About
Grief is as painful as a broken bone, but this heartache runs deep and often without surface expression: Either because the mourner doesn’t want to expose the vulnerability or because society is afraid of such suffering and we’re not sure how best to heal it. It’s just too scary.
Maitri House Northwest was founded in 2020 by a team of educators, artists, and counseling professionals in the environmental and social-services sectors dedicated to developing their work and passion for integrating ecological learning with individual grief and socio-emotional wellness.
The healing work evolved under the concept of Maitri meaning “compassion” and also “self-compassion” to foster sustained learning and healing ourselves, in nature, for nature, both in the short and long term. And, the double meaning “my tree house” resonated with the co-founders, who believe in the power of nature as a wise guide for healing if we spend time in it to study its ecological systems and learn to apply them to our own internal restoration. We share our enthusiasm and reverence for the beauty of the Northwest’s natural wonders: Places of respite, healing and peace. Places to breathe and just be. A place to heal our grief and suffering.
Philosophy
Nature is a great healer and has shaped the Maitri House Northwest educational curriculum and consulting philosophy. Visible externally in nature is the great cycle of life: death, hibernation, rebirth and transformational growth. Internally, grief and loss processing, if allowed and supported, moves through similar evolutionary phases – a beautiful time-lapse photograph for growth and transformation.
Maitri House education and consulting embraces individual learning, peer-led group work, creating and sharing trust. We work with groups directly and/or offer training those who have long-term commitments to heal grief within student, cultural or other peer communities. This ‘safe group’ model developed from years of working with diverse refugees, immigrants and native American communities supporting their emotional wellness ranging from healing personal and cultural losses associated with migration and adjusting to new cultures, to more severe traumas of genocide and war. Witnessing the ‘huddle-in’ response for safety in the face of shock and grief creates the need for group-based supports. It offers an alternative to one-on-one counseling that may or may not be accessible, nor initially desirable.
Our ecological and grief education, teaching, facilitation and consulting practices are grounded in Paulo Freire’s Popular Education, where learning is participant-centered, people-led, and collective. All participants bring value and knowledge into the leaning from their own experiences, which forms the foundation for shared learning and healing.
Compassion, self-care, friendship and trust are central components for healing grief individually and collectively. The work is deeply personal. It also draws on our professional team’s experiences of 30 years as educators, community-builders, group facilitators with diverse age and cultural groups (see projects and testimonials).
Our Team
Susi Steinmann, Ph.D.
Executive Director and Founder
Susi Steinmann, Ph.D., holds graduate degrees in International Development & Geography. Susi was born and raised in Switzerland, moving to the United States in high school. She has been a college professor, a K-12 teacher and an international community development researcher and consultant in the Middle East and Africa, Since 2008, she has worked in Portland with immigrants and refugees as a cultural adjustment and trauma support-group facilitator. She also co-facilitates a suicide grief support group for 6-12 year olds at the Dougy Center in Portland, Oregon.
Susi survived the loss of her daughter to suicide and has lived through the shock, trauma, and grief journey. She moved to the Columbia Roger to live, heal and grow with nature and offers these professional and life skills to her work with Maitri House Northwest. She is passionate about using ecology, nature and shared heart connection as a vehicle for ‘healing ourselves, in nature for nature.’ She teaches classes and facilitates some Maitri House grief support workshops and trainings & consults with schools, colleges and community-based organizations to analyze gaps in student supports and collaboratively developing grief and loss support groups for those settings.
Erika Rench
Education Director
Erika Rench is of mixed Indo-European descent. With a BS in Secondary Education her work as a teacher spans over twenty years and includes: teaching creative writing art residencies in schools and wellness and stress management programs to corporate employees, facilitating workshops of Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects, coordinating after-school programs for rural students and summer camps for kids with Columbia Gorge Peace Village; and co-leading professional development for teachers on equity and inclusion from a Native American perspective. Her work as a program manager with tribal leaders, Native American educators, artists and elders have highly influenced her relationship to her ancestors and to place and has deepened her understanding of white privilege and helped her see the gifts she came here to offer others on behalf of the healing of all. She continues to develop new approaches, challenge ways of thinking and support creativity in her community volunteer work, in her personal life and in her relationships.
As a fourth generation artist, creative expression in all of its forms, continues to be a sustaining presence in Erika’s everyday life and she brings that energy to her teaching. Raised in the forests and among the tumbleweeds of Idaho Erika has a strong and abiding relationship with nature not as resource but as kin. Her mentors, Joanna Macy and Francis Weller have provided wisdom as she has sharpened her capacity to hold grief- her own and others, to honor the pain of the world, to not run away from it but to lean into it and be transformed by it.
In widening circles, Erika sings, gathers with Mama Bears to be nurtured and act with courage and practices living wholeheartedly with her family CJ and their daughter Kate
Bill Weiler
Camp Director
Bill Weiler is trained as a Wildlife Biologist and has spent 30 years living and working in The Columbia River Gorge. He has worked for two decades with the Washington and Oregon Departments of Fish & Wildlife. He is an avid enthusiast for educating adults and children about the wonders of the local ecology and offers numerous environmental workshops, presentations and leads field-trips in the Gorge. Bill has been the Camp Director for the Gorge Ecology Outdoor School and the Day Camp Director and Environmental education instructor for the Columbia Gorge Peace Village. Bill is also an instructor for Washington and Multnomah County Outdoor Schools and for Pathfinder Outdoor School near Goldendale, WA. Bill brings administrative and grant writing experience to us through his experience as Founder and Board Member, Gorge Ecology Outdoors (formerly Gorge Ecology Institute). His depth of knowledge, enthusiasm and deep knowledge and respect for the local ecology is seen in his teaching and in his publications: The Earth Speaks; Don’t Run from Bears: A Guide to Living with Wildlife in the Columbia River Gorge, and; SECRETS of Our Shrub-Steppe Home: A Guide to Arid Land Teachers.
Board of Directors
CJ Rench, Hood River. CJRench Creative Design.
Stephanie Green Weizer, Portland. Development, Lutheran Community Services Northwest.
Kyra Auerbach, Sebastepol, CA. Founder, Gaia Wise
Steve Schoenfeld, Hood River & Portland. Attorney, Schoenfeld & Schoenfeld.
Testimonials
Teen Grief Group
We grieve alone, but heal together
Teen Grief Group and Book Writing Project (2016-Present)
In the aftermath of her daughter’s teen suicide, Susi, Maitri House founder led a multi-year teen grief support group for the surviving friends. What came from those meetings was a methodology, experience and desire to share the lessons learned with other teens, parents and schools through a book writing project called: “Bawling in the Fast Lane” (forthcoming)
“Having space to talk about grief where you are able to listen, as well as contribute, has really helped me. I’m not always the most vocal person about my feelings because often I don’t really know what I’m feeling. Participating in a group of people and hearing about what they’re feeling made me realize that we were all feeling something similar. While our experiences with grief was never the same, being in a group setting helped me connect not only with Leila (the deceased) but with all of these big emotions. I don’t think I could have muddled through alone.” - Clara P.
Healing cultural losses & building strength
“Riding at Big Dog helped me to be more confident and explore things not in my comfort zone. My confidence grew. I used to be shy and quiet, and I used to be scared of dogs. There were two big dogs there! Now, I try new things I am not confident about. I explore my community and I have become a leader. I am involved. I am braver. I’ve learned new things about the wider community.”
—Nah, age 11. Karen Refugee from Myanmar.
Susi has worked with many diverse immigrant and refugee support groups lasting 6-12 months. Her groups have focussed on citizenship education, cultural adjustment and emotional wellness support for groups experiencing loss and trauma leaving home countries and the stresses of adapting to new homes while processing many serious losses. Susi initiated and facilitated a basketball-focused youth group for Somali boys’ (Team of Dreams) and initiated and facilitated a support group for Bhutanese/Nepali girls who’d suffered trauma from human trafficking in the refugee camps. Another group engaged youth in therapeutic horseback riding group for healing grief and building self-esteem.
Susi also taught Service-Learning courses at Portland State University (2017-2018) connecting university students with refugees for cross-cultural experiences and shared learning in Portland, Oregon. The PSU students were matched with refugees and immigrant newcomers to ‘walk in each-others’ shoes’ to their respective neighborhood spaces. The exchanges and course dialogues also touched on losses, forging new identities and building trust.
“Susi, your honesty, integrity and cultural respect shine through your interactions with peers and refugees you work with. Thank you!” — Tara, PSU Capstone Student 2018
Detail 3
Erika and Bill have ….