and difficult territory, we will look together at creating ethical and robust practices
- Exploring how we each strengthen the skillset we need to be competent, skilled and ethical – whilst recognising that there is a deep and sometimes urgent need for this work, to which we are responding.
- Times for participants to facilitate, including part of a full grief journey held by the group; self, peer and tutor feedback
- Joining a network or community of practice
- We will explore how the intention shapes the work – for example, that Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects has a different purpose and evoke a different response to holding a general Grief tending event.
It’s a lot!
| “..you are about to embark on a journey that brings you close to some deep, sweet, still and sad places and you may not come back the same but you will be shaped for ever in these magical waters.” FG, participant |
What we expect from you
- To attend the whole course, unless you have an agreement with us otherwise
- That you are in some process of inner exploration, including ways of tending your own grief
- That you have attended at least one Grief Tending workshop with us, preferably longer than one day, so you have a sense of our work and approach and have done a deep journey of grief yourself.
- That you are resourced and supported so you can participate in and help to hold processes that invite the sharing of feelings, vulnerability and self exploration with others.
- That you have experience of holding others either in one to one or group settings
- To prepare and facilitate part of the grief journey, working with others in the group
- To take responsibility for the other aspects of grief work that are needed for you to be a safe and competent facilitator before you hold others in this work (including facilitation skills, working with others at depth and holding people as trauma surfaces)
- On line journey: to do some work in between on line sessions, during and between the modules individually, and in learning groups
What is a Grief Tending Training?
We want to be clear that we are not offering a training that equips you to become a Grief Tending facilitator, nor in facilitation, in holding people at depth, nor in working with trauma. All those in the facilitation team have extensive experience of holding people doing deep healing work, in groups as well as one to one.
When working with grief we are likely to touch wounded places, including trauma. We see that facilitators of grief spaces need to have skills in group facilitation, working at depth, and meeting trauma. Whilst we can touch on these themes during the workshop it’s your responsibility to equip yourself to work safely with people in any contexts you are offering.
Apprentices Network
There is a group of over 140 people who have completed the Apprenticing to Grief journey. We organise regular on line meet ups for support, discussion of live themes, and to help the practices of Grief Tending to reach those who want it.
This huge wellspring of experience is also a place to tap into to find, or share, opportunities for collaboration, information, solutions to challenges and more.
There are sub-groups looking to research the impact of Grief tending, and to create structures that can support all of us e.g. shared calendars of events, and so on.
To apply for Apprenticing to grief
We ask that you have attended at least one Grief tending workshop before applying, with us, or with others working in similar lineages, preferably of 2 or more days, or at least two half day workshops.
The more you have experienced the journey into, being with, and returning from spaces of grief, the more you will benefit from this Apprenticing programme. Find opportunities for this on our Events page, and links to other grief spaces in the most recent version of the newsletter, here. If you aren’t able to attend something and would like to apply to the Apprenticing programme please contact us.
You can see more about applying, and the criteria we use for entry on this page.
