Peer-Led Grief Support Circles at The Grief Room

Circle Details:

A space where parents and caregivers can find connection and share resources.

This offering is meant for anyone caring for a neurodivergent child who is craving connection with others who are navigating a similar path, anyone who might feel simultaneously grateful for their journey with these kiddos and also sometimes overwhelmed by it. Our hope is to build community through shared experience and offer one another support.

We will meet the 4th Wednesday of the Month at 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM

(Oct 28, Nov 25, Dec 23, Jan 27, Feb 24, March 24, April 28)

*8 spots available

Circle Leaders:

Michael Townley (she/her) is an early childhood educator who has experience with neurodivergence both professionally and personally, as a mom of two. She sees the need in her own parent community for conversation and connection among caregivers about shared experiences; she loves helping connect families with helpful ideas and resources.

Sarah Cowan (she/her) is a school nurse, a life coach, and mother of a neurodivergent teenager. As a life coach, she is passionate about supporting the well-being of humans who spend much of their time and energy caring for others - by helping them to reduce overwhelm, build resilience, and learn to care for themselves as compassionately as they care for others.

Support Circle Description:

As we grow, expand, and become who we truly are, we experience loss: people, places, identities, roles, beliefs and worldviews, and so much more. This group is for LGBTQ+ folks who are currently living into the “both/and” of the brilliance and joy that accompanies authentic living - and - the losses that can often go unacknowledged as we come home to ourselves, and refuse to self-abandon in the name of connection.

This group will center creative self-expression in ways that resonate with the participants: song, movement, poetry, and visual process art and collage. No art or music experience necessary. Come just as you are!

“We shake with joy, we shake with grief

What a time they have, these two

Housed as they are in the same body.”

Evidence by Mary Oliver

Support Circle Details:

3rd Thursday of the Month at 7 PM - 9 PM

(Oct 15, Nov 19, Dec 17, Jan 21, Feb 18, March 18, April 15)

*10 spots available

Support Circle Leaders:

Krista Costin is a fierce advocate for healing and lover of life. The COVID-19 pandemic was the start of a homecoming for claiming her true sexuality, exploring gender, grieving the loss of a long-held career, and going back to school for a new one in her mid-30's. It's never too late to become more YOU.

Mo was raised in a small, homeschooled, Christian-Nationalist environment. As they questioned their way out, they unburied themselves. Even with how joyous and liberating the journey has been, it has meant grieving all that comes from leaving a world behind. It has meant grieving what happened just as much as what didn't happen. Mo is drawn to holding this circle, because shey knows the importance of not feeling alone and magnifying one another's light.

Circle Description:

This is a circle for Asian Americans seeking an affinity space to share, witness, and hold whatever grief or loss we are carrying. Topics may include but are not limited to cultural loss and intergenerational trauma.

Support Circle Details:

3rd Saturday of the Month

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

(Oct 17, Nov 21, Dec 19, Jan 16, Feb 20, March 20, April 17)

*7 spots available

Support Circle Leader

Felise Park (she/her) is a child of Korean immigrants, and she knows something of the grief that can live quietly between generations. Felise is passionate about creating affinity spaces for Asian Americans and BIPOC folks to name, share, and hold what we carry, individually and collectively. She is here because she believes in the power of storytelling, witnessing, and being witnessed in community.

Support Circle Description:

Navigating the loss of a partner or spouse at a young age (~45 or under; no hard limits on age) and at any point in your loss journey.

Support Circle Details:

3rd Friday of the Month

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

(Oct 16, Nov 20, Dec 18, Jan 15, Feb 19, March 19, April 16)

*10 spots available

Support Circle Leader:

Karen Wong (she/they) lost their partner of 7 years to brain cancer in July of 2025. Since then, some of the most meaningful grief support they continue to seek out are grief groups where they get to connect with peers. They hope to bring community to others who are at any point in their journey of partner/spouse loss through this circle.

They bring their grief alongside them to work in the realm of Higher Education and walk this life path with their best lil guy, Kirby, a rambunctious and cuddly 2 and a half year old American Staffordshire Terrier/Pittie Mix.

Support Circle Description:

This group will be a soft place to land among our sisters. Here, without judgment or comparison, we will gather to discuss the different kinds of grief that arise, as well as the profound love, connection, and resilience that we can find not only with our children, but within ourselves.

This group may be for you if:

• You're not technically a registered nurse, but you might as well be.

• You know what a stander and activity chair are, because they're currently crowding your living room and ruining your aesthetic.

• You consider going to a playground a form of exposure therapy.

• You know what ADLs are, and your child needs help with most of them.

Some of the topics we may discuss:

• Identifying the different "phases" of grief from our unique viewpoint. For example: what happens when all of the organizing supplies in the world still don't cure cerebral palsy? I'll let you know when I find out.

• Hot pokers: the drive-by moments in public when someone says something that really stings. We'll talk about what they bring up, what we wish we'd said, and what we actually said (which was probably "thank you.").

• Self-care isn't a bubble bath, it's a battlefield: "just take a break," and "you can't pour from an empty cup" all assume we have the time, the help, and a cup. We'll explore how we can each put the take in "take care": how to rest without guilt, ask for help, and accept it when it's offered.

Support Circle Details:

3rd Wednesday of the Month

4:30 PM - 6:30 PM

(Oct 21, Nov 18, Dec 16, Jan 20, Feb 17, March 17, April 21)

*8 spots available

Support Circle Leader:

Rebecca Mooris (she/her) is a full-time caregiver and the mother of Holly, a 3½-year-old who has taught her more about sacrococcygeal teratomas and cerebral palsy than she ever planned to know. She is starting The Love We Carry because she has grown tired of cornering other medical moms in grocery stores and parking lots, and wants to meet them somewhere with comfier chairs, snacks, and no need to hurry. When she's off duty, she's listening to Florence + the Machine's "Everybody Scream" and, well, screaming.

Support Circle Description:

Grieving the rejection, misunderstanding, and invalidation that can come with sensitivity while reclaiming it as a strength.

The Too Much Club is for people who have been told, directly or indirectly, that they are “too much”—too sensitive, too emotional, too intense, too complicated, too difficult, or simply too much. This circle will gather around the grief that can come from being misunderstood, dismissed, rejected, or made to feel that something fundamental about who we are is a problem.

Together, we’ll explore the particular grief of being sensitive in a world that doesn’t always know what to do with sensitivity: the grief of shrinking ourselves to belong, hiding parts of who we are, apologizing for our needs, and learning to question our own experiences. We’ll also make room for the beauty, depth, connection, creativity, and empathy that sensitivity can bring—without pretending that being sensitive is always easy or that every aspect of it needs to be reframed as a gift.

Support Circle Details:

1st Wednesday of the Month

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

(Oct 7, Nov 4, Dec 2, Jan 6, Feb 3, March 3, April 7)

*8 spots available

Support Circle Leader:

Malinda King (she/her) is a therapist, lifelong learner, and deeply sensitive human who has spent much of my life learning how to navigate a world that can sometimes make sensitivity feel like a flaw. Both personally and professionally, Malinda witnessed how much grief can come from feeling misunderstood, rejected, invalidated, or like we need to shrink ourselves to belong. She is drawn to creating spaces where people can bring their whole selves—including the tender, complicated, intense, and “too much” parts—and experience the relief of being genuinely seen and understood.

Support Circle Description:

This circle is for people navigating the experience of running their own businesses, whether their venture is well into the ideation stage, up and running, or shut down. We will gather around the grief, uncertainty, isolation, and shifting sense of identity that can arise through the experience of entrepreneurship.

Together, we will explore, outside of the performative demands of Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn, the real adversities that come with being self-employed: mental health, financial pressure, responsibility to dependents, self-esteem, uncertain pipelines, the absence of a blueprint, and the question of when to keep going, change course, or let go. We will also examine the stories we inherit about entrepreneurship, and consider how we might define success and failure for ourselves.

This group will be peer-informed and responsive to the people who gather. In the first month, the plan is to bring attention to the internal signals we may have learned to override in order to take risks and keep our businesses moving forward. From there, the peer leader will develop new subjects and practices each month, guided by the desires and needs of circle members.

Support Circle Details:

4th Sunday of the Month

9:30 AM - 11:30 AM

(Oct 25, Nov 22, Dec 27, Jan 24, Feb 28, March 28, April 25)

*8 spots available

Support Circle Leader:

Molly Clark (she/her) co-founded a food business 11 years ago and is currently stepping away from the business.

In conversations with other founders and entrepreneurs, Molly has noticed how often endings are met with silence, whether from embarrassment, exhaustion, or uncertainty about what comes next. She has also been surprised by how many entrepreneurs who appear to be thriving privately reveal that they are in crisis.

Molly wants to steward conversations that offer dignity to those who have ended a business and a needed outlet for those choosing to keep going.

Support Circle Description:

Over seven months, the creative practices will follow a gentle arc: remembering our mothers, exploring our continuing bonds, reflecting on what they gave us, making space for what is missing, navigating motherhood without them, expressing what remains unsaid, and considering what we carry forward.

Simple, tactile practices using fiber, collage, photographs, words, and found materials will offer another way to explore what can be difficult to put into words. The focus is on reflection and expression rather than the finished product, leaving space for each participant to find her own meaning.

The Full Arc

October: Pieces of Her - Who was she?

Create a collage from photographs, handwriting, recipes, words, colors, fabric, and other fragments that evoke who she was.

November: Her Hands - What do I remember?

Trace a hand and fill it with fabric, fibers, images, and words representing what her hands made, held, taught, or cared for.

December: The Invisible Thread - Where is our connection now?

Choose yarn, ribbon, and fibers representing aspects of your bond and knot, braid, wrap, or weave them into a small fiber piece.

January: What I Inherited - What of her lives in me?

Layer words, images, paper, fabric, and thread to explore the qualities, traditions, quirks, values, and pieces of her you carry.

February: Mothering Without My Mother - Where do I feel her absence as a mother?

Create a layered collage using torn paper and fabric, allowing gaps and unfinished spaces to represent both absence and presence in your own motherhood.

March: What I Wish I Could Tell Her - What remains in our conversation?

Write words, stories, questions, or everyday things you wish you could tell her onto fabric strips and weave them together—keeping them visible or hidden.

April: What I Carry Forward - What do I carry with me?

Use fibers and collage materials from the previous months to create a small keepsake representing whatever you choose to carry with you beyond the circle.

The art itself gradually becomes a metaphor for grief: fragments, layers, holes, knots, threads, unfinished edges, things inherited, things connected, things carried. There's no expectation that participants produce beautiful artwork- or that their grief becomes tidy by April.

Support Circle Details:

3rd Thursday of the Month

4 PM - 6 PM

(Oct 15, Nov 19, Dec 17, Jan 21, Feb 18, March 18, April 15)

*6 spots available

Support Circle Leader:

Deborah Getsug is a St. Paul native, mother, artist, educator, and community builder who lost her beloved mother to cancer in 2025. Her experience of mothering without her own mother draws her to create space for others who understand this particular kind of loss. With a background in visual arts, education, and creating meaningful experiences for children and adults, Deborah believes making with our hands can give shape to what is sometimes hardest to put into words.

Support Circle Description:

Anticipating a loss of any person or part of our lives can come simultaneously and in many forms. Maybe we have a loved one who is ill or aging. Maybe an adult child is leaving home or we know deep inside that it's time to end a relationship or a marriage. All of these pending changes bring sorrow on a timeline that we cannot always predict. Let's gather to support each other on the way.

Support Circle Details:

3rd Wednesday of the Month

4:30 PM - 6:30 PM

(Oct 21, Nov 18, Dec 16, Jan 20, Feb 17, March 17, April 21)

*5 spots available

Support Circle Leader:

Marian Rukavina (she/her) has a background in higher education and pastoral ministry. She knows the power of small groups coming together to share their experiences. She is currently mourning the aging of my parents and the illness of a dear friend. She also had a sister and family move far away.

Support Circle Description:

Holding space for the losses we can name, the ones we can’t, and the experience of living between what was, what is, and what comes next.

A World, Felt is a circle for the grief of living between what was and what comes next. Sometimes something we relied on, imagined, belonged to, or expected no longer feels intact, while whatever comes next remains uncertain. These losses may involve our bodies, relationships, communities, identities, sense of belonging, imagined futures, or the larger world around us.

Together, we’ll explore these in-between places through deep listening, conversation, sensory and contemplative practices, and creative exploration. We’ll make room for grief as both deeply personal and shaped by the worlds we live in, staying curious about what hurts, what matters, what might be changed, and what may need to be witnessed and accompanied.

Support Circle Details:

3rd Saturday of the Month

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

(Oct 17, Nov 21, Dec 19, Jan 16, Feb 20, March 20, April 17)

*12 spots available

Support Circle Leader:

Amelia is a mother and former public health educator whose life, in recent years, has centered increasingly around caregiving, mutual aid, and community. She has long been curious about how our personal experiences are shaped by the larger worlds we inhabit, and how we find our way through change, loss, and uncertainty. She is drawn to spaces where people can listen deeply, stay curious, and be together with questions that don’t have easy answers.

Support Circle Description:

For those grieving the death of a parent, whether the loss is recent or many years ago. Losing a parent can shift our sense of family, identity, belonging, and where we locate ourselves in the world.

Together, we’ll make room for the many layers of parent loss, the relationship that was, the relationship we wished for, what was left unfinished, the ways grief changes over time, and what it means to continue living while carrying someone who is no longer physically here.

Through shared reflection, simple grief practices, creativity, conversation, and witnessing, this circle offers a place to bring your grief as it is without needing to explain it, fix it, or move on from it.

Support Circle Details:

2nd Sunday of the Month

9:30 AM - 11:30 AM

(Oct 11, Nov 8, Dec 13, Jan 10, Feb 14, March 14, April 11)

*10 spots available

Support Circle Leader:

Mary Warin’s (she/her) father died in 2017, and it was life changing for her. She is a compassionate social worker and is looking forward to walking beside others who are navigating the loss of their own parent.