May 2024 Pandemic Purge In Person Workshop -Open To All-

-This event is in person only with no online option-

Please join Riley Sophia, experienced Portland-area interfaith hospice chaplain and death doula, at this in person sliding scale event in order to address the grief and trauma we have experienced from the beginning of the pandemic to the present.

Riley will bring her education and skills related to trauma recovery and bereavement supports in order to facilitate this process through somatic, spiritual and emotional based techniques including writing, song and movement.

Whether you feel the pandemic is still raging or you feel there is still a COVID threat but that it is not technically a pandemic any longer (or something in between), you are welcome here.

Tickets are $40-$160 sliding scale for 4-hour in person workshop.

This sliding scale is broad so you can feel free to pay whatever fits your personal budget and all will balance out in the end. Please notify organizer if you cannot pay and arrangements can be made.

In acknowledgment of historical and ongoing systemic racism and inequity, tickets for BIPOC folks are reduced by 50% at $20-$80 sliding scale.

All eventbrite fees covered by organizer.

Event will be held at the The Leaven Community Center in NE Portland at 5431 NE 20th Ave, Portland, OR 97211. The space is ADA accessible.

-Journal or notebook with writing utensil. Or Laptop/iPad with keyboard. Please note this is for rather quick stream of consciousness journalling.

-Clothes you feel you can move easily in. Layers for if the day starts cool.

-Water bottle/other hydration

-Small sacred or precious object to be placed on our collective altar that you will be taking home with you afterwards, imbued with the blessings of our time together.

-Optional: Bring a snack to share. Organizer will provide snacks for all.

Masks are not required for this event, but they are welcome. Please do not attend this event if you have new cold or COVID symptoms of any kind. Please protect us all in this way.

Depending on level of COVID surge in the area, chairs will be spaced apart and provided masks worn for portions of workshop that require being close together. If folks who are immune compromised want to attend and feel comfortable wearing N-95s or the like, we can work together to provide you the space you need.

Please refrain from wearing strongly fragranced lotions, hair products, or perfumes.

The workshop will start with the organizer offering brief education about the varying techniques we will be using for this workshop. After the education we will move into our process which will include intermittent writing, movement, song/vocalization, group sharing/witness, sharing food together, and a ritual of connection and gratitude.

Please know this workshop has been created to shake us up a bit as a way to access our trauma and grief in order to name it, move it, and perhaps find a sense of relief or deepening peace and connection to our hearts and spirits.

It is recommended that you allow some space after the workshop to tend to your self-care needs and offer yourself gentle landing space as you integrate. Take a bath, drink some water, enjoy a nap, or go on a contemplative walk: however you best tend to your heart and spirit.

Special note: this workshop is not a substitute for professional counseling/therapy, but may complement your regular mental health supports and practices nicely.

-------------

This workshop will be held on the unceded lands of the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Chinook, Tualitin, Kalapuya, Molalla peoples and many others. Some folks who attend this workshop may be part of one or more of these tribes. May we walk in a good way and may we be part of the change to honor all peoples and their ancestral homelands, offering reparations in many forms. A portion of the proceeds from this event will go to Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA).

——--

Refund policy:

100% refund up until week of event. Any refund requests received by 48 hours before the event will receive 50% refund. No refunds if cancelling within 48 hours of the event except in extreme circumstances.

------

May all beings be blessed and be given increasing freedom from suffering for the work we do together.

Riley Sophia MDiv, BCC is a cis woman/queer femme who has lived in Portland intermittently since 1999. Riley is ordained through an interfaith community, identifies as deeply spiritual and connected to multiple paths, and works as a hospice chaplain and death doula honoring the many ways folks connect to one another and to their own spiritual path(s). She is adjunct faculty at The Chaplaincy Institute Interfaith Seminary, teaching classes on tending to those who are dying and their families, medical aid in dying, and grief in it's myriad manifestations. Riley relies on what she has learned through formal schooling coupled with her own personal experiences with childhood trauma, grief and loss, and personal recovery. She draws on the wisdom and intuitive skills she has gained from her own struggles and healing journey to inform her practices. Riley currently lives in North Portland in a sweet little sanctuary where she loves to crochet lacy things and sing songs to her 23 lb black cat Prince Genevieve. Her love of trees, especially Redwoods, and being in the forest, are a significant part of her spiritual path(s).

Riley's experience with the workshop format:

The first time I did this purge process all the way through was in May 2023 with one of my closest heart friends. I wanted to allow myself space for naming my own pandemic-related trauma and grief before facilitating this workshop. Something was immediately lighter in me. It was like a stone was blocking some flow and there was a trickle of water where before the ground was getting pretty dry.

Now, as I have done the purge process numerous times with friends and community, new light and life continues to emerge with each layer of my heart and spirit I make contact with and listen to. There is a vast abundant river inside of me, freer movement, and increased creativity, where the ground had once been dry and cracked. I cannot wait to share this powerful, transformative process with each one of you.

Host or Publisher Riley Sophia, MDiv, BCC