(HS Kessler, Denniston 096669 2026) The Grief We Don't Name: Aging, Change, & Our Mortality

Course overview

As we grow older, change often arrives as a slow accumulation of losses: empty nests, ending careers, changing roles, health shifts, and fading friendships. Grief lives here, in the daily aches and pains, in the moments we feel left behind, and in the first time we say, "I can't do this anymore." And yet, this grief often goes unspoken, dismissed as a natural process of living and aging. In this workshop, you'll learn how to name, recognize, and guide your clients through the often-unacknowledged grief that comes with growing older. Along the way, you'll learn how to bring presence, permission, awareness, and concrete tools to your work with transitions that don't often receive rituals, recognition, or repair. With strategies and spaciousness, you'll learn how to name what's hard and honor the quiet grief of aging. You'll also explore: Somatic practices to help clients express what words cannot always reach How to help clients manage grief in the body, including physical limitations, sensory changes, and medical diagnoses How aging often stirs up grief from earlier in life, and how to meet it with care How to make space in sessions for meaning and identity