20 May TENDING THE HEART: A COMMUNITY GRIEF RITUAL
Saturday 22nd November 2025 – In Person, 3pm – 7pm, The Old School Rooms @ The Round Chapel, London E5 (Non Residential), with Embracing Grief Team (Bilal Nasim, Aama Sade, Sarah Pletts and Tony Pletts) and Sophy Banks. A rare chance to experience the power of sharing grief with a large number of people ~
Join us in a Half Day Workshop, to find support with grief, and welcome our unique expression of it. This event is suitable for both newcomers and people who have experienced Grief Tending in other settings.
Step gently with us into the wild waters of emotion, and welcome-in life.
“I had two opposite concerns before joining a short workshop : that it would be too shallow, only scratching the surface, or conversely that it would open dams on an overwhelming torrent that I would not be able to deal with afterwards… Instead, I was impressed how deep I could go in addressing my grief while always feeling safe. Well done Tony, Sarah and Aama Sade!” Sophie R
Grief may arise as a result of many different life events, and all is welcome. We encourage self-kindness and taking care of our needs during our time together as each finds their own way to respond to the exercises. There will be group song supported by drummers. Everything we suggest is optional.
There will be a guided journey beginning with resourcing, then surfacing feelings – sadness, rage, fear, numbness and gratitude to name a few. There will be a chance to express, and be welcomed back into community with drumming and song, before coming to a gentle, soothing close, taking time to integrate, before leaving. There will be invitations to speak in pairs during the event, but the central grief ritual will be more anonymous, where people may use a variety of expressions including sound, tears, and movement.
This 4 hour event is designed as both an introduction to the practice of Grief Tending and as a short, intense workshop. For a more gentle exploration, Embracing Grief offer regular one and two day events, and Grief Tending in Community hold longer retreats with Sophy Banks and others.
Grief Tending offers grief support without trying to fix anything.
Grief is a natural response to difficult things happening. This may include a whole spectrum of feelings such as sadness, anxiety, depression, anger, numbness and overwhelm. We offer a guided journey through this landscape, whether your experiences of grief are personal, collective or ancestral. We offer tools to discover and express our own unique responses, together in a group. To help us to remember how to be human in community. People may bring challenging themes and strong expressions of emotion. The approach of Grief Tending brings many threads together, and is informed by the work of Sobonfu Somé, Malidoma Somé, Francis Weller, Joanna Macy, Martin Prechtel and Maeve Gavin.
This workshop is for you if you want to feel more alive.
Perhaps you are looking for support with grief? You may be with the spectrum of grief feelings, or disconnection from emotions. You may be dealing with something that happened in the past, a current situation, or something that you fear happening in the future. We welcome grief on any theme.
Shared grief spaces can stir up a lot of feelings, and we don’t recommend them for people who have grief which is very raw, or who are feeling fragile. If you’re not sure, please email welcome@loveandloss.co.uk.
Accessibility at the venue
The venue has steps at the main entrance, but there is a side ramp and a lift for access if needed.
To see more about what happens in a Grief Tending workshop, and the practice of Grief Tending for grief support, there are a series of short animations on this page:
https://www.griefsupport.org.uk/videos/
ABOUT YOUR FACILITATORS
The team are all experienced Grief Tenders who regularly hold grief tending events in London, Devon and online. They bring a wealth of embodied practices to work with grief – both personal and collective.
Sarah Pletts (she/her) is an experienced facilitator. She has spent hundreds of hours sitting alongside people finding their way with grief. She brings an embodied understanding of mortality and consent to the practice of Grief Tending. She has come through chronic illness, been a care-giver, and has a deep connection with the natural world. As an artist-maker she designs experiences that inspire, and creates beauty through ritual (www.loveandloss.co.uk). You can find her hand-drawn animations at www.griefsupport.org.uk/videos. She regularly co-facilitates with Tony Pletts, Bilal Nasim, Aama Sade, Sophy Banks and others. She lives in Hackney with partners, chosen family and friendly squirrels.
Sophy Banks (she/her) Sophy’s eclectic life has included time as a therapist, family constellator, radical footballer, community activist, engineer, computer trainer, and more.
Sophy’s understanding of the importance of shared grief work started through attending workshops of Joanna Macy and Sobonfu Some and continued in more recent work with Maeve Gavin. Since 2013 she has been growing Grief Tending in Community to seed and spread the practices of tending grief together, through offering talks, workshops in many formats, and supporting facilitators of grief work in the Apprenticing programme and beyond.
She is deeply committed to creating healthy human culture at all levels of scale, and sees that shared practices to express and hear our grief is a fundamental part of what brings us to right relationship to ourselves and those around us. This work of surfacing, witnessing and making meaning of our pain is crucial to transforming the systems of harm that abound in our world – and creating healthy relationships with ourselves, other people, and the wider living systems of the planet. You can find out more about Sophy’s work on Healthy Human Culture here.
Tony Pletts founded his art direction and construction company Einstein’s Octopus in 1987, a flexible business that’s allowed him to pursue other creative paths. Tony’s made radio programmes for BBC Radio 4 (his North Korean mini series was nominated for a SONY) and has just finished his first book, Love To The Power Of Three. Tony is also a trustee for the charity WAYout, a free at the point of use creative ‘University of the Street’ that works with street youth in Sierra Leone. Here he teaches both online and in person when he has the opportunity to visit. A rich and varied life has frequently exposed Tony to the teachings of grief and he started facilitating workshops with Sarah in 2019.
Bilal Nasim is a facilitator, trainer and artist exploring what it means to be alive and our relationship with death. Bilal is an experienced Grief Tender and has been holding grief spaces since 2018, including workshops aimed specifically for POC and those identifying as men. Bilal hosts workshops on confronting death, Death Cafe‘s, and is training as a death doula with Red Tent End Of Life Doulas. Bilal is a senior leader at Mycelium, delivering award winning programmes on personal resilience, inclusive leadership and workplace culture.
Embracing Grief Ethics Statement:
https://www.loveandloss.co.uk/ethics-statement/
FEEDBACK
“It was such a heart soothing and soul-enriching experience to participate in the space you created. I felt so utterly welcomed, free to bring whatever was alive in me, and never pressured to be anywhere I wasn’t. I had moments of feeling a huge resistance in myself, and was allowed to dance with that and invite what was hiding underneath. The threads that you wove to create our container felt so gently, lovingly and intentionally woven, held with both sincerity and lightness.” – Anon
“I felt tended, attended, respected. There was space for my grief, in a way that was not forced or distant, but rather inviting a nourishing intimacy. I felt we were all moving through the flow together, even though we could all follow our own pace. I touched some deep grief, and felt lighter and resourced afterwards. I deeply appreciate the work and care that are put into preparation and integration. Thank you for holding this space. It is human medicine.” – Anon
TICKET PRICES:
EARLY BIRD PRICES
Low Waged £35
Standard £45
Higher Waged £60
Supporter £75
LATE PRICES
Low Waged £40
Standard £50
Higher Waged £65
Supporter £80
Once you have purchased a ticket, you will receive an Advance Information Form which we require to be completed before the workshop – This is both to help you to prepare for the session and for us to be able to support your needs.
There will be a maximum of 12 available places excluding the team. 2 of these places will be available at the Bursary rate for those who are either unemployed, have insufficient/unstable income or are clearly unable to afford the Standard price. Bursary places must be requested, to do this please email Sarah: welcome@loveandloss.co.uk).
2 more places are available at the Low Income rate. The Supporter and High Income price part-subsidises those paying the Bursary and Low Income price.
Please note: We require a minimum number of attendees for events to go ahead. Please book early to avoid disappointment.
Note: We will start on time, please arrive 15 minutes before start time.
ENQUIRIES: Sarah: welcome@loveandloss.co.uk
This workshop is inclusive to everyone regardless of age (18+), ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and otherwise.
Please note: We require a minimum number of attendees for events to go ahead.
REFUNDS POLICY: Please note, we do not arrange refunds or exchanges. When possible we encourage reselling on Ticketswap.