COVID Grief Gathering
Every second Tuesday of the month, Covid Grief Network (CGN) and the broader Reimagine community hold space for those mourning COVID-related losses. Volunteers will facilitate these peer-led gatherings using art and prompts to spark conversation and reflection. These gatherings are designed for all those who have experienced COVID loss.
Over the last two years, COVID Grief Network (CGN) has offered one-to-one and group-based support to young adults in their 20s and 30s who lost a loved one to COVID.
CGN has a new home under Reimagine, a community-driven nonprofit dedicated to transforming the world by facing loss, death, and adversity together. To read the full announcement about the transition, please click here.
Host/Facilitator
Ashley Plotnick (she/her)
Ashley has been volunteering with the COVID Grief Network, as both an individual and group facilitator, since June 2020. Her work has been informed by her degrees in social work, spiritual direction, and grief counseling, as well as the heartbreaking experience of losing her grandmother to COVID in early 2021. It is a true honor for Ashley to hold sacred space and bear witness as the journey of grief unfolds. Professionally, Ashley works as a therapist for Wellington Counseling Group as well as the Director of Congregational Learning at Makom Solel Lakeside synagogue. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband and three spirited children.
Community Touchstones
Confidentiality
What’s said here stays here, what’s learned here leaves here.
Everything invitational
See these questions (and this whole experience) as an invitation, not a demand. If you are moved to answer a different question than one we have listed, go for it. If you’re moved to sit and listen, that’s ok too - just being here is participating.
Speak from the heart
We’re used to speaking what we think we should, what we think others want to hear, or from ideas or stories we’ve told ourselves over and over. See if you can take risks to root into what is true and to share from that vulnerable place.
Listen from the heart
See if you can be fully present to what’s here, listening with compassion to whoever is speaking. Try on turning any judgement that arises (including judgment of yourself!) into wonder. “I wonder what brought her to this belief?” “I wonder what I don’t get?” “I wonder what my reaction teaches me about myself?” See if it’s possible to set aside judgment to listen to others—and to yourself—more deeply.
No one right way
There’s no one right way to grieve, to do this retreat, or to express yourself (for example: totally ok to cry, and totally ok not to cry). Try to reserve judgment, of others and of yourself.
Trust the silence
Take a few breaths before even thinking of responding or offering your own words. Learn to trust the silence, and to notice what arises in it. Take your time.
Cool is the enemy
Try on the idea that you (and everyone else here) totally belong. Let’s try to be an easy crowd for each other. That means presuming welcome, and extending welcome. What if we all let go of “cool”? Cool is the enemy. ;)
Share air time
Take space & make space. Groups work best when everyone has their eye on this.
Self-focus
Speak your truth in ways that respect other people’s truths. Consider using “I” statements so that you can speak from your center, instead of generalizing or making assumptions about everyone else.
No fixing, saving, advising, correcting
No need to jump in to fix anything, save anyone, or offer unsolicited advice. Trust folks’ own processes.
Focus on stories about loved ones
This is a space in which we center stories and support. If you are here to challenge or argue the safety practices of others (e.g., masking in public, vaccinations), this is not a space for you.
