Wednesday, Jan 21 & 28 at 6:30 - 8:00 p.m PT
Location: Online | Zoom
Free | By Donation

Speaker Series Description:

This talk is part of the Speaker Series offered through the Grief Tender Mentorship Program — a six-month learning community focused on cultivating grounded, community-based grief ritual leadership. The program is guided by elders Thérèse Charvet and Laurence Cole and is now in its fifth year, with more than 150 alumni and 56 participants in the current cohort.

The Speaker Series offers a space for members of the mentorship program and the wider grief tending community to gather, learn, and strengthen our shared capacity to meet the grief of these times.

This series is designed for grief tenders with experience in Dagara-inspired grief ritual lineages and related teachings from Malidoma Somé, Sobonfu Somé, Laurence Cole, Thérèse Charvet, Francis Weller, and others. It is especially suited for those actively holding community grief spaces or deeply invested in supporting them.

Topic: Conflict Tending for Grief Tenders

How to Compost Rupture into Relationship

When you read the word, "conflict", what arises? For most people, it's a sour taste in the mouth and painful memories. Most of us in modern culture were offered few, if any, examples of conflict tended well and consequently, avoid any sign of relationship tension. Yet conflict tended well - with skill, love, courage and support - is a key pathway to the mature, healthy communities many of us are endeavoring to create. Grief tenders have an especially important opportunity to befriend conflict. Conflict is the rupture that calls forward the grief; conflict work and grief work are inextricable frontiers for growth.

Sobonfu Some taught about the wisdom of conflict and the importance of holding it well. Spiritual teacher Deborah Jones, describing Sobonfu's message, writes: "In the villages of Africa, conflict is seen as a timely gift sent by Spirit to clear obscurations in their lives. The villagers would say that conflict arrives to crack open hidden thoughts, interpretations, and stuck energies...In the true spirit of community, the way conflict is approached and resolved is a barometer measuring the state of maturity of its members and the community itself." Source here.

In this 2-part session, Dr. Jessica Tartaro will help grief tenders explore their relationships to conflict, introduce the possibility of welcoming conflict rather than avoiding it, and guide participants through exercises to "approach and resolve" conflict in brave ways through tools that can be applied immediately. When approached with skillful receptivity and communal support, conflict offers the potential to deepen the impact of all our other healing work, including grief work.

Presenter: Dr. Jessica Tartaro

Dr. Jessica Tartaro (she/her) is a cis-gendered, able bodied, second generation Sicilian Jewish Intimacy Coach & Connection Facilitator who brings to her teaching nearly 20 years of experience in the healing arts facilitating individuals, couples and groups. Through her one-of-a-kind workshops, Jessica powerfully weaves together the threads of conscious intimacy, Authentic Relating, positive psychology, trauma-sensitivity, improvisational dance and mindful embodiment. Plus, she loves to play. Former Fulbright scholar, Jessica has founded communities across the country dedicated to healing the collective experience of belonging. On the Olympic Peninsula of Washington where she currently lives with her husband, Jessica is facing her greatest intimacy challenges yet as a mother to her fierce and fiery toddler, Joya. To stay current on her evolving offerings, inquire about her private coaching and check out her adorable toddler photos, go to DrJessicaTartaro.com.

For a deeper dive into conscious communication, join Jessica on Feb 7th for “How to Village Well: A Day of Connection Games with Jessica Tartaro & Grace Bryant”—now in its third round and filling quickly.

Organizers:

Siena Tenisci, MA, LMHC (Senior Facilitator)

Siena Tenisci is a Senior Facilitator for the Grief Tending Mentorship Program and organizer of the Speaker Series. She is also a mother, therapist, and founder of Northwest Grief Tending, a practice dedicated to offering accessible grief rituals and supporting community-based healing.

Thérèse Charvet (Program Director & Guiding Elder)

Thérèse Charvet is the Program Director and a guiding elder for the Grief Tending Mentorship Program, and land steward of the forrest sanctuary Sacred Groves, where she has hosted grief rituals and retreats since 2002. She trained for many years with her mentor, the late Sobonfu Somé.

Laurence Cole (Lead Facilitator & Guiding Elder)

Laurence Cole is a lead facilitator and guiding elder for the Grief Tending Mentorship Program. A song elder and ritualist, he trained extensively with Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé and has supported grief rituals since the late 1990s. He joined the Sacred Groves grief retreat team in 2009 and continues to share ritual and group singing widely.

Grief Tender Mentoring Program Team

The program is supported by a core team of six members—Thérèse Charvet, Laurence Cole, Siena Tenisci, Alex Eisenburg, Jordan Lyon, and Sarah Jackson—along with 10+ program alumni serving as pod leaders and elders in training.

Questions? Please email Siena at nwgrieftending@gmail.com

Contact the host of Speaker Series: Conflict Tending for Grief Tenders

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