Grief Tending
We live in a world that asks grief to be quick, tidy, quiet, and solitary.
A world that consoles too soon, reassures too quickly, and urges people to “move on” before the heart has even begun to understand what has happened.
And while much of this is well-intentioned, the impact is heavy.
It teaches the grieving person that their sorrow is inconvenient — something to manage privately — and so grief goes underground, hidden and unspoken, leaving most people carrying heartbreak no one ever sees.
But grief was never meant to be carried alone.
Grief needs witnesses.
Not advice.
Not solutions.
Witness and accompaniment —
and a place of honour at the table of our lives.
Grief can arrive through many doorways:
the death of someone beloved,
the loss of health or identity,
the end of a relationship,
the long ache of untended-to grief,
or the heartbreak of living through cultural and ecological collapse.
Whatever its shape, grief is not a mistake.
Grief is not a problem to solve
Grief is a human skill — the way love becomes visible through its ache.
It is the honouring instinct of a human heart that has loved.
My grief work is shaped by years of accompanying people whose lives have been turned upside down — and by my own learning in the aftermath of loss, including the death of my husband. It is also deeply rooted in my long apprenticeship to the Orphan Wisdom School and Stephen Jenkinson, whose work on endings, praise, and cultural responsibility continues to inform the way I live my life and hold this work.
This work centres on companionship, ceremony, land-based practice, and the slow, sacred labour of letting grief speak in its own language and its own time.
Grief does not need to be made smaller.
Grief needs welcome.
How We Can Work Together
For Those Walking With Loss
If you are grieving — newly, or across many years — you are welcome here.
If you are carrying sorrow that has gone underground, you are welcome.
If you need somewhere to lay down what you’ve been holding alone, you are welcome.
Please get in touch to ask about 1:1 grief accompaniment or to join the waiting list for upcoming retreats.
1:1 Grief Accompaniment
A steady, human place to bring what hurts.
Sessions may include story, ritual, silence, walking into the woods, tending a fire, or simply sitting together in the ache.
Nothing here is about fixing.
Everything is about honouring.
Grief Retreats
Immersive, spacious, communal.
Held at the House at the Edge of the Woods and in the ancient woodland I steward.
A place to grieve in company, to rest, to make beauty, and to remember what holds you.
A place to be well fed with simple home-grown food.
Wood-fired sauna.
Walks on the South Downs.
Rituals and ceremonies shaped by the land and by what you bring.
Available as 1:1 retreats or for small groups (maximum 3 people).
Grief needs witnesses.
It needs tears, ritual, storytelling, song.
It needs the steadiness of others,
and sometimes the quiet blessing of fire and moonlight.
The Exchange — Grief Tending
The grief tending I offer is a slow, relational practice. It is not advice-giving, counselling or coaching towards outcomes, but a form of deep accompaniment — tending thresholds, integration, and the long work of becoming rooted in one’s life again.
This work asks for presence, preparation, and sustained attention. To keep it viable, and to honour the depth of holding involved, I work with a model of financial reciprocity.
For Grief Tending
The suggested exchange ranges from £80 to £150 per session.
I ask that you choose a rate within this range that reflects your current financial capacity, while recognising the depth and continuity of the work.
A Note on Accessibility
I keep a portion of my time available for those whose hearts are full but whose pockets are currently empty. If you are in a time of genuine hardship, please do not let cost be the reason you don’t reach out. We will find a way that honours us both.
You can read more about my Financial Policy here.
Work with Emma
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Death Wisdom - A School For Community Deathcare
A reclaiming of the old, forgotten skills of being alongside the dying. Bringing death back into relationship — not as an ending to be feared, but as a companion to living well.
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Hand Made Funerals
Funerals shaped by hand, held by community, and rooted in place, where care for the dead is carried by those who loved them. Grief, gratitude, story, and beauty woven together.
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Grief Retreats
Held time for tending sorrow, nourishment, and the slow gathering of oneself, with simple home-grown food, wood-fired saunas, gentle company, and rituals shaped by the land.