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The Grief Wave: The Silence Is Loud This Week

The Grief Wave: The Silence Is Loud This Week

From teen murals to invisible caregiver grief, hear what others tried to bury.

Brian Stefan
August 01, 2025

🧭 TL;DR | This Week at a Glance

🌟 Honoring a Healing Pioneer: Anne Hamilton, Esq.
Turning cancer survival into a mission for holistic healing and hope

🕯 The Hidden Crisis: Parents of Disabled Children
Nearly half report suicidal thoughts—but struggle to find help

🎨 When Art Meets Censorship: Teen Voices Silenced
Smithsonian covers up student mural—and the grief behind it

🏛 Campus Under Fire: UCLA Loses Federal Funding
Trump administration cuts research grants over antisemitism claims

🍄 Healing Beyond Medicine: Psilocybin for Cancer Survivors
Legal psychedelic retreats offer new hope for those beyond treatment

🌲 Stillness in the Canyon with InsightLA
A donation-based day retreat in nature for nervous system healing – Aug 16

🕯️ HOPE Group: Mindfulness & Suicidal Struggle
A Zen-inspired reflection on deep suffering – Aug 30 (with guest Patrick Park)

✨ The Tangled Net #5: The Last Lullaby
What we lose when languages die—and why it matters for how we grieve

🎭 Next Saturday: Virtual Catharsis Theater
Online grief healing experience – Aug 9, 1–2:45 PM PT

🌊 CGC Therapy, Events & Training
Support for all forms of grief. You don’t have to carry it alone.

💌 Dear friends of The Grief Wave,

Facing the hurt — together.

This week, we sit with stories of voices muted and struggles hidden.

From parents drowning in caregiving responsibilities to teenagers whose truth was deemed too dangerous for public display, we’re reminded that grief often goes underground—not by choice, but by necessity.

These stories ask us to listen more closely. To notice the grief that doesn’t fit into neat categories or comforting narratives.

In this issue, you’ll find:

– A crisis hiding in plain sight among caregiving families
– Teen artists whose honest work challenged adult comfort
– A university caught in political crossfire
– New pathways to healing for cancer survivors
– A space to process it all together, safely

Here, we don't rush grief.
We give it breath. We give it company.

🎗️ Honoring a Healing Pioneer: Anne Hamilton, Esq.

"Two smiling women take a selfie outdoors in warm sunlight. One has a shaved head and wears a green tank top; the other has long blonde hair and wears a light denim shirt. Behind them is a wooden restaurant sign reading 'hızlı VGN' and string lights hanging from trees."

Anne Hamilton (right) is turning cancer survival into a mission for holistic healing and hope

Meet Anne Hamilton—a Yale-trained lawyer, filmmaker, and cancer survivor who transformed pain into purpose.

Anne didn’t just survive Stage 3C breast cancer—she alchemized her experience into something profound for thousands of others.

When her final treatment ended at Cedars-Sinai in 2020, she had done everything right: chemotherapy, double mastectomy, radiation, surgery. Her medical team was excellent. Her prognosis was good.

But something was missing: the ability to live, not just survive.

"I felt disconnected—from my body, my future, and the joy of living," she recalls.

Despite therapy, meditation, and yoga, a deeper wound remained untouched—until she tried psilocybin therapy under skilled guidance. What followed was transformative: a spiritual encounter with mortality that replaced fear with peace. For the first time, Anne felt fully alive.

But her story didn’t end with personal healing.

During a five-year cancerversary retreat, she met another survivor facing recurrence. The conversation revealed a painful truth: countless survivors are curious about psychedelic healing but have no safe, legal access.

So she built one.

The Survivorship Collective became the first nonprofit dedicated to connecting the cancer community with state-regulated psilocybin retreats.

Not underground. Not overseas. Legal, safe, and survivor-led.

"We’re advocating for informed, purposeful access," she explains. "Because healing after cancer isn’t just about surviving—it’s about meaning, connection, and peace."

🙏 Thank you, Anne. Your courage creates pathways for others to heal wholly.

🕯 The Hidden Crisis: Parents of Disabled Children

Nearly half report suicidal thoughts—but can’t find help

A woman with long brown hair sits on a shaded wooden porch beside a black table with a phone on it. She's wearing a navy floral blouse and jeans, with greenery and a garden hose visible in the background.

Angie Scheu, 44, finds peace on her back porch, watching birds to ease the stress of raising three kids, including her youngest, who has Down syndrome. (Doral Chenoweth, Columbus Dispatch via USA TODAY Network)

Some numbers stop you cold: 42% of parents caring for disabled children report suicidal ideation. That’s not a statistic—that’s an emergency.

Angie Scheu lives it. The mother of three—including 4-year-old Rachel, born with Down syndrome during COVID—has faced suicidal thoughts three times.

She escapes to her back porch in Ohio and tells herself: “This is temporary.”

But for many caregiving parents, it isn’t temporary. It’s daily. It’s lonely. It’s invisible.

“Sometimes being a mom means that your needs come last.”

The tragedy? 53% never tell anyone. They’re crushed by shame, financial stress, and systems that treat their mental health as a luxury.

This is not a personal failure—it’s structural neglect.

We need respite. Paid leave. Compassionate support.
And we need to normalize the truth: grief in caregiving is not a betrayal. It’s human.

💛 At CGC, we’re building spaces where caregivers can lay down what they carry—even briefly.

🎨 When Art Meets Censorship

Teen voices silenced at the Smithsonian

"A painted figure of a young person appears to be suspended mid-fall against a muted blue-gray background. They wear a white t-shirt, denim shorts, socks, and sneakers. Their hair floats upward, and their hands are raised, fingers spread, capturing a moment of weightlessness and vulnerability."

“Falling” by Betty Shanefelter is featured in The Teen Experience at the American University Museum through Aug. 10. (Betty Shanefelter/Montgomery County Public Schools' Visual Art Center)

At this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival, teen artists created a powerful mural depicting their world: climate change, college stress, school shootings—and much more.

Then came the censorship. Smithsonian officials covered the mural, calling the message “antisemitic and hateful.”

Seventeen-year-old Flair Doherty, who is Jewish, watched her work vanish behind canvas.

Free expression—gone.

Mary Beth Tinker (of the landmark 1969 student free speech case) reminded them:

“Be proud of speaking up. That’s a life of integrity.”

“There are a lot of spaces where teenagers are talked about—and very few where they can talk back.”

🎭 At Catharsis Theater, we believe in making space for the unspeakable. That’s what healing demands.

🏛 Campus Under Fire

UCLA loses federal funding over antisemitism claims

"Rows of colorful tents cover a grassy lawn in front of Royce Hall, an iconic brick building on the UCLA campus. Protesters appear to be encamped, with supplies and signs visible. A person lies on a blanket in the foreground, surrounded by books and materials. The scene suggests an organized demonstration under a clear blue sky."

In 2024, U.C.L.A. was the site of one of the nation’s biggest protests against the war in Gaza. (Mark Abramson for The New York Times)

The Department of Justice ruled UCLA violated civil rights laws in handling Gaza war protests. As a result, hundreds of federal research grants were cut—jeopardizing scientific research that could save lives.

“This is a loss for Americans across the nation,” said Chancellor Julio Frenk.

⚖️ When ideology trumps inquiry, we all lose ground in care.

🍄 Healing Beyond Medicine

Psilocybin retreats for cancer survivors

A wooden boardwalk surrounded by lush greenery, leading into a shadowy forest, symbolizing a contemplative and uncertain path forward.

A path leads into the unknown—like the journey of healing after cancer.

What comes after the last chemo?
When you’re “cancer-free”—but your soul is still shaken?

The Survivorship Collective offers legal, state-regulated psilocybin retreats in Oregon and Colorado designed for cancer survivors.

These are not party drugs. These are healing spaces—for existential fear, grief, and spiritual trauma that traditional therapy may not reach.

🎗 If you’ve survived cancer—or love someone who has—this may be the healing step beyond medicine.

🎗 And please support their scholarship fund to make these retreats accessible.

✨ The Tangled Net #5: The Last Lullaby

What we lose when languages die—and why it matters for how we grieve

"A close-up of a rope net with a white seashell, a piece of green sea glass, and a tangle of seaweed caught in it. The ocean and sandy beach are blurred in the background."

In every tangled net, fragments of ancient wisdom wait to be discovered—or lost forever.

Every 14 days, the last speaker of a language takes their final breath.

With them dies not just vocabulary, but a way of organizing human experience.

This isn’t just about lost words. It’s about lost ways of feeling.

– In Portuguese, saudade = a deep, aching longing
– In Japanese, mono no aware = the beauty of impermanence
– In Welsh, hiraeth = homesickness for a place that may never have existed

🧠 When a language dies, so do unique ways to grieve, to hope, and to love.

🧶 May we have the wisdom to keep them alive.

🎭 Next Saturday: Virtual Catharsis Theater for Grief & Healing

An Online Psychodrama-Inspired Experience
🗓️ Saturday, August 9th | 1:00–2:45 PM PT

A stage for sorrow. A space for healing.

You don’t need a diagnosis to grieve.
And you don’t have to grieve alone.

Join us for a virtual psychodrama-inspired gathering for truth-telling, emotional release, and communal presence.

✨ What makes it powerful:
– Not performance, but presence
– Not scripted, but emotionally safe
– Not clinical therapy, but deeply therapeutic

💻 Join from anywhere. Speak if you're ready. Be quiet if you need. Just show up.
🎟️ Limited capacity | Tiered pricing available

🌊 Events, Support & Training from the California Grief Center

“Smiling bald man, Brian Stefan, with a beard wearing a suit jacket and open-collar shirt, pictured against a light blue background.”

Brian Stefan, LCSW
Founder & Clinical Director
California Grief Center

You don’t have to grieve alone.
Whether you've lost someone, lost your way, or carry unspoken sorrow—there’s a place for you here.

💬 What We Offer

🧠 Grief Therapy
Individual, couple, and family sessions available in-person (Los Angeles) and virtually across California and nationwide.
Specialties include: traumatic grief, suicide loss, anticipatory grief, and disenfranchised grief.

🎭 Catharsis Theater
Monthly in-person and virtual psychodrama gatherings.
No performance. Just presence. Just healing. Just truth.

🌐 Virtual Support Groups
Facilitated, confidential spaces for:
– Suicide loss survivors
– Those navigating ambiguous or complicated grief
– People experiencing identity transitions, isolation, or emotional stuckness

📚 Grief Counselor Training – Fall 2025
Become a certified CGC Grief Counselor (coaching model).
Includes experiential learning, somatic tools, and trauma-informed practice.

📅 Upcoming Gatherings for Rest, Reflection & Renewal

🌲 Stillness in the Canyon: A Day of Nature & Meditation with InsightLA

Retreat Day | Saturday, August 16th | 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM | Benedict Canyon, LA

A sunlit hillside home surrounded by lush greenery and palm trees, with a stone staircase leading up to a white stucco house featuring a red front door. The sky is clear and bright blue, and the house is nestled against a backdrop of green hills.

InsightLA’s Benedict Canyon Retreat House

A donation-based day retreat for nervous system repair.
🧘 Group meditations at 9am, 11am, and 2pm (optional)
🌿 Silence indoors; gentle talking outdoors
🥾 Bring layers, lunch, and your weary spirit. There’s room for all of it here.

🕯️ HOPE Group: Sitting With the Unbearable—Mindfulness & Suicidal Struggle (with Patrick Park)

Virtual (Zoom) | Saturday, August 30th | 10:00–11:30 AM PT

“Graphic with the words ‘HOPE Group: Healing Ourselves through the Present Experience’ in colorful, elegant fonts, above a green leafy branch illustration on a light background.”

HOPE for all.

Since 2020, HOPE has offered quiet refuge from chaos—a space for reflection and presence.

🧘‍♂️ This month’s theme: Mindfulness, Deep Suffering, and Sitting with Suicide
With special guest Patrick Park, a senior Dharma teacher in the Zen tradition.

💛 Donation-based & open to all

💡 Our Philosophy
We don’t treat grief as a problem.
We treat it as a passage.

✨ Consultations are always free.
When you’re ready—we’ll walk beside you.

💛 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.
💌 To get these in your inbox, sign up for The Grief Wave Newsletter.

Facing the hurt — together.