BEFRIENDING GRIEF

AN IN PERSON PERSONAL WORKSHOP FOR THERAPISTS

“We have forgotten the primary language of grief. As a consequence, the terrain of sorrow has become unfamiliar and estranged, leaving us confused, frightened, and lost when grief comes near.”

For therapists, it’s particularly vital to investigate our personal relationship with death, dying, and grief so we can make space for it when it joins the session.

Conversations about death often reveal themselves as some of the most human and connecting conversations we can share. Sadly, the topic of death is not only a difficult one for most of us it is vastly under practiced. In our culture, the impulse is to soften, speed through, or sidestep conversations about grief and death — to offer quick fixes or comforting distractions rather than linger in what feels uncomfortable. The busy world teaches to move on rather than stay with what aches.

This workshop isn’t just about techniques and theory—it’s about tending to grief.

It’s crafted to give you space to explore how you hold the complexities of being mortal. We are all in relationship with death, and with that comes grief—old, new, or yet unnamed. I offer you an opportunity to practice being mortal, so that when death sits on your couch, you can show up more fully.

THIS WORKSHOP WILL OFFER THE OPPORTUNITY TO...

Nurture your capacity to stay grounded while exploring death-related topics.
Investigate personal experiences and attitudes about death and dying through meditation and activities.
Recognize which of the 7 common fears about death hit us and how to tend to our responses
Examine how culture impacts attitudes and discussion of death as well as disenfranchises groups.
Identify counter-transference and how our work with clients is impacted by our experiences and culture.
Discuss how the therapeutic world conceptualizes grief and death and if it is friend or foe to the grieving.
Address the purpose and mechanism of grief as a necessary and natural function of healing.
Create a roadmap to developing an ongoing relationship with death.

WHEN & WHERE
Friday January 9 at Casa de Luz from 10am-330pm. During our one-hour lunch break, you’re welcome to bring your own meal, enjoy the on-site restaurant known for its healthy, plant-based dishes, or wander over to nearby food trucks if you prefer something different. Casa de Luz is filled with greenery, quiet nooks, and a sense of community - it is an ideal setting to nourish both body and mind.

ABOUT KIMBERLEY MEAD, LPC-S

Grief Therapist, Supervisor, Trainer

Kimberley has worked as a grief therapist throughout her career. She started her training at Austin's Center for Grief and Loss as not only as a therapist but also a as a support group facilitator working with both adults and children who had had a family member die. While there, she and a colleague who worked at hospice discussed the difficulties and heaviness of grief work with adults. From this seed, she created Morbid Curiosity: A Game About Death. She is passionate about tending to grief in a way offers acceptance, steadfastness, and presence rather than seeing it as something to “fix”.

Kimberley has attended Order of the Good Death national events, local Death Cafés, suicide prevention conferences and workshops, grief group facilitation training, and a variety of unique and sometimes quirky death-focused events. She has presented the game as a way to get people talking at the Thinkery as well as Lifting the Lid Conference, and spoken about death on the podcast the Next Room, Funeral One, TalkDeath, and Seeing Death Clearly. She offers workshops, lectures, and consultation about death, working with grief, and sitting with our mortality.

REFUND POLICY

If you cannot attend please contact me as soon as possible. Cancellations more than 7 business days prior to start of the training will receive a full refund, refunds are not available for no-shows or cancellations after this time frame. Transfer requests can be honored without a transfer fee.

January 9, 2026
10AM-3:30PM In Person
(1 Hour break for lunch)
4 CEUs

Casa De Luz
1701 Toomey Rd
Austin, TX 78704
(Off Barton Springs)

$150 Early Registration
$175 General Registration