Friends of the California Grief Center,

This week, the world said goodbye to Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas—the oldest living person, a Brazilian nun who died just shy of her 117th birthday.

Born in 1908, Sister Inah defied all odds. Frail as a child, she grew to be a lifelong teacher, a woman of deep Catholic faith, and a fierce soccer fan who wore her team’s colors with joy and pride. She lived through wars, revolutions, pandemics—and kept her eyes, quite literally, on the ball.

Her legacy isn’t just her age. It’s her spirit. In a life spanning three centuries, she reminded us that one of the holiest acts is to love something fully—whether it’s God, your students, or the game you cheer for on weekends.

May we honor her not just by remembering her years, but by living out one of her quiet teachings: find what you love. And follow it.

🎭 Catharsis Theater: A Place Where Grief Breathes

Sunday, May 4 | 1–4:30 PM | Los Angeles, CA (downtown Culver City)
with Brian Stefan, LCSW | Adults 21+ | Sliding Scale

Grief doesn’t always come with a funeral. Sometimes it’s a job you outgrew, a friendship that faded, a future that didn’t happen. Loss has many doorways—and all are welcome here.

Since 2023, we’ve held over 30 events for more than 500 people (including our first in Paris earlier this year) for one reason: to make room for the grief this world keeps trying to silence.

At Catharsis Theater, we don’t treat grief as a diagnosis. We treat it as a birthright. A passage. A wave you’re not meant to surf alone.

This is not a performance. It’s a gathering.
Not therapy, but deeply therapeutic.
Not a stage, but a shoreline—where sorrow meets witness, and something begins to heal.

What to Expect:
🌊 No need to perform—your truth is enough
🎤 You can speak or stay quiet
🎭 Guided by psychodrama techniques, story, and ritual
🪑 Every emotion has a seat
🥪 Break included (snacks and coffee provided)
🚗 Nearby parking options | Substance-free space

Let us anchor together in the ache. Let us begin again.

👉 Register Here
(Space is limited—please join only if you can attend with presence.)

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

Saturdays | May 10 – June 14, 2025 | 10 AM–2 PM | Venice, CA (Abbot Kinney)
with Tabitha Fronk, LPCC, ATR-BC & Brian Stefan, LCSW
Adults 21+ | Sliding Scale

Grief doesn’t always speak in full sentences. Sometimes it shows up as silence, tension, fragments. This workshop is a place to give those fragments shape, color, and company.

Fragments Reimagined is part of a tradition that doesn’t treat grief as a problem to be solved. Instead, this six-week gathering welcomes grief as a wise and wounded teacher—one that deserves time, space, and reverence.

Here, healing doesn’t mean erasing the cracks. It means turning them into art.

This is not therapy. It’s a homecoming.
Not a project, but a process.
Not just a class, but a tender harbor for all the selves you’ve been.

What to Expect:
🖐 Hands-on mosaic making (all materials included)
🎭 Psychodrama techniques-inspired rituals + somatic storytelling
🌀 A slow, spacious rhythm—move at your own pace
🥗 Midday lunch break (great cafés nearby)
🚗 Free parking | Substance-free space

Because when words falter, our hands still remember how to create.

👉 Register Here
(Spots are limited—join us if you can be fully present for the voyage.)

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

🌿 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 has no calendar. Some winters overstay. Some healing pours in like spring rain on parched ground. On May 11, Trudy Goodman invites you to a gentle shore—where nothing’s broken, and everything has a place.

This isn’t a lecture. It’s a hand on your back. A soft exhale. A reminder that even in quiet, the ground is listening.

🕯️ 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 hurries through heartache, HOPE makes room to breathe. This month’s gathering, Spotlight on Suicide (SOS), calls us to meet our pain—without running, resisting, or rushing it.

Dr. Jamie Gamboa will lead us in the quiet art of witnessing what aches, reminding us: just staying close can begin the mending.

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

🌊 More About California Grief Center

A Place to Drift, to Drop Anchor, to Breathe

Grief doesn’t want fixing. It wants holding. Like tidewater, it rolls in uninvited—salted with memory, full of ache. At the California Grief Center, we offer a harbor, not a cure. Just steady presence, and a light on the shore.

From one-on-one sessions to Catharsis Theater’s deep dives into the soul, we help people find their sea legs again. We sail beside schools, families, and communities, and now offer virtual support wherever your vessel may drift.

🌀 Come aboard at www.caligrief.com

—Brian Stefan, LCSW
California Grief Center Founder