When we love, we can’t help but encounter loss, pain and grief as part of the package. Disappointment, unfilled expectations and being ‘missed’ litter the terrain of love and relationships.
Even when we have a good experience with love, as psychotherapist Francis Weller points out, Everything we love, we will lose, one way or another.
No wonder we step back from love.
No wonder the heart tends to harden - just when we need it to soften to truly to love another.
"Surrendering to your sorrow has the power to heal the deepest of wounds."
Sobonfu Somé West African teacher and facilitator
So should we give up on love and live permanently in a cotton wool sleeping bag for protection?
Or is there a way through the broken-heart zone?
By allowing our feelings to be felt and expressed, and begin to move through us, we discover a route to greater spaciousness, deeper understanding, truer feeling and, paradoxically, a renewed capacity to live and love.
"The self-same well from which your laughter rises was often-times filled with your tears.
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."
Kahlil Gibran The Prophet
Come and join us in creating a feeling space where we can let the leaves of our sadness fall, in community and support, in tenderness and relief.
The workshop will include various activities to help us create a safe container together, to get in touch with different aspects of loss, grief and letting go, and experience a grief-tending ritual inspired by Francis Weller’s work. You will be able to choose how you join in with the activities – and there will be support in the space for whatever comes up.
We can’t chase tears or make them happen – but we can create the conditions for the body and the soul to do what they know how to do – grieve, feel, hold and be held in our most tender places.
"Grieving is necessary to the vitality of the soul.
Contrary to our fears, grief is suffused with life-force."
Francis Weller Psychotherapist
If this speaks to you – I hope you will join us.
Tim Foskett is one of the founders of Loving Men+, a group and individual psychotherapist and has been facilitating workshops for over 25 years.
Tim Foskett will be assisted by Martin Weightman using musical accompaniment.
Access Information: The Skylight Centre has one small step at the entrance and three steps inside the building to access part of the space, including the toilets. There is one toilet that is large enough for a wheelchair (but it is up three steps). Assistance is available to lift your wheelchair if needed.
Loving Men+ welcomes gay, bi & trans men and gender non-binary people, from all walks of life who want to develop their capacity to love. We particularly encourage participation from black and ethnic minority, HIV positive and negative, young and older, trans and disabled men and non-binary people. In 2023 we added the + to our logo in recognition that trans and non-binary people have been a valued part of Loving Men+ since we began in 2003.
[Standard Terms and Conditions apply. Please refer to our cancellation policy here.]