with Christine Price, Steve Waldrip, Gail Stewart, and Sharon Terry

We will reschedule this program once it is safe to do so. We may plan some online workshops in the coming months. If you are interested, please email us.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. “      ~Steve Jobs, 2005

Death is an essential and natural part of life. Taking time to explore our relationship to death is an uncommon process. Our culture does not face that reality with particular consciousness or grace and most of us have not prepared for our own death or the deaths of those close to us.

This workshop is designed to address and explore the practical, emotional, and spiritual realities of living in conscious relationship to death and dying. The workshop also includes considering and preparing for any circumstance when we might not be able to speak for ourselves. The completion of an advanced directive, or the review of an existing one, will be a part of the group structure. The practical questions that arise in this process will allow us to consider the emotional and spiritual issues as well.

Rarely are we invited to recognize and share the ways death, and near death, have been part of our lives thus far. This program offers that opportunity as well as a steady look toward the future. By facing the possibility of a life challenging situation and death now, we can eliminate unnecessary suffering, for others and ourselves, down the road. Doing this collectively, we can open to how the reality of death can enrich our living.

Within the workshop, we will offer support to:

• Explore and express our feelings about dying and death as related to the past, present, and future
• Recognize our hopes and fears about this inevitable event
• Share our beliefs: What is death? What do we imagine happens at death? How does that affect our lives now?
• Consider a life-threatening circumstance where we cannot speak for ourselves: Who would we want to speak for us and what would we want them to know?
• Clarify preferences regarding details of our own living and dying
• Plan the action steps needed to effectively communicate our wishes

Awareness practices such as visualization, repeating inquiry, traditional meditations, and gestalt process will be our foundation as we consider the issues and explore what arises. We will work in pairs and small groups as well as in the full circle. Some of the leaders are related: Steve and Chris are husband and wife, Gail and Chris are sisters. Doing this program with family members, partners, or close friends can be especially useful. To encourage that possibility, we offer a discount for those who come together as support partners.

An extensive reference notebook of information is provided at the workshop.

We welcome your participation in this program and your support in establishing the Full Circle project.

Cost*: $475 per person
*$425 per person when 2 or more participants register as support partners.

To Register: Send an email to registration@tribalground.org. You will receive a response with information on how to secure your place by paying a $240 non-refundable deposit by check or PayPal. Balance of payment is due prior to or at the beginning of the workshop.

About the Leaders:

Christine Price is a teacher and ongoing student of Gestalt Awareness. For her, experiences with death have been some of the most impactful and awakening parts of life. She is a founder of Tribal Ground Circle.

Steve Waldrip worked as a hospice chaplain for more than 20 years and holds a Masters of Divinity degree. He is also a teacher in the Ridhwan School and has studied with Hameed Ali for 28 years.

Gail Stewart teaches in the Rigpa Spiritual Care Education Program, which offers training and care in the area of living and dying. Having a long history studying and teaching bodywork of various kinds, the process of ceasing life in a body is also of deep interest to her.

Sharon Terry is a professional in the fields of health advocacy, people-empowerment, and citizen science. As student and co-leader of Gestalt Awareness Practice, she brings this approach into new arenas. She has journeyed with many families, including her own, through the sickness and death of loved ones and has extensive experience in organ and body donation at the end of life.

Learn more about Full Circle here.