The Grief Wave: Music, Loss & Renewal + October Gatherings

🧭 TL;DR | This Week at a Glance

✨ Profiles & Ideas
🎵 Ally Crowley-Duncan — Reviving tradition, the rockstar bagpiper goes viral
🌊 Grief 101: When Children Grieve (Part 1) — Understanding how young hearts process loss
🎀 Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October) — 40 years of awareness and action have reduced U.S. breast cancer death rates by 44%

📰 News & Reminders
📜 The Telehealth Modernization Act — Extending critical Medicare telehealth access through 2027
🚌 106 Hands, One Decision — How a rural team turned a school bus threat into a prevention blueprint
💊 A Quarter Century of Mifepristone — The abortion pill that transformed reproductive care now faces its fiercest political attacks

🎉 Events & Gatherings
🤖 Oct 15 — Suicide and AI: Virtual Armchair Discussion with Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW & Jonathan B. Singer, PhD, LCSW
(Free | Virtual)

🎭 Oct 18 — Weekend Grief Support: Catharsis Theater for Loss & Relief (Half-Day Workshop)
(Culver City, LA)

🧘 Oct 23 — Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction with Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD
(Santa Monica)

🌅 Dec 3–8 — 2025 Ram Dass Legacy “Open Your Heart in Paradise” Retreat
(Napili Kai Beach Resort, Maui)

💔 The Traumatic Loss Companion Course — An online program for navigating sudden, unexpected, or traumatic loss
(Virtual | Self-Paced)

🌊 California Grief Center
Therapy, groups, Catharsis Theater, and support for every stage of grief.

💌 Dear friends of The Grief Wave,

Grief moves through music, questions, resilience, and care. It lingers in a child’s drawing, in a melody that refuses to fade, and in the courage of those who keep showing up. These are reminders that grief is not only about what is lost, but also about what endures.

This week’s stories trace that thread — from tradition reshaped on stage, to young hearts learning honesty in grief, to communities working to preserve health and hope.

Even in sorrow, there is connection, courage, and the possibility of beginning again.

✨ Profiles & Ideas

🎵 Ally Crowley-Duncan

Reviving tradition, the rockstar bagpiper goes viral

Ally Crowley-Duncan has devoted her life to making the bagpipes matter in the modern world. From her teenage years winning a high school talent show with “Crazy Train” to viral performances of “Free Bird” viewed more than 100 million times, she has carried both the history of an ancient instrument and the spirit of reinvention, earning recognition as a performer who blends Celtic tradition with rock-star energy.

Now a top-billed festival act, she has pushed the pipes into unexpected places: TikTok sensations, viral covers of heavy metal and classic rock, and sets that feature everything from “Game of Thrones” to “My Heart Will Go On.” Along the way she has navigated the hazards of online fame, sparring with trolls, confounding traditionalists, and earning praise from Metallica themselves. Her work reflects both the resilience of the instrument and its capacity to surprise.

Most recently, Crowley-Duncan has become one of the world’s most famous bagpipers, celebrated for reviving the pipes for a new generation. Yet for those who watch her kneel, back-bend, and shred “Free Bird” through nine notes and a squeeze of air, this moment underscores the tension between reverence and rebellion in music today. Through it all, she represents the best of art—dedication, audacity, and a career defined by breaking boundaries, ensuring the pipes are no longer relics but instruments of joy, defiance, and lasting sound.

🌊 Grief 101: When Children Grieve (Part 1)

Understanding how young hearts process loss

Children’s grief is the quiet story adults often overlook, yet its absence unsettles the whole family. Young hearts sense loss earlier than we imagine, their questions silenced by well-meant redirection, their play carrying the weight of funerals, their drawings echoing what cannot be said aloud. The fracture does not come as a collapse but as a parent’s shushed reply, a ritual withheld, a story untold. What disappears is not innocence, but the thread of honesty that ties them to trust.

Clinicians trace the impact in classroom struggles, family confusion, and lingering fears. These are not illusions but evidence—regressions in sleep, sudden stomachaches, children blaming themselves, teenagers burdened with strength they do not yet own. Grief moves in cycles of tears and play, and when their reality is denied, the net of understanding frays. The loss multiplies in silence, even while questions rise again and again.

Our task is to meet this truth—answering with clarity, balancing honesty with protection, and listening when children reveal grief in play, art, or startling questions. Only then can the next generation inherit not erasure but connection, where remembering becomes a path toward healing rather than a source of confusion.

🎀 Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October)

For 40 years, awareness and action have helped reduce breast cancer death rates in the United States by 44%

The National Breast Cancer Foundation’s legacy is remembered not just in services, but as a testament to compassion and action. Born from survivor Janelle Hail’s own diagnosis in 1991, NBCF showed the world that awareness and education could save lives, offering free mammograms, diagnostic care, and hope to women who might otherwise go unseen. Its work proves that survival in the age of cancer is not about silence—it is about equipping communities with knowledge and support.

From its National Mammography Program to partnerships with Convoy of Hope, NBCF has redefined how we think about access to care, turning barriers into entry points, fear into education, and isolation into networks of support. Its philosophy—that help and hope must come first—now guides countless volunteers, partners, and patients across the United States.

The mission endures—in every HOPE Kit delivered, every retreat that restores strength, every woman who receives screening and early detection she might not otherwise have had. NBCF’s vision lives on as both a milestone and a call to action, reminding us that awareness is not optional—it is the foundation of survival and healing.

📰 News & Reminders

📜 The Telehealth Modernization Act

Extending critical Medicare telehealth access through 2027

A new bipartisan bill in Congress seeks to extend key Medicare telehealth flexibilities through 2027. The Telehealth Modernization Act, reintroduced by Senators Brian Schatz and Tim Scott, aims to preserve pandemic-era policies that expanded care options for millions of Americans. Without action, these provisions are set to expire in September 2025, threatening access for seniors and rural communities that depend on them.

The legislation goes beyond convenience — it ensures that patients can connect with clinicians from any location, including by audio-only visits, and expands eligibility to more providers and services. It also safeguards virtual access to mental health, hospice, dialysis, home rehab, and hospital-level care delivered at home.

Read the full bill to see how lawmakers are working to keep telehealth accessible, equitable, and patient-centered in the years ahead.

🚌 106 Hands, One Decision

How a rural team turned a school bus threat into a blueprint for prevention

For the first time, a community-wide threat assessment team prevented a possible school shooting before it happened. After a 16-year-old in Madison County, N.Y., made a threat on a bus, 106 people from 59 organizations came together to intervene. Rather than treat it as an isolated outburst, they secured firearms, addressed bullying, and provided tutoring and counseling. The approach reflects a new model of prevention, developed after the 2022 Buffalo massacre, that aims to act before violence occurs.

The intervention underscores more than one policy change — it shows how counties are rethinking mass shootings as a societal challenge rather than a law-enforcement-only problem. Supporters argue the model can connect struggling youth to counseling, drug rehab, or social services, and strengthen coordination between schools, law enforcement, and health providers.

Read the full article to see how prevention efforts are reshaping community safety—and what questions and challenges remain.

💊 A Quarter Century of Mifepristone

The abortion pill that transformed reproductive care now faces its fiercest political attacks

A new report marks the 25th anniversary of mifepristone’s approval in the United States, highlighting both its revolutionary impact on abortion access and the intensifying efforts to restrict it. First approved by the FDA on September 28, 2000—more than a decade after its debut in France—the drug, used with misoprostol, transformed reproductive health by allowing people to have abortions safely and privately at home.

Advocates note that medication abortion now accounts for more than 60% of abortions nationwide, with telehealth and shield laws expanding its reach even after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Yet anti-abortion groups and Republican officials are pushing to roll back access, questioning its safety despite more than 100 studies confirming it is effective and safer than common drugs like Tylenol. Supporters stress that mifepristone remains essential to reproductive freedom, while opponents escalate lawsuits, legislation, and disinformation campaigns.

🤖 Suicide and AI — Virtual Armchair Discussion with Experts Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW and Jonathan B. Singer, PhD, LCSW (FREE)

Zoom | October 15, 2025 | 8:00-9:30am PT | 11:00am-12:30pm ET

Since its beginning, the Suicide and AI discussion has been a gathering for reflection—a space to explore lived experience, scholarship, and practice wisdom at the edge of technology and human suffering.

As we approach October, we meet virtually with Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW, and Jonathan B. Singer, PhD, LCSW, to unpack the risks and opportunities of generative AI in suicide prevention. This timely conversation welcomes mental health professionals, educators, and scholars seeking tools to use today while planning for a safer tomorrow.

All are invited to join this thoughtful 90-minute exchange of ideas, practice, and community online.

💛 Registration open now. Oct. 15, 2025, 8:00 a.m. PT / 11:00 a.m. ET.

🎭 Weekend Grief Support: Catharsis Theater for Loss & Relief (Half-Day Workshop)

Saturday, October 18, 2025 | 1:00-4:30pm | LA / Culver City

A safe and supportive space for anyone navigating grief or loss—personal, professional, political, or even the wider losses we feel in our world.

📅 Saturday, October 18 | 1:00–4:30 PM (arrive 12:30–12:45)
📍 Blue Door Theater, Culver City

What is Catharsis Theater?
Catharsis Theater is an experiential group process rooted in over 100 years of psychodrama and sociometry, combined with trauma-informed practices for healing. It offers a safe space to move through grief, let go of what feels heavy, and reconnect with yourself and others. No acting. No pressure. Just honesty, compassion, and relief.

✨ What makes it unique:
– Not performance, but presence
– Not scripted, but supportive
– Not clinical therapy, but deeply healing

🕯️ Share if you’re ready. Listen if you need. Simply come as you are.
With gratitude to ArtsUp! LA for hosting.

🧘 Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction with Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD

Santa Monica | October 23-December 18, 2025 | Thursdays 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM PT

For over 20 years, InsightLA has offered mindfulness teachings to people from all walks of life—a community gathering to find balance, peace, and well-being.

This fall, we meet at the Santa Monica Meditation Center for an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction & Mindful Self-Compassion series with Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD. Rooted in decades of research, this program supports greater resilience, healing, and connection in daily life.

Each session welcomes both newcomers and longtime practitioners, offering guided practices, reflection, and tools for managing stress, pain, and uncertainty.

💛 Registration open now. Thursdays, Oct. 23–Dec. 18, 2025, Santa Monica.

🌅 2025 Ram Dass Legacy "Open Your Heart in Paradise" Maui Retreat

Napili Kai Beach Resort | December 3-8, 2025

Since 2008, the Ram Dass Legacy Retreat has been a sanctuary for seekers—a gathering to reflect, connect, and return to the heart.

As we approach December, we meet once more at the Napili Kai Beach Resort for Open Your Heart in Paradise, honoring Ram Dass’s vision with music, meditation, teachings, and community. This beloved retreat continues to welcome pilgrims, newcomers, and longtime friends alike on the spiritual path.

All are invited to join this immersive six-day experience of silence, song, practice, and celebration in Maui.

💛 Registration open now. Dec. 3–8, 2025, Napili Bay.

💔 The Traumatic Loss Companion Course (Virtual)

An online self-help program for individuals living with the aftermath of a sudden, unexpected or traumatic death of a loved one

Since its creation, the Traumatic Loss Companion Course has been a refuge for the grieving—a guided path through pain, chaos, and the search for meaning.

As you face the aftermath of a sudden, devastating death, you are invited to join this online program led by Dr. Jennifer Levin. With warmth and clarity, she offers video modules, guided practices, and community calls designed to support you through trauma and grief, step by step.

All are welcome to begin this self-paced journey of healing, understanding, and connection with others who truly understand.

💛 Enrollment open now. 12 modules online + monthly live calls.

🌊 Get Help from the California Grief Center

You do not have to grieve alone. Whether you have lost someone, lost your way, or carry unspoken sorrow, there is a place for you here.

What We Offer:

• Grief Therapy (in-person and virtual)

• Catharsis Theater (monthly gatherings)

• Virtual Support Groups (confidential and facilitated)

Our Philosophy: We do not treat grief as a problem. We treat it as a passage.
Consultations are always free.

💛 With care,
Brian Stefan, LCSW
Founder & Clinical Director
California Grief Center

✅ P.S. Know someone quietly grieving?
👉 Forward this letter. You never know who needs it.
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