Let us carry this together, we weren’t meant to hold this on our own…
We are glad you are here.
Grief Medicine Daylong Winter Retreat
December 13, 2025
Let us accompany you in a nurturing, introspective, and connecting daylong grief retreat held in the beautiful Berkeley Hills.
Grief is not something we’re meant to go through alone, no matter how solitary the work can be. As we gather in community and in kinship with the natural world, we find a sense of belonging in our shared grief, helping to metabolize our losses and transmute them into a balm to soothe our own hearts, and the broken heart of our world.
How do we turn toward our individual losses with compassion in the midst of so much collective grief? How do we process the unravelling of our democracy, the climate crisis, the ongoing genocides and wars around the world, the loss of systems and protections that safeguard our health and those we love, and keep our hearts open to engaging with the world and our communities as we’d like to? Join us in journeying through these questions together in the a daylong retreat space.
Let's come together and ritualize our grief in a circle of compassion to acknowledge, listen to, and tend to the broken heart. Grief and its accompanying emotions like anger, frustration, loneliness, numbness, confusion, and rage, can be overwhelming to process alone. Whether your grief is from surviving the loss of a loved one, a breakup, a life transition, or bearing witness to the calamities of our planet, this gathering is for you. Whatever leads your heart to a place of being broken is enough.
Some of the oldest artifacts known to humankind are from grief rituals, yet in modern times this sacred and necessary space is hard to come by due to our collective discomfort around loss. During our time together you will be guided through movement, creative arts practices, singing, and sound healing therapies, and group sharing. In our ritual space we will have the opportunity to metabolize our losses and transmute them into a gift for our own hearts and the heart of the collective.
About the Ritual:
The ritual that will be shared in our grief gathering has roots in several lineages and knowledge traditions, from art therapy to eco therapy, song circles and the work of Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé who brought their teachings to the United States in the 1990's. Although this ritual has been moved and shaped through the body of the facilitator after offering it for many years and has been tailored to the western audience in modern times, to honor the legacy of the its origin story, a portion of the proceeds will go to support their tribe in Burkina Faso, West Africa. https://support.thesonderproje...
About Amy (she/her/hers)
Lead Facilitator
Alongside working as a grief therapist for over a decade, I’ve personally been in apprenticeship with grief since early childhood when my dad died unexpectedly. It has been a passion for me to help others feel supported in their losses as this was not my experience due to our societal and cultural views towards grief. It was not until my mid-twenties that I finally began to turn towards my own loss — something I was so terrified of — and began to feel more fully alive, connected to myself and others, and less exhausted and dissociated from running from the past.
Being multiracial second-generation Korean American and white (Western European and Jewish) from a blended family, my loved ones represent a handful of races, native tongues, cultures, sexual orientations, socioeconomic and educational statuses, and spiritual beliefs. I honor the unique impact that these identities have upon one’s life story. It is my intention to provide a safe space for those of all intersectionality of identities to feel seen, welcomed, and accepted.
I bring in my lived experience as somatic-based grief and trauma therapist, expressive arts therapist, yoga and meditation teacher, artist and writer, to welcome your whole self to feel seen, heard, and understood on your journey through grief.
I have faith in the healing power of connection and collective liberation through group work, and feel honored and grateful to my teachers who have informed my work: Francis Weller, Aki Hirota Baker, Manuela Mischke-Reeds, Ken Hardy, Sarah Lotus Garrett, Karen Rachels, and the work of Shawna Murray-Browne.
Read pandemic grief article that features interview with Amy published in WIRED Magazine here
Read interview with Amy on collective grief published in San Francisco Chronicle here
“Amy is a gifted and committed grief worker who has devoted herself to cultivating the skills necessary to provide sanctuary to those willing to tend their accumulated sorrows. Her compassion, sincerity, and warmth help to coax our hidden losses into the open where they can be tended by others. She carries a much-needed medicine for these times.”
— Francis Weller, Author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow
About Nyree (they/she)
Co-Facilitator and Musician
Nyree has participated in various musical endeavors for the past 12 years around the Bay Area. A Florida native, Nyree has found a home in the Bay Area as a CIIS Certified Therapeutic Sound Practitioner. She is a singer-songwriter that plays acoustic guitar, bass, djembe, and a number of percussive instruments. She is on a path of creating space for all of us to connect with our ancestors, ourselves, and each other using her voice, sound and vibration in hopes of continuing healing in the world. To listen to Nyree's music please visit https://soundcloud.com/ngaire/tracks or follow them on Instagram at @nyree_mar
Sign up for the Grief Medicine Retreat
A Gathering to Soothe the Broken Heart
IMPORTANT LOGISTICAL DETAILS
RETREAT DATES & DETAILS:
The daylong retreat is on Saturday December 13th, 2025
Program begins at 10:00 AM and ends at 4:00PM.
RETREAT LOCATION:
The retreat will take place at a serene private residence in the Berkeley Hills. There are 2 flights of stairs that participants will be going up and down to move from an indoor to an outdoor space
The retreat space has an outdoor hot tub, cold plunge, and sauna. We will invite participants to dip a toe in or do a quick plunge as a final part of the ritual but these amenities will not be used during the gathering. The space will be open for communal use from 4 to 5pm after the retreat is over.
RETREAT INVESTMENT & TIMELINES:
The total investment for the retreat is a sliding scale between $250 - $420
To enroll, please make a $50 deposit and fill out the application below. You will be contacted within a couple of business days to confirm your registration. If you decide to move forward with the retreat, you can pay the remaining fee via PayPal, Venmo, or credit card. Payment plans are available.
A couple partial scholarships for the BIPOC and trans community are available for those who qualify for a fee reduction. The final deadline to apply for a reduced fee spot is 11/1.
TO BRING:
Sack lunch (lunch will not be provided but snacks will be served during break)
Bathing suit if you would like to do a quick plunge at the end of the ritual, or to soak in the tubs or rest in the sauna at the end
Lawn chair if you have trouble standing for long periods of time during the ritual
REACH OUT TO US:
If you have questions before signing up, email to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation with Amy: amy@amyswart.com
If no appointments are available this means the course is full
You can view our Terms of Service Agreement here.
Testimonials
“Amy is a delightful group leader that helped me get through some old tough feelings of mourning. I highly recommend this class and and I wish it were longer!”
“ Being in community with others who understood loss from the inside gave me a place to explore ways to embrace my grief process in service of my own healing. Amy created a connected and loving space filled with art and rich resources I can take with me and use in the future”
“More than anything else, this taught me how to connect with people again and how strangers can offer one another support during their most trying times.”
“I thought I was very familiar with grief because I have experienced so much personal loss in my lifetime. I did not realize how little I actually knew about it until taking this. Amy was a most compassionate and kind facilitator who guided us through our different forms of grief in a way where I felt held and cared for. I appreciated the expressive arts activities and writing prompts that she shared in the course, and the sacred space of connecting and sharing.”
“I felt completely supported by Amy and by the other participants in this journey. I loved the art activities, which gave me a channel for expressing some of the feelings I would not have found words for. The group was a safe space for finding my way through grief, and I am grateful for it.”