Grief Is The Tool
- Grounded Grief
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
THE GROUNDED GRIEF NEWSLETTER | JUNE 2026
Navigating the Cycles of Grief, Welcoming Our Newest Team Member, & Announcing New Summer Groups
June usually promises the warmth and ease of early summer, but this year, it brought us a surprising return to winter, complete with unexpected snow showers and sudden shifts. It has been a stark, visceral reminder of life's unpredictable cycles: the constant burning down and building back up. Just as we watch the abrupt shifts in the weather or the baby scrub jays suddenly leaving their nest, we experience these same unpredictable cycles within our own inner landscapes. This month, we are exploring what it means to surrender to these cycles.
Today, Katherine Hatch reflects on this unexpected weather and reminds us why turning toward grief itself is the most powerful tool we have when life feels out of control. We are also sharing several brand-new spaces to gather, a community call to vote for our very own A.C. Caldwell, and warmly welcoming our newest team member, Mick Neustadt, to our East Coast practice.
Wherever you are in your grief today, we are so glad you are here.
VOTE FOR GROUNDED GRIEF!
Our beloved therapist, A.C. Caldwell, has been nominated as one of the TOP 5 THERAPISTS in PORTLAND in the Willamette Week Best of Portland readers' poll. Thanks for voting A.C. and Grounded Grief into the top spots.
Let's bring it home!
Welcome, Mick!
Expanding our circle of care.
We are thrilled to introduce an incredible new practitioner to the Grounded Grief team, Mick Neustadt. We are also highlighting our team members who have immediate openings for both in-person and remote sessions.
Mick Neustadt | LCSW, LICSW
Focus: Slowing Down & Attending to Loss
Mick is a grief and trauma therapist who specializes in creating a warm, grounded, and thoughtful space for individuals navigating loss and major life transitions. In a culture that often pressures us to move past pain too quickly, his work centers on slowing down to attend to what loss truly asks of us—helping clients explore their unique experiences with care, curiosity, and deep respect.
A note for our East Coast friends: Mick is available to work with clients living throughout Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, bringing his collaborative and insightful approach to grievers across the DMV region.
Tisha Washington | MSW, LMSW
Focus: Outdoor & Walking Therapy
Tisha believes that movement can be a powerful partner to mourning. In addition to virtual sessions, Tisha offers "Moving Grief Together" outdoor walking sessions in Maryland. By getting out of the office and into the fresh air, she helps clients process grief through a blend of mindfulness, meditation, and gentle movement.
Lindsay Wooster-Halberg | MSW, LCSW
Focus: Children, Teens, & Families
Lindsay joins us with a heart for our youngest grievers. With a background in end-of-life work and trauma-informed care, she provides a specialized space for children and adolescents to express their grief.
Note on Insurance: Lindsay is currently paneling with Aetna and Kaiser. She is accepting private pay clients now and will be fully in-network with those providers shortly.
Learn more about our team and what keeps us grounded.
Grief Is The Tool
The Ultimate Grounding Exercise
By Katherine Hatch | Founder & Practice Lead
5-minute read
When we’re down in it in life, it’s so normal to grasp and ache and reach for the myriad of ways to cope that come to us first—things like thinking that others have the answer, and searching for anything outside of ourselves to take away the pain for a bit. It’s so common to hear folks, myself included, grasp for the right “tools” that make life more manageable in these times of despair, crisis, or overwhelm. How do I get through this storm? Who has any input for me? What practitioner do I need to see? What tools do I need? Who can tell me how to do this? What techniques keep me sane right now?
Time and time again, I come back to my mantra that grief IS the tool. It’s not the only one, AND at the end of the day, it’s the one that we hold within ourselves—the one that is most accessible if we learn how to do it and be with it and allow it. Grief is the very thing we have to navigate what feels out of control, unfair, and unfixable. It is what can turn to face despair, accompany us in existential voids, and companion us in times of unraveling. Grief is the ultimate grounding exercise. It is the way to regulate, and it is a way forward. Grief contains the acknowledgment of what is happening AND the action that allows us to shift our relationship to what is happening—one of the most powerful tools we have to influence our lives.
As Francis Weller writes in his most recent work, The Absence of the Ordinary:
"Grief is more than an emotion; it is also a core faculty of being human. It is a skill that must be developed, or we will find ourselves migrating to the margins of our lives in the hopes of avoiding the inevitable entanglements with loss… We possess the profound capacity to metabolize sorrow into something medicinal for our soul and the soul of the community… The skill of grieving well enables us to become current—to live in the present moment and be available to the electricity of life… We remember we are more verb than noun, more a jumpy rhythm, a wild song, a fluid leap than a fixed thing in space."
How can we acknowledge that grief is our tool for navigating these tough times?
How could grief become more of a tool for you today? Or even on a daily basis?
How can we allow grief to become a daily practice in our lives and in our communities?
If you're looking for a space to practice this skill alongside others who understand, we are offering several unique spaces this month to do just that. From our new Rewritten community for solo parents and The Unscripted Heart drama therapy workshop, to a confidential space for helping professionals in Held Holders, and our ongoing Grief Walks (PDX & Maryland) and Happy Hour for Sad People—there is a place for your grief to be witnessed. You can find the details about these events and all others here, and we've included handy links below.
With warmth and solidarity,
Katherine & The Grounded Grief Team
P.S. New here? We send only thoughtful emails with reflections on grief and upcoming community events. Subscribe here to stay grounded with us.
Don't Miss Our Upcoming Events! |
NEW! THE UNSCRIPTED HEART: Using Play and Drama Therapy to Navigate Grief Wednesday, June 17th | 5-6 PM Pacific (8:00 PM Eastern) Virtual via Zoom Grief doesn't follow a script. Join facilitator Jodi Kanter, LGPC for an experiential workshop utilizing the tools of drama therapy to explore your relationship with loss: past, present, and still unfolding. Through theater exercises drawn from psychodrama and expressive arts, you'll work toward a more integrated sense of your grief in a spirit of play and supportive community. |
NEW! REWRITTEN: A Grief-Literate Community for Single and Solo Parents Sunday, June 14th | 10 AM-12 PM Pacific Nalu Kava Lounge Tea House | NE Portland Grief doesn't end because parenthood continues. Facilitated by Alyssa Ackerman, B.A., LMT, Rewritten is a monthly, in-person gathering where single and solo parents come together to grieve honestly, parent fiercely, and reclaim authorship of their own story. Join us in creating a micro-village to grieve what has been lost and dream into what we long for. |
HELD HOLDERS: A Grief Ritual Space for Therapists & Helping Professionals Thursday, June 11th | 12:30-1:30 PM Pacific Virtual via Zoom Join Alyssa Ackerman for a confidential peer space created specifically for therapists, counselors, social workers, chaplains, doulas, and nurses—a room where you are not the holder, you are the held. Because you are also navigating losses, and the accumulated weight of bearing witness to the pain of others. Here, you will not run into clients, and you can set down the clinical frame entirely. |
HAPPY HOUR FOR SAD PEOPLE: An Unconventional Grief Circle Monday, June 29th | 7:00 PM Pacific Portland, Oregon Grounded Grief x Rhinestone PDX have turned "Happy Hour for Sad People" into a monthly residency. Join Juniper Wong, MSW, LICSW every fourth Monday of the month for the grief circle you didn't know you needed...yup, at a bar. Facilitated by licensed therapists, this unconventional space holds room for laughter AND tears, witness and reflection — because grief is less lonely when it's shared. Come as you are. Leave more human. |
THE PARENT CIRCLE: A Bi-Monthly Drop-In Support Space Tuesday, July 14th | 5:30-6:30 PM Pacific Virtual via Zoom Lindsay Wooster-Halberg, MSW, LCSW creates a welcoming space for parents and caregivers who are supporting a grieving child. This group centers on your real, current questions—covering topics ranging from big emotions, grief and developmental milestones, challenging behaviors, rituals, schools, friendships, sibling dynamics and more. |
GROUNDED GRIEF WALKS PDX Tuesdays from 12:30-1:30 pm PST Portland, Oregon Join the Grounded Grief Team for gentle outdoor grief group woods walks with space for quiet, conversation, and connection. Grief Counselors Katherine Hatch, MSW, LCSW, and Alyssa Ackerman, B.A., LMT, will be leading us on these walks. |
MOVING GRIEF TOGETHER: An Outdoor Walking Grief Support Group Fridays from 10:00-11:00 am EST Chevy Chase, Maryland
Join Tisha Washington, MSW, LMSW every Friday from 10:00-11:00 am Eastern for gentle outdoor grief group walks with space for quiet, conversation, and connection. |
Community Care: Supporting Grief Access
We are frequently asked by community members: "How can I help make grief support more accessible in our community?"
We want everyone to have access to high-quality grief therapy, but financial barriers often stand in the way. If you have the capacity to give and wish to help, you can purchase a Community Supporter Badge to pay it forward. Your purchase is used directly to help us increase sliding-scale slots for individual therapy and offer more low-cost, low-barrier grief workshops and groups.
TOMORROW, June 11th: Held Holders | A Grief Ritual Space for Therapists & Helping Professionals
Thursday, June 11th | 12:30-1:30 PM Pacific
Virtual via Zoom
You know grief intimately. You’ve sat with it, named it, and held it carefully for others. But your own grief needs a safe place to land.
Join Alyssa Ackerman, B.A., LMT, for a confidential peer space created specifically for therapists, social workers, nurses, doulas, and all helping professionals. This is a room where you are not the holder, but the held. Here, you can set down the clinical frame entirely and tend to your personal grief, the accumulated weight of the work, and simply be witnessed as a human being.
Happy Hour for Sad People: An Unconventional Grief Circle
April 27, May 25, June 22 | 7:00 PM Pacific Time
Portland, Oregon
Grounded Grief x Rhinestone PDX have turned "Happy Hour for Sad People" into a monthly residency. Join Juniper Wong, MSW, LICSW every fourth Monday of the month for the grief circle you didn't know you needed...yup, at a bar.
Grounded Grief Walks PDX
Tuesday, June 16th | Biweekly on Tuesdays from 12:30-1:30 pm Pacific Time
Portland, Oregon
Join the Grounded Grief Team for gentle outdoor grief group woods walks with space for quiet, conversation, and connection. Grief Counselors Katherine Hatch, MSW, LCSW, and Alyssa Ackerman, B.A., LMT, will be leading us on these walks.
Moving Grief Together: An Outdoor Walking Grief Support Group
Fridays from 10:00-11:00 am Eastern Time
Chevy Chase, Maryland
Join Tisha Washington, MSW, LMSW every Friday from 10:00-11:00 am Eastern for gentle outdoor grief group walks with space for quiet, conversation, and connection.
July 14th: The Parent Circle
Tuesday, July 14th | 5:30–6:30 PM Pacific
A Bi-Monthly Drop-In Support Space | Virtual via Zoom
Join Lindsay Wooster-Halberg, MSW, LCSW, for a welcoming, remote Q&A space designed for parents and caregivers supporting a grieving child. This group centers on your real, current questions—covering everything from big emotions and developmental milestones to challenging behaviors, school routines, and sibling dynamics.
Come exactly as you are, whether you have a specific question or simply want to listen and take in the shared wisdom of the group.
Grief isn't meant to be navigated in isolation. We're building a space that honors the messy, non-linear, and beautifully human experience of loss and life. Thank you for being part of it.
If this newsletter resonated with you, please share it with a friend—we appreciate you helping make our community just a wee bit bigger.
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