Friends of the California Grief Center,

Some women move through the world like steady rivers—cleansing, carving, and carrying life where it’s needed most. Elaine Miller-Karas is one of them. A revolutionary in the field of trauma recovery, she has helped shift how communities around the globe understand what it means to heal, not through diagnosis or detachment, but through connection, breath, and presence.

As co-founder of the Trauma Resource Institute, Elaine developed the Community Resiliency Model (CRM)®, a simple yet powerful approach to help people regulate their nervous systems in times of overwhelm. Her work has reached more than 75 countries, including Rwanda, Nepal, Haiti, Ukraine, and here in the fire-scarred hills of California. In each of these places, where grief has broken open the ground, she has helped everyday people remember their inner strength and teach it to others.

From United Nations halls to grassroots gatherings, from refugee camps to classrooms, Elaine has equipped thousands with tools to respond to trauma not with fear, but with embodied hope. And when war came to Ukraine, she was there (on Zoom, in real time) guiding survivors through practices that steadied hands and softened breath.

Today, we honor Elaine Miller-Karas: teacher, healer, and gentle architect of global resilience. She reminds us that healing is not only possible, it’s contagious. And it begins when one person offers another a way through the dark.

Theater as Resistance: ArtsUP! LA and the Courage to Keep Creating

Not all grief wears black. Some of it takes the stage.

In a time when nonprofit arts organizations are being told to sit down, stay quiet, and scrub their language clean of words like “women,” “disabilities,” and “diversity,” one company is standing taller than ever. ArtsUP! LA is refusing to dim the lights on the very people they exist to uplift. And in doing so, they remind us: theater is not a luxury in dark times. It is a lifeline.

ArtsUP! LA serves individuals with disabilities, military veterans, and L.A.-based youth through the transformative power of performance. When pressured to water down their mission in exchange for safer, more sanitized funding, they chose instead to speak louder, through story, through song, through unapologetic truth-telling on stage.

This spring, they bring us The Enemy of Oz, a bold reimagining of the world behind the curtain. Performed by Theatre by the Blind—the only all-blind theater company in the U.S.—this production spins a tale of power, resistance, and a young politician fighting to expose the corruption at the heart of Emerald City.

It’s political. It’s personal. It’s precisely the kind of art that helps us feel our way forward when the headlines feel unbearable.

This is what it looks like when the arts don’t back down.

🎟 The Enemy of Oz
📍 Blue Door Theater, Culver City
🎭 Performed by Theatre by the Blind
🗓 Running multiple dates throughout spring—visit www.artsupla.org for tickets and showtimes.

To support ArtsUP! LA is to support the radical idea that everyone deserves a place in the story.
Let’s not let them stand alone. Come. Witness. Applaud.

“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”
—Bertolt Brecht

Fragments Reimagined: Grief, Mosaic, and the Art of Becoming Whole Again

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 stories can only be told in fragments. And some kinds of healing can only happen when we stop trying to make it all make sense.

In Fragments Reimagined, we gather not to “fix” our grief—but to sit beside it. To let our hands, breath, and bodies speak what words cannot. Through somatic storytelling, psychodrama-inspired practices, and mosaic art, this six-week experience invites us to honor what has shattered and to imagine what might still be shaped from the pieces.

Led by Tabitha Fronk, LPCC, ATR-BC, ATCS, CCLS, and Brian Stefan, LCSW, this workshop is a space where no grief is too strange, too small, or too much. Whether you’re carrying personal loss, ancestral pain, political disillusionment, or quiet heartache, you are welcome here.

We’ll begin each session together, ground in the body, and move between creative expression and shared witnessing. Each participant will create a personal mosaic by the end—a piece that holds memory, meaning, and the glint of something that still shines.

This is not therapy. But it is deeply therapeutic.

💔 Grief in all its forms is welcome.
🎭 No performance. No pressure. Just presence.
🥗 Breaks for lunch and nearby cafés.
🚗 Free parking. Substance-free space.

Because sometimes, when language fails, our hands remember the way.

👉 Register Here

Spots are limited. Register now to join us in this tender act of collective becoming.
Let’s meet in the mosaic of our shared humanity.

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

A round-up of gatherings that matter—because presence is a kind of healing.

💛 Healing Ourselves through the Present Moment (HOPE Group) - Virtual
A Mindful Gathering for the Weary and the Willing with Mariela Bravo and Brian Stefan

In a world that moves too fast and asks too much, there is something quietly radical about pausing. About choosing stillness—not to escape life, but to meet it. Gently. Together.

On Saturday, April 26, you're invited to sit with us in the soft, sacred space of HOPE. This is not a workshop, or a lecture, or another thing on your to-do list. It’s a shared breath. A guided return. A reminder that even in grief, there is ground beneath us.

Since April 2020, the HOPE Group has been a refuge and sanctuary for those of us who feel lost at times, and remains a community of tenderness without judgement, shame, or pressure.

This 90-minute virtual gathering offers mindfulness, reflection, and the kind of presence that holds rather than hurries. Whether you're heart-heavy, soul-tired, or simply in need of company on the path—come. No fixing. No performance. Just presence.

🌿 Saturday, April 26 | 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PT | Zoom
👉 Register Here

💫 Trudy Goodman Virtual Event (Sunday, May 11)
A Dharma Talk for the Tender Seasons of the Soul
with Trudy Goodman

There are seasons in life that don’t follow the weather—times when spring refuses to come, or when autumn settles too early in the heart. Grief has its own climate. So does healing. And sometimes, all we can do is stand in the wind and wait for the stillness to return.

On May 11, Trudy Goodman invites us into a kind of shelter. Not to be rescued, but to be remembered—to be gently returned to ourselves. This virtual Dharma talk isn’t a fix, and it isn’t a sermon. It’s a cup of warm tea in cold hands. A quiet walk through the forest after a storm. A reminder that even in the barren months, life is still rooting for us beneath the surface.

She’ll speak not from above, but beside us—with presence, compassion, and the kind of wisdom that doesn’t rush the bloom.

🌱 Sunday, May 11 | 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PT | Zoom
👉 Register Here

Come as you are. Even if all you can do is sit quietly with your coat still on and your heart a little weathered. We’ll be here—holding a place by the fire.

More About California Grief Center

🌿 Where Grief is Honored, Not Rushed

At the California Grief Center, we believe grief deserves room to breathe. It deserves time, tenderness, and trusted hands to help hold the weight. That’s what we’re here for.

We offer individual grief therapy, counseling for couples and families, and group healing experiences like Catharsis Theater—a bold blend of story, movement, and meaning. Our work also stretches beyond the therapy room: we provide outreach, education, and training across schools, organizations, and communities seeking to meet grief with grace.

If you or someone you love is navigating a loss—whether recent or long ago—we're here.
Visit www.caligrief.com to learn more about our services, sign up for a workshop, or bring us to your community.

With care and compassion,
Brian Stefan, LCSW
Founder, California Grief Center