Fireside Chat Series with Thérèse Charvet and Laurence Cole

Fireside Chat Series with Thérèse Charvet and Laurence Cole

Three autumn Zoom conversations on communal grief ritual, ceremony, and community

• Dates: Thurs, Oct 22 | Mon, Nov 16 | Thurs, Dec 3

• Time: 5–7 p.m. PT

• Location: Zoom (Recordings available for registered participants)

• Sliding Scale: $70 - $150 for all three sessions. A limited number of pay-what-you-can spaces are available upon request. If cost is a barrier, please email grief.tender.mentoring@gmail.com.

Join Thérèse Charvet and Laurence Cole for three conversations about their experiences with communal grief ritual and what they have learned through more than 25 years of this work.

Across the series, Thérèse and Laurence will share stories from their early experiences learning with Malidoma Somé and Sobonfu Somé, reflect on the many grief rituals, retreats, song circles, and community gatherings they have helped lead, and speak about the qualities and practices they believe are important in tending grief in community.

Each gathering will include conversation and storytelling, followed by time for participant questions and discussion.

This series accompanies the Grief Tender Immersion Program but is open more broadly and is distinct from the Immersion itself. It is not a training, mentorship program, or facilitated grief ritual. It offers an opportunity to hear directly from Thérèse and Laurence about their experiences, influences, and evolving understanding of communal grief tending.

The series may be a meaningful way for those who have applied for the Grief Tender Immersion to prepare for the program, deepen in relationship with Thérèse and Laurence, and spend more time with some of the teachings and experiences that have shaped their work. It is also open to anyone interested in hearing elders reflect on communal grief ritual, ceremony, community, and what they have learned through decades of practice.

Session 1: Learning from Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé

Thérèse and Laurence will share stories from their years learning with Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé, including grief rituals and other ceremonies they participated in and helped support. They will reflect on what they learned through these relationships, what Malidoma and Sobonfu shared with them about community and grief in Burkina Faso, and how these teachings influenced the grief work they later developed in their own communities.

Session 2: Twenty-Five Years of Grief Rituals and Retreats

Drawing on more than 25 years of experience, Thérèse and Laurence will reflect on the grief rituals, retreats, song circles, and other community gatherings they have led and participated in. They will speak about different approaches to ritual, what they have learned from working with groups over time, and some of the conditions that help people feel able to grieve together and create communities of belonging.

Session 3: The Qualities of a Grief Tender

In the final session, Thérèse and Laurence will reflect on what they believe supports someone in tending grief well. Topics may include presence, humility, song and prayer, relationship with land and spirit, listening, working with strong emotion, and the ongoing personal and spiritual work that supports a grief tender in holding ritual and community with integrity.

About Thérèse Charvet

Thérèse Charvet is the founder of Sacred Groves, a forest sanctuary on Bainbridge Island she has stewarded for 50 years, where she has offered earth-based ritual, grief work, women’s mysteries, rites of passage, and community gatherings. Her work is rooted in decades of ceremony, midwifery, Buddhist practice, land-based spirituality, and relationship with the more-than-human world. Thérèse attended many ceremonies with her mentor, the late Sobonfu Somé, throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and began offering grief rituals with Sobonfu’s blessing in 2002. After six years as the director of the Grief Tender Mentorship Program, Thérèse is now stepping into the role of Guiding Elder, offering wisdom, ritual leadership, and spiritual grounding while supporting the program’s next stage of stewardship.

About Laurence Cole

Laurence Cole is a song elder, ritualist, and beloved facilitator from Port Townsend, Washington, whose work helps communities remember the healing power of grieving and singing together. He brings decades of devotion to group singing, grief ritual, and the restoration of belonging through shared voice. Laurence met Thérèse Charvet at a grief retreat held by Sobonfu Somé in 1997, and participated in many rituals with Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé through the 1990s and early 2000s. He joined the Sacred Groves grief retreat team in 2009 and has since traveled widely offering grief rituals, song circles, and communal singing at retreats, conferences, festivals, and community gatherings. Through his songs and facilitation, Laurence helps create spaces where people can soften into grief, reconnect with one another, and remember their natural human capacity for belonging.

Questions? Please email grief.tender.mentoring@gmail.com