(1) We partner with K-12 schools to offer place-based experiential outdoor educational programs, inviting students into a world of wonder in nature and within themselves; (2) We offer consulting and professional trainings about our ecologically-informed grief healing model for social-services staff teams and for teachers, counselors, administrators, and student resource staff who are likely to be the ‘go to’ supports for students and youth facing acute loss; and, (3) Our staff hold guided support group retreats in the beauty of nature in the Columbia Gorge for diverse youth and adults experiencing personal grief, and/or cultural, professional, or midlife losses.
I. Heal with Nature:
Outdoor Education
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Our educators and consultants embrace nature, the wonder, and acceptance of the circle of life from birth to death.
“Even though this plant looks dead, the seedpod is full of next year’s life” - Grace S. Hood River High School
We value the wisdom of nature and use ecological concepts such as disturbance, death, fallow, energy flow, new growth, equilibrium, and resilience as helpful tools to open vulnerable dialogue about inner feelings and to engage with diverse students and adult participants in a safe way.
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II. Heal Through Nature: Professional Trainings
• Understand grief journeys and healing through ecological concepts
• Learn about the ‘huddling-in’ trauma response and healing in groups
• Review of somatic expressions of grief & mindfulness tools
• Practice mirroring methodology for validation and witnessing grief
• Ending groups organically and with transition plans
• Coordinating referrals to professional therapeutic resources
Maitri House Northwest offers socio-emotional wellness and grief healing training and consulting services for teachers, student leaders, residence assistants, and support staff in K-12 schools, universities, medical schools, and social-services organizations. We recognize that many educational and social service institutions work with excellent counseling staff, but also know that these supports are often stretched thin due to growing student socio-emotional needs and limited resources.
As a society, we rarely discuss fear, death and cultural grief journeys. It is not part of our learning curriculum in schools. Yet, unexpected losses for youth have escalated significantly in the last few years: Covid-19 related losses. School shootings. Race-based inequities, harassments and murders. Teen suicide rates have soared by 33 percent in the last five years. Many young survivors are left in a wake of shock and confusion. They are fundamentally unprepared for the grief that follows. This is where Maitri House steps in. Our services equip school and community-based client support teams with trauma-informed education and group facilitation skills to confidently create and hold spaces for bereft students in the aftermath of premature or shocking losses.
“Learning grief through grief is one of the hardest things I’ve ever experienced. High School counselors and other outlets that were given to us when my friend died by suicide were not helpful at all. Openly talking about it in friend groups was more conducive for processing and healing. I wish schools had more awareness and courage to host more of these hard conversations in small groups and open dialogues. I’m grateful for Maitri House. It’s so needed” — Caitlin LeDoux, Portland.
Maitri House Northwest offers professional trainings either at institutional home sites and workshops at our Columbia Gorge location. We support the development of responsive support systems and staff confident in managing student wellness in the wake of shock and grief from personal or collective losses. These professional trainings are intended to complement individual counseling services and offer referral support to more intensive therapeutic services, when needed.
III. Heal in Nature: Retreats for Diverse Youth and Adults
• Group activities that heal, establish trust and honor all perspectives
• Explore and express cultural, collective, and personal losses
• Practice Right Brain/Creative and Physical/Movement-based healing
• Gateless writing methods to express grief
Grief is a series of intense physical, emotional and psychological responses that occur following physical death or other losses of culture, youth, identity and profession. The intensity of pain and heartbreak varies according to the emotional closeness and identification with those losses. And, they affect our sense of worth, power, safety and ability to carry on well in the world. Expressing and healing our sorrows, and fostering transformative growth happens together in groups that feel safe. Matiri House offers short term and on-going healing groups for diverse youth and adults where we explore themes such as: (1) Diverse perspectives on loss of home and cultural identity; (2) culturally diverse views on death and suicide; (3) gendered responses to grief; (4) existential moments: how best can we know ourselves, our true callings in love, family and work?
“True power is living the realization that you are your own healer, hero, and leader” — young pueblo
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