Softening the impact of loss.
“Imagine the relief that would flood through us if we knew that when we were in the grip of sorrow, our village would know how to respond.”
At Hiraeth, we are committed to improving the experience of loss in our grief-averse culture. We serve our community through education, mentorship, and facilitation.
You will find us working across communities, workplaces, and homes to raise awareness and understanding of what it means to experience loss. As we are all touched by loss eventually, our reach extends to all who need help. We meet people where they are at, given the complexities of our world.
Our gatherings offer support for all natures of loss from the death of a loved one to a divorce to a job loss. We work side-by-side with other healers and grief circle facilitators in our community to provide our grief circles and gatherings.
Because we want to develop loss literacy, especially in the workplace, we offer programs to businesses, organizations, and institutions. Our goal is to increase our collective capability to face loss healthily through programs that help people learn more about loss and grief.
We are most pleased when you find us in your neighborhood sharing resources, fostering connections, and supporting families and individuals in kind and practical ways.
In a world where grief loss is everywhere - it makes sense that Hiraeth is too.
As mentors, we focus on connecting people experiencing loss with grief resources and existing supports in the community. We work with them to access the support they need and emphasize the importance of connection, kindness, and compassion.
Mentorship
We appreciate the complexities of loss.
We understand the current theoretical landscape and are not afraid to explore edgy approaches to working with the community.
We empower and inform through education and development, and we’re excited to engage with our community through interactive, sensitive, and customizable workshops and seminars.
Education
Grief tending nurtures connection, helping our community navigate all versions of loss. We immerse ourselves in time-honored processes to release and soothe sadness and make room for joy. The circle process invites us to feel the loss together and celebrate the joy of the love that gave life to the sorrow within the rich connection of the village.
Grief Tending and Collective Healing
Every journey with grief is as universal as it is unique.
“So it’s definitely safer not to grieve in the modern situation. But the modern world is not as sane as it thinks it is to have lost the arts of grief and praise. There has to be a way.”
When we accept that each loss is deeply personal and always legitimate, no matter its genre, source, or how we process it, we steady the sorrow-filled hearts among us.
THIS LAND
In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge the land where we live, play, gather, work, and tend to our grief. These are the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Tsuut’ina, and iethka Nakoda Nations, the Metis (Districts 5 and 6), and all of the people of the lands of Treaty 7 Territory. The land supports us, gives us life and provides sacred gathering places to hold us. It allows us to breathe life into the spirit of reconciliation.