Grief Liberation: Conversations in Community

Matti hosts Vanessa aka Vee (she/they), a queer college professor and integrative body psychotherapy practitioner from Quebec, for a conversation on liberation, grief, and death in community. They explore how grief and other difficult emotions are often intellectualized rather than embodied, and how breath, movement, expression, and shared support can create felt liberation. Vee shares near-death and chronic pain experiences that shaped their healing path and interest in death education, discusses death-denying culture, communal Italian mourning rituals akin to Irish keening, and the value of planning for death, continuing bonds, life review, terminal lucidity, and making room for both grief and joy.

Matti (host) welcomes Brody (any/no pronouns), an agender Naropa University graduate focused on drug psychology, addiction science, and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Brody describes how unconditional love from Brody's wife, friends, and family helped Brody survive severe depression, suicidality, and childhood LSD addiction. Matti and Brody discuss transactional relationships, capitalism, compulsory aliveness, and how neurodivergence can shape grief, including guilt and shame waves after loss. Brody shares patterns of addiction, memory loss, risky behavior, and later learning about psychotic symptoms and a childhood concussion. The conversation explores grief, shame, self-forgiveness, safe psychedelic use with preparation and integration, and ends with joy found in graduating, community, and daily routines, emphasizing that people heal through care.

Matti (they/them) welcomes their fiancée AmberRose (she/her) to this new episode. AmberRose, a new speech pathologist, describes growing up in a patriarchal cult and later conservative evangelical spaces shaped by purity culture, status, and rigid gender roles. The conversation also explores propaganda, shame, queerness, neurodivergence, and how their non-hierarchical relationship and communication help them tolerate uncertainty and plan a wedding on their own terms. 

Host Matti (they/them) welcomes Addie (they/them) to Grief Liberation Conversations in Community. Addie, a nearly 50-year-old parent in West Philadelphia, shares a definition of liberation as an ongoing practice of giving oneself permission to live authentically against social mores, including modeling liberation for young people through child-led homeschooling. They discuss neurodivergence, the grief of being pathologized rather than resourced, and how hyper-individualism and conformity are reinforced by systems that profit from compliance. Addie connects liberation and grief through the difficulty of helping others see what’s possible, explores adult friendship loss and boundaries, and describes chosen family rooted in queer/trans community. 

Dive into a powerful conversation with Sam exploring the intersections of grief, masculinity, and liberation. How do these concepts shape our understanding of self and community? Tune in!

Join us in an enlightening conversation on body grief and self-acceptance with Lara in our latest episode of Grief Liberation Conversations. How does grief show up in your body? 

Art as a movement and grief as a companion—discover how these themes intertwine in this meaningful conversation with artist and NP Christine. “To sit with grief is to find its depths and emerge stronger.”

In the debut episode, we explore the intricacies of grief, identity, and the path to joy. This episode lays the groundwork for other episodes and dives into Matti's experience with grief. Join us as we explore how understanding our grief can lead to profound joy and community resilience.