delving the depths

a communion of writing & plant kin exploring our stories of suicidality

This is tender work. This is healing work. This is potentially activating work. Participants will be encouraged to be self responsive to their needs, diving as deep as is appropriate. Folks are encouraged to proceed gently, pacing themselves, tending activation as it occurs with great compassion.

This is not for folks in active crisis. This is for folks who have long term experiences of suicidality and are curious to explore what lies within these threads.

Participants will be expected to have networks of support (friends, lovers, therapists) to hold them and will be invited to let their circles know the work they are doing in this container.

This is a writing group, not a therapy group. There will be some sharing of our writing and our experiences, but mostly we will focus on writing together and be in companionship around our shared experiences of suiciality, alongside our plant kin. This is personal work we do together in shared space, for the sake of communal healing.

rowan is not a therapist or counselor. They are a writer, herbalist, somatic bodyworker and a community facilitator for qt healing and transformation. rowan has over 15 years of community facilitation experience in healing and organizing spaces, as well as 1:1 care work, focused on trauma, DV, SA and suicidality.

HOW IT WILL WORK

THE SHAPE OF OUR SESSIONS

Participants will receive four plant essences to work with during our time together.

We will meet six times over zoom.

We will have an opening session and a closing session, weeks 1 & 6 that will be more processing, getting to know each other, opening the work and then closing the work of this container.

In the four middle sessions, weeks 2-5, there will be a consistent structure: We will work with one plant each session. There will be a short info share about the plant, and then we will take 1-3 drops of the energetic plant extract. We will do some short writing stints to open, with reflection questions and invitations to do some gentle embodied practice, letting our body guide our hands. The second half of the session will be a longer writing session. Throughout, we will have some sharing as we go, and we will close with some sharing as well.

We will close together on our sixth session, processing what has moved in us over the past month and experiences of focused writing on suicidality accompanied by plant kin.

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Participants are welcome to continue taking drop doses of the plant essence over the course of the week in between our meetings, taking additional time to writing and/or otherwise note what is shifting and moving within.  Participants may find one specific plant to accompany them throughout; others will spent equal time each week with all four.  Folks may choose to only write during our sessions together; others may choose to pick up a daily writing practice during our time together. Each participant will be invited to choose what is right for them and their capacity.

LOGISTICS

This six week program will run Feb 12 – March 19, 2025

We will meet weekly on six Wednesdays from 11am – 1pm ET / 8am-10am PT.

This is an online Zoom gathering. 

There will be live closed captioning available.

These sessions will NOT be recorded. Please plan to attend all four sessions if you can. Any planned content will be shared via email for those who missed it.

Note: Plant essences will be mailed to participants living within the continental US only. If you are living elsewhere, I can offer some suggestions for ordering plant essences to reach you to support you in the program.

This will be a gentle and lovingly held container. It will include frank conversations about suicidality, trauma, deep pain, despair, oppression and violence, hope and longing. Participants are invited to be self responsible and tend themselves as needed throughout. Folks are welcome to be on or off screen, participate or not as they feel called, and are free to utilize the unmute or chat functions to contribute.  Come as you are.

CULTIVATING INTIMACY

Space is limited to twelve participants for intimacy, depth and connection.

We will hold our space with confidentiality, compassion, intention and loving self-responsibility.

Who is this for?

This is intended for folks who have lived embodied experiences of suicidality, historically or currently.

This is for those who find writing supportive to their own healing and self understanding.

This is for those who are curious to delve into the depths through writing about their own experiences of suicidality, to see what might be unearthed, to see what they might learn about themselves through this process, and who are inspired to undertake this process alongside their fellows.

This is for those who find healing in relationship with plant kin and the holy wild.

This is for those who are curious and open to seeing what plant kin might have to offer us as we explore these depths.

This is for those who have the personal, professional and/or therapeutic support they need already, and are seeking to go deeper into their own understanding of their experiences.

Note: This is not for those in active crisis. This is not meant to replace therapeutic, peer and/or professional mental health support. Participants will be expected to have personal webs of support and care outside of this cohort, to support them as they do this specific work.

a note on stigma & shame in this space:

This will be a compassionate space facilitated with a harm reduction approach. No one will be shamed for personal stories, histories or active relationships with suicidality; we are coming together knowing this is a shared thread on our lives, and we are each here to do whatever personal work is next for us to do. We will extend compassion to each other, wherever we are at in this tending. We will greet suicidality with care and compassion as well, and work to counter dominant societal norms of shame around these realities.

As always, take care of yourselves as you need to within this space; we each come into these conversations with our own experiences, triggers and pain points on these topics. Many of us carry internalized stigma, judgment and harsh stories around suicidality. We are all invited to be self-responsive to our own needs during our time together.

Who is facilitating this offering?

For folks new to me & my work –

my name is rowan (they/them) and I’m a qt herbalist, bodyworker, writer, facilitator and devotee to plant kin. I deeply believe in the powerful potential in queer healing, radical community care, and embodying our values to create the world we long for.

The threads of my work include queer healing, ritual and devotion with the holy, long-c & DJ, politicized ancestral reconnection for settlers on Turtle Island/N America, cultural traditions and ethnobotany, and more. I’m a white-bodied 3rd gen US person who comes from Irish, Lithuanian, Scottish & Sicilian lineages and resides currently in the n east of the US, on Abenaki land.

I am deeply curious about what lies within us, especially the tangled, darker threads, and love exploring these threads in intentional community spaces for the sake of healing and collective liberation. I have found great power lying within my own pain stories, and writing has long been a way of tending, processing and integrating these stories.  I have many years of experience working with plants to tend trauma, pain and violence, including DV, SA, and suicidality both personally and supporting others in their processes. I base all my work off of my lived personal experiences, relationships with the holy wild, and experiences as a queer healing practitioner. For this offering specifically, I am also holding this space based on my own writing practice and personal work around suicidality, including personal, familial and ancestral histories.

Note: I am not a therapist nor currently an active crisis counselor. Though I have training and professional experience working with folks in active crisis around suicidality, this is not my current work, nor is it the role I am offering for this specific program. Participants will be expected to have circles of care to support them outside of this writing group. My role for this specific group is of facilitator, writing guide, plant kin companion, and fellow in the work.

thanks for being in community with me, for your support of my ongoing work, and for being a part of this broader weaving.