Grief Ceremony for the Holiday Season
December 13, 2025 •
3:30 pm - 6:00 pm
111 Saranac St
Elen Courtemanche
Elen is a ceremonialist & healing arts practitioner who has cultivated a decade long relationship with plant medicine. Tea ceremony is one of her foundational community offerings. While navigating healing severe nervous system dysregulation, childhood trauma, and chronic illness, tea ceremony came into her life when she wasn't looking for it but absolutely needed it. The art & ritual of cha dao tea ceremony offered her a doorway into silence, stillness, and peace. All of which she previously greatly struggled to experience. With each tea ceremony she was able to meet herself more deeply & experience physical, emotional, and mental healing in a soft & gentle way. Through over a thousand tea ceremonies and years of daily devotional practice with Tea, she has cultivated an embodied relationship with this plant. She has had the honor of witnessing Tea support many others on their healing path and is excited to share this beautiful practice with Dust Off Yoga.
She has a passion for weaving in the plants & natural world to support people in navigating their healing journeys, integrating from trauma, coming into their power, and cultivating a deeper relationship with themselves. Her path into the healing arts started from personal struggles with trauma and nervous system dysregulation. She has studied with somatic mentors, shamans, medicine women, and various plant spirits. And has cultivated rich wisdom from her own personal journey.
When she is not pouring tea & supporting clients, you can find her sitting with the trees, connecting with the plants, making pottery, and reading fantasy novels.
9 spots available
Description
Come gather in community for a holiday Grief Ceremony to honor the holy ground of our sorrows. In the modern world many of us grieve in isolation, but throughout time grief was shared and held in community. In a world that often asks us to keep grief hidden, this gathering offers a compassionate space to meet what you carry with gentleness, presence, and shared support.
During the holidays, grief often rises more vividly—stirred by memory, by absence, and by the deep love that lives beneath our sorrow. Grief is not a single experience; it can come from loss, from change, from the endings we never chose, and from the quiet places where our lives no longer match what we once hoped for. It lives in the body as much as the heart, sometimes steady and quiet, sometimes overwhelming. This ritual offers a warm, compassionate space for your grief to be felt and honored—without needing to hide it, manage it, or make it smaller than it is. However grief is moving within you, it is welcome to be held here.
Held by the soft glow of the studio sanctuary, with the sound of the river threading gently through the space, this ritual unfolds with a quiet, steady rhythm. Through tender teachings on grief, the steady pulse of medicine drum, and the comfort of plant-infused tea, you’ll be guided into a deeper, more spacious connection with what you carry. You’ll be invited to spend time at a shared grief altar, move through subtle somatic practices that support emotion flowing through the body, and enter a private writing practice to give shape to what lives within you. Each element is offered to help tend your grief with care—not to push or resolve anything, but to create space for what is ready to be acknowledged. Participation is always optional; you may move at the pace that honors your heart.
We’ll close with a small sweet to nourish the senses and bring a quiet moment of comfort, followed by an optional sharing circle for those who feel called.
**Please come in comfortable, cozy clothing and bring a small meaningful item to place on the communal altar—something that honors what you are grieving, such as a photo, letter, or any object you feel inspired to offer. A journal and pen are also encouraged along with anything else that may support you during this ritual.
During the holidays, grief often rises more vividly—stirred by memory, by absence, and by the deep love that lives beneath our sorrow. Grief is not a single experience; it can come from loss, from change, from the endings we never chose, and from the quiet places where our lives no longer match what we once hoped for. It lives in the body as much as the heart, sometimes steady and quiet, sometimes overwhelming. This ritual offers a warm, compassionate space for your grief to be felt and honored—without needing to hide it, manage it, or make it smaller than it is. However grief is moving within you, it is welcome to be held here.
Held by the soft glow of the studio sanctuary, with the sound of the river threading gently through the space, this ritual unfolds with a quiet, steady rhythm. Through tender teachings on grief, the steady pulse of medicine drum, and the comfort of plant-infused tea, you’ll be guided into a deeper, more spacious connection with what you carry. You’ll be invited to spend time at a shared grief altar, move through subtle somatic practices that support emotion flowing through the body, and enter a private writing practice to give shape to what lives within you. Each element is offered to help tend your grief with care—not to push or resolve anything, but to create space for what is ready to be acknowledged. Participation is always optional; you may move at the pace that honors your heart.
We’ll close with a small sweet to nourish the senses and bring a quiet moment of comfort, followed by an optional sharing circle for those who feel called.
**Please come in comfortable, cozy clothing and bring a small meaningful item to place on the communal altar—something that honors what you are grieving, such as a photo, letter, or any object you feel inspired to offer. A journal and pen are also encouraged along with anything else that may support you during this ritual.