Friends of the California Grief Center,

In a time when silence is often mistaken for professionalism, and discomfort with pain is misnamed as neutrality, Stacey Freedenthal stands as a beacon of clarity, compassion, and courage—for the United States and for the world.

Her work has not been loud, but it has been life-saving. As a suicidologist, therapist, writer, professor, and advocate, Freedenthal has given voice to one of the most urgent and often unspoken human struggles: the will to die, and the will to live. Through her landmark book, Helping the Suicidal Person (https://helpingthesuicidalperson.com/), and her widely read website, Speaking of Suicide (https://speakingofsuicide.com/), she has helped thousands—perhaps millions—of individuals, families, therapists, and survivors navigate the aching terrain of suicidality with more understanding, more skill, and above all, more humanity.

Before becoming an associate professor at the University of Denver, Freedenthal worked in the high-stakes world of crisis services, meeting people in their darkest hours with dignity and hope. Her writing is where academia meets empathy, where clinical tools are placed gently into the hands of those who need them most.

And in a world that too often shames suffering and punishes vulnerability, Freedenthal offers another way: a path of tenderness, science, and truth. She reminds us that suicide is not a moral failing or a flaw to be fixed—but a signal, a story, a human experience worthy of being met with love, not fear.

Today, we honor Stacey Freedenthal—educator, clinician, thought leader, and fierce defender of the suicidal mind. She is proof that sometimes, the most radical act is simply to listen deeply, to write clearly, and to say the words others are too afraid to speak. In doing so, she has not only changed lives—she has saved them.

🎨 Fragments Reimagined: Grief, Mosaic, and the Art of Becoming Whole
with Tabitha Fronk, LPCC, ATR-BC, ATCS, CCLS

A California Grief Center Workshop
Saturdays | May 10 – June 14, 2025 | 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Venice, CA (Abbot Kinney) | Sliding Scale | Adults 21+

Some journeys are charted in fragments. And some kinds of healing can only begin when we stop trying to steer by stars that no longer shine.

In Fragments Reimagined, we don’t try to patch the sails of grief—we drop anchor beside it. We let our breath, our hands, our bodies speak in tides and whispers, saying what words can't. Through somatic storytelling, psychodrama-inspired practice, and mosaic art, this six-week voyage invites us to honor what’s broken and consider what might still be built from the wreckage.

Helmed by Tabitha Fronk, LPCC, ATR-BC, ATCS, CCLS, and Brian Stefan, LCSW, this gathering welcomes all grief: odd grief, quiet grief, ancestral undertows, political storms, personal shipwrecks. No sorrow is too much or too small to come aboard.

Each session begins with gentle mooring—landing in the body—then drifting between art-making and shared witnessing. Each person will create a mosaic by journey’s end—a relic of memory, meaning, and the shimmer of something that still survives the surf.

This is not therapy. But it is soul-salvage work.

💔 All griefs are seaworthy here.
🎭 No performance. No pressure. Just presence.
🥗 We’ll break for lunch—nearby cafés abound.
🚗 Free parking. Substance-free harbor. All supplies provided.

Because when language capsizes, sometimes our hands still know the way back to shore.

👉 Register Here

Spots are limited. Set sail with us for this tender act of becoming.
Let’s meet in the mosaic of our shared humanity.

🎭 Catharsis Theater: A Gathering for Loss, Change, and Transition
with Brian Stefan, LCSW

A California Grief Center Workshop
Sunday | May 4, 2025 | 1:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Culver City, CA (Blue Door Theater) | Sliding Scale | Adults 21+

Grief doesn’t always announce itself. It arrives like a rogue wave—sometimes gentle, sometimes crashing—pulling us out of the daily current and into deeper, stranger waters.

In Catharsis Theater: A Gathering for Loss, Change, and Transition, we come ashore together. We drop anchor in a harbor of shared presence, gathering not to tidy our sorrow, but to give it space to breathe. This isn’t therapy—but it is deeply therapeutic.

Using psychodrama, ritual, story-sharing, and collective reflection, this 3.5-hour experience invites you to explore the griefs that have left you drifting—personal, collective, existential. No maps required. Just your truth.

Whether you are grieving a death, a rupture, a dream that didn’t hold, or a world that feels off course, you are welcome here.

🌊 What to Expect
• No pressure to perform or explain
• Every emotion gets a seat: anger, numbness, wonder, dread, relief
• Techniques drawn from psychodrama and communal ritual
• You can speak or stay silent, move or remain still—your presence is enough

This is a safe harbor for the soul-weary. A place where we set down our burdens, just for a while, and remember that we are not sailing alone.

💙 All grief is welcome. Come as you are.
🥪 Mid-session break for nourishment (nearby cafés)
🚗 Free parking | Substance-free space | All materials provided

⚓ Let us gather in the ache.
Let us chart a course through the fog.
Let us begin again.

👉 Register Here

Spots are limited. Please register only if you can attend fully and with presence. A confirmation email will follow with what to bring (hint: water, layers, and your honest self).

Circle These Dates—They’re Worth the Show-Up

A round-up of gatherings that matter—because showing up is its own kind of balm.

🌿 A Dharma Talk for the Weather of the Soul
with Trudy Goodman

Sunday | May 11, 2025 | 10:00–11:30 AM PT
Zoom | Donation-Based | Open to All

Grief doesn’t follow the seasons. Sometimes, winter lingers. Sometimes, healing arrives like rain after a long drought. On May 11, Trudy Goodman offers a quiet place to rest—where nothing needs fixing and everything belongs.

This isn’t a sermon. It’s a lantern in the fog. A pause to breathe. A reminder that even in stillness, the roots are holding.

🕯️ Come as you are. We’ll be here—keeping the fire lit.
👉 Register Here

🌿 HOPE Group: Healing Ourselves through the Present Moment
with Dr. Jamie Gamboa

Sunday | May 31, 2025 | 10:00–11:30 AM PT
Zoom | Donation-Based | Open to All

In a world that rushes past pain, HOPE offers stillness. This month’s session, Spotlight on Suicide (SOS), invites us to sit with what hurts—without fixing, fleeing, or fearing it.

Dr. Jamie Gamboa will guide us in the mindful practice of bearing witness to suffering, reminding us: presence is its own kind of healing.

🕯️ Come as you are. No story too heavy, no silence too deep.
👉 Register Here

More About California Grief Center

🌊 Where Grief Finds Safe Harbor to Speak

At the California Grief Center, we believe grief is not a problem to fix, but a tide to tend. It rolls in at strange hours, heavy with memory and meaning. What it asks for is space—anchored, steady space—and someone to sit with it when the wind picks up. That’s what we offer.

We provide individual therapy for grief, guidance for couples and families, and community offerings like Catharsis Theater—a bold crossing between story, movement, and the soul’s deep currents. And our reach extends far beyond our home port: we bring education, outreach, and training to schools, workplaces, and communities brave enough to sail into sorrow with open hearts.

Now offering virtual counseling nationwide, we’re here if you—or someone you love—is adrift in loss, whether newly broken or long held in the hull.

Come aboard at www.caligrief.com to explore our services, sign up for a workshop, or invite us to join your journey.

With heart and compass,

Brian Stefan, LCSW
Founder, California Grief Center