Good Grief Retreat

 First Annual Bereavement retreat 

Friday May 24th till Monday 27th- 2024

We all need to grieve. To shed sorrow and recover the joy of life. Grief is a natural response to loss. It strikes in direct proportion to love: the more we love a person or a thing, the more we experience grief when we lose it. In our world there are so many things that cause us pain and sorrow. Big griefs: our dear ones die; our relationships end; our jobs disappoint us. Everyday griefs: a friend lets us down; our children struggle; we feel the loss of roots and community; we are beset by anxiety and fear about the state of the world. Some days life is just hard. Grief that is held down or suppressed blocks joy or happiness; and – worse – we may feel anger, rage and frustration. Or sometimes we just feel numb. It’s tiring to keep all these feelings in, and grief is a lonely business.

Our culture seems to encourage the ‘stiff upper lip’ and ‘moving on’. It’s often harder for men to grieve, because ‘big boys don’t cry, remember’!  Here in the UK it was not until the covid era that we began to acknowledge that proper expression of grief is needed for sound mental health.  We understand that grieving is a cleansing practice that purifies the psyche, just as a bath purifies the body. Please join is for a 4 day retreat focused on honouring grief.

William Fley

William has practised various Buddhist traditions for over 20 years.  William is a practising bereavement therapist and founder and director of the "Mindfulness Network for People of Colour", a community interest company based in the UK which aims to bring awareness of transgenerational trauma through mindfulness-based interventions.  Qualified as a 'Breathworks' mindfulness teacher, he also completed a 2-year certification program with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. He is a member of the 'Inclusive Sangha Working Group' at London Insight, and is a person of mixed racial heritage.  William continues to pursue his passion for eliminating cultural and other barriers to accessing mindfulness by encouraging cultural awareness and responsiveness.

Zindika Kamauesi :

Zindika is an author, speaker, and a transformational writing success coach. She is the founder of Meditate and Grow, an inspirational blog and youtube channel. She teaches people how to use writing as therapy, to raise their confidence, self-esteem and their self-expression. She helps people who want to work on their personal development through meditation and writing. She is the author of six books and delivers motivational talks on the topics of women and migration, meditation and writing.

Davinder Sohal

Davinder has been a holistic therapist for 39 years, and specialising in pain and stress management for over 20 years.  A registered osteopath and acupuncturist,  Davinder is a life long meditator and has been using mindfulness approaches in his private and NHS work since 2014.  He completed an MSc in exercise and behavioural medicine in 2009. Davinder completed the Breathworks teacher training in 2020 and feels privileged to have mindfulness in his life and to be able to share it as a strategy to help other human beings navigate the inevitable ups and downs of life. Davinder is also establishing the 'Asian affinity' group for mnpc.