Honoring Kamala. Facing the Age of Grief. Holding each other close.

💌 Dear friends of the California Grief Center,

🎆 This Independence Day feels complicated.

Beneath the fireworks, so many brace for harder days ahead:

Cuts to life-saving programs.
Attacks on disability rights.
Heat domes. Floods.

And now, the shattering loss of a woman who embodied so many fragile hopes — Kamala Harris.

Proof we could lead with both steel and joy.

So we gather.
Not because we’re blind to how precarious things are —
but because we see it all too clearly, and still choose each other.

Because grief is coming for all of us: personal, political, planetary.
Because community is how we’ll survive this Age of Grief.

🌟 This month at CGC

We’re opening doors and holding space for exactly this:

✨ To honor Kamala’s light — and all who carry it forward.
🌍 To trace the tangled net that both frays and binds us.
🎭 To sit in circles & on small stages where grief, creativity, and care still matter — profoundly.

If your heart is tired, you’re not alone.
If your mind is swirling, you belong here.

Come join us — for Catharsis Theater, where all grief is welcome (personal, political, planetary, profound), for ACT to shelter our artists, the lighthouse keepers of these stormy seas, for gentle HOPE groups, or simply to keep building something tender and true, even now.

Because in these restless waters, we need every voice — especially those who dare to sing, paint, dance, and tell our stories — so we might all find our way home.

🔦 In This Issue

🌟 Kamala Harris: The Light We Could Have Followed
🌍 The Tangled Net — how globalization both frays and binds us

🎭 Upcoming gatherings for collective healing:
• 🌌 Catharsis Theater: The Constellations of Grief & Loss — July 6
• 🎨 Artists Catharsis Theater (ACT): Unwinding Anxiety & Creative Blocks — July 6 & 26
• 🌱 Rooted Together: Gentle, free virtual support — July 10
• 🧘 Mindfulness & Grief: Caregiver stress — July 11
• 🕯️ HOPE Group: Mindfulness & disability (ArtsUP! LA) — July 26

💔 Grief 101: Why CBT may not be enough
🌊 How we help at the California Grief Center

🌟 Kamala Harris: The Light We Could Have Followed

Kamala arrived as a spark in America’s long night —
a triumph of generations who fought so daughters might walk through power’s gates unafraid.

It’s a sorrow to wonder what might have been.
How many protections might have bloomed?
How many children spared fear?

The weight of what didn’t come sits heavy.

Yet every advance — even one cut short — makes the next that much more possible.

So we honor Kamala not just for what she did, but for how she stood in the storm.

Right now, young women are learning to speak truth with her cadence,
to smile with her quiet defiance.

The sun will rise again — carried in their hearts, their hands, their unbroken search for light.

🌍 The Tangled Net
New from CGC

The Tangled Net is our new Friday reflection on globalization’s paradox —
how the same forces that fray our world might also be the only threads holding us together.

Globalization has given us breathtaking convenience, but also staggering inequality.
It carries grief across continents in an instant — yet also lets compassion, solidarity, and social movements ignite just as quickly.

Launching on July 4 feels fitting:
a day we celebrate independence, even as this age reveals how deeply bound — and vulnerable — we truly are.

Each week, we’ll explore how we’re entangled economically, culturally, and emotionally,
and what that means for grief, resilience, and fragile hope.

Come read, reflect, and see what emerges.

🎭 Upcoming Gatherings

🌌 Catharsis Theater: The Constellations of Grief & Loss

📅 Sunday, July 6 | 1–4:30 PM | Blue Door Theater, Culver City
~40 spots | pay what you can (Green Bottle model)

Your grief isn’t random — it forms a constellation.
Come see it, together.

🌟 Catharsis Theater

Not therapy. Not a show.
A space to explore, share, and shift grief — side by side.

🛡️ A Brave Space

✅ Voluntary & trauma-informed
✅ No diagnosis, no treatment
✅ Trained support throughout

💫 What You’ll Find:

• All grief welcome — personal, political, climate, identity, more
• Story, connection, catharsis
• A chance to witness or be witnessed

🎨 Artists Catharsis Theater (ACT)

📅 Sunday, July 6 | 6–9:30 PM | Blue Door Theater, Culver City
📅 Saturday, July 26 | 1–4:30 PM | Blue Door Theater, Culver City
~40 spots | sliding scale

Anxiety tangles with creativity.
Let’s untangle it — together.

🌟 Artists Catharsis Theater (ACT)

Not therapy. Not a show.
A space for artists to explore, play, and find new breath.

🛡️ A Brave Space

✅ Voluntary & trauma-informed
✅ No diagnosis, no treatment
✅ Trained support throughout

🎨 Who’s It For?

Actors. Dancers. Musicians. Writers.
Poets. Comedians. Drag performers. Designers.
Tattoo artists. Photographers. Painters.
Circus, street, or any creative soul.

💫 What You’ll Find:

• Exploring the “here & now”
• Somatic tools to ease anxiety
• Group processes to reconnect
• Spirit animals, wisdom figures, beloved roles
• Leave with more courage & creative spark

🌱 Rooted Together: Free Virtual Support for Communities in Crisis

📅 Thursday, July 10 | 12–1 PM PT / 3–4 PM EST | Virtual
For anyone impacted by immigration threats, state violence, or collective grief.
Facilitated by Brian Stefan, LCSW

Hosted by NASW-CA.

🧘 Mindfulness & Grief: Preventing Caregiver Burnout

📅 Friday, July 11 | 12–1:30 PM PST / 3–4:30 PM EST | Virtual
Facilitated by Brian Stefan, LCSW & Marcia T. Leftwich.
Practical tools & gentle community for those carrying others.

Hosted by NASW-CA.

🕯️ HOPE Group: Mindfulness for Deep Suffering

📅 Saturday, July 26 | 10–11:30 AM PT | Virtual
This month’s theme: disability & change, with guests from ArtsUP! LA.
Includes meditation, short teaching, open sharing, and a grounding ritual.

✨ Donation-based (dana: pay what you can, from the heart).

💔 Grief 101: Why CBT May Not Be Enough

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy says:
Change your thoughts, change your feelings.

But what if your fears aren’t distorted —
just painfully real?

Climate collapse. ICE raids.
Economic systems rigged against us.

Grief waves are crashing all around us,
pulling us under when we least expect it.

So therapists are weaving in more:

🌱 Trauma-informed & somatic care
🎭 Expressive healing & story work
📚 Narrative & existential approaches
🤝 Community & ecological grief spaces

Because we don’t just need to challenge thoughts —
we need places to mourn, to plan, to breathe together.

🌊 How We Help at the California Grief Center

Grief isn’t a problem to fix.
It’s a truth to honor.

💬 Individual therapy (nationwide, virtual)
👥 Grief groups (online & in-person)
🎭 Catharsis Theater (body & story-based healing)

✨ Always free consultations.

💛 With heart,
Brian Stefan, LCSW
Founder, California Grief Center
🕊️ Facing the hurt — together.

✅ P.S.
Know someone quietly grieving?
👉 Forward this letter. Everyone belongs.
💌 Get these letters in your inbox — sign up here.