Honouring Grief - A Space for Community

Honouring Grief: A Space for Community

Grief Honouring monthly circles

A gentle space to come together and be with what is here.

We will gather on Thursday evening, 7–9pm 8th October at The Roundhouse, Stroud Community Agriculture, Hawkwood

Future dates:

• 19 November 

• 17 December 

• 21 January 

• 25 February 

• 18 March

You are welcome to come to one circle or join us for several.

Sliding scale: £15–£35. Tickets are non-refundable.

In a culture that often asks us to keep our grief to ourselves or move past it, this circle offers a place to slow down and remember something older: that we do not have to carry grief alone.

We gather in circle - as a village -  to listen, to feel and to be witnessed. There is nothing to fix and no obligation to share. You are welcome exactly as you are.

Grief can take many forms — loss, death, life change, longing, parts of ourselves that we have lost touch with, that haven't known love, or something empty or harder to name. Whatever is present for you, there is a place for it here.

This circle is an invitation to come together with others exactly as you are, whatever you are carrying.

Through guided holding, presence and shared humanity, we begin to remember what connects us. We learn that we can hold this — the love, the loss, the endings and the beginnings — and community can hold more than any one of us can singularly alone.

You are warmly welcome into this brave space, and to create our village once again.

We value you, your presence and the story you bring.

About the facilitators

Nika Shoot (Veronika Shoot) is a multifaceted artist, pianist and somatic facilitator whose work integrates music, energy work and embodied practices into innovative approaches to healing and human expression. This body of work grew out of her early training and performing life as a concert pianist. As a pianist, Nika performs, alongside writing and playing her own compositions and collaborating with artists across different projects. Her piano album Journey Through Childhood was released with Ulysses Arts, and is available online.

Nika’s passion lies in dissolving the boundaries between different modalities, drawing from her life journey, including her experiences in music, energy work, somatic exploration, yoga and breathwork. She has also spent time in India studying in traditional ashram settings and in the Peruvian Amazon, learning with Shipibo communities and exploring plant medicine. These experiences have quietly informed the depth and sensitivity of her work.

Working at the meeting point of music, movement, breath and energy, she supports people into connection with their bodies, their emotional landscape and their innate aliveness, meeting each person where they are.

She has developed an intuitive somatic flow approach to yoga, grounded in nervous system care and embodied awareness. Her sessions are supported by the Earth’s natural grounding frequencies, creating a powerful environment for restoration, cellular renewal and energetic balance.

Nika’s experiences in India and Peru opened her work into music as a shared experience and healing practice. She facilitates medicine music gatherings and Kirtan, creating spaces for people to come together through music, presence and connection. She also facilitates grief-honouring spaces and rituals, supporting people to be witnessed in their full selves and with community.

At the heart of Nika’s work is the joy of bringing people together and supporting them into greater aliveness, deeper connection and a fuller experience of life.

veronikashoot@thebalancedartist.org

Veronica (Veronica Frances) is a Grief Practitioner and Breathwork Facilitator. Veronica supports people in their journey with grief, whether recent or long-held. Her private client work is not about fixing grief but accompanying you in the grieving process - an approach she came to through her personal experience following the death of her sister, her professional training, and what she saw was missing and needed in mainstream support. Having experienced the need for more embodied tools for the people she serves, Veronica also facilitates breathwork ceremonies and trained with Steph Magenta of Seven Directions.

Veronica sees grief work not only as individual healing, but about bringing us into right relationship with ourselves, those around us and the wider web of life. As we grow our capacity to grieve, so too we grow our capacity to keep our hearts open to love and one another, and Veronica believes that this is what the world needs. Now based in Stroud,  Veronica carries a deep connection to Peru and Mexico, where she studied with her Shipibo teacher Gaspar Rengifo and Mexican teacher Alejandro Manzano and  previously lived.

 www.veronicafrances.co.uk