“The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.”― Joanna Macy
Missoula Community Grief Ritual
In the style of Joanna Macy
Despite the beautiful things that may still arrive at our doorsteps—for many of us—the nature of navigating busy lives, a continuous deluge of the news cycle, global atrocities, and the looming realities of a warming climate hang steadily in the background.
Our personal and collective grief is ever-present and exists in a dominant culture that seldom gives us tools to tend to this grief lovingly, or regularly.
This event invites us to voice and hold our collective grief, TOGETHER.
Your facilitators, JoJo Phoenix and Dagny Deutchman, recognized that Missoula’s grief spaces are primarily held by counselors for people experiencing acute loss.
This is not a clinical grief group.
This is community-held care.
We have ritual and tradition to strengthen our container.
Joanna Macy’s "Truth Mandala" is a ritual that has been practiced across the world, for thousands of participants, over the span of the last 33 years. This time-tested community grief processing structure allows participants to speak candidly to a variety of personal and collective despairs, while being held gently by the group structure.
Every day living is full of acute loss.
While our conditioning may have taught us that grieving is only necessary or approriate after a major acute loss, we believe that in present times, our psyches and hearts register, even if subconsciously, major loss on a daily basis.
No matter whether your grief is specific or ambiguous, repressed or overflowing, you are welcome here.
Workshop Details:
Date and Time:
Saturday, Nov 22, 2025| 12-3pm
Location
Aspen Grove Wellness Center| 2126 Dixon Ave, Missoula
Details:
Dress in comfy layers
Bring a water bottle, journal, and a grounding item for the altar if you like
The ritual will last 90 minutes with time on both ends for grounding, movement and checking-in
Cost:
Recommended Donation $10-$100 (cash only, please plan accordingly)
Meet your Facilitators
JoJo Phoenix Frank
JoJo Phoenix (they/them) is prayerfully and playfully living a life centered around belonging. They are the founder and facilitator of Ground Swell dance, a trauma-informed trainer, and somatic guide for individuals and couples.
Their facilitation style and ethos are shaped by over a decade of facilitating movement and meditation classes in incarceration settings and with people in acute crisis. Through training, and mainly personal feedback and collaboration with impacted people, JoJo Phoenix learned how to be inclusive in holding a wide range of needs, perspectives, and sensitivities.
Through a committed practice of personal grief journeying and participation in group grief rituals, they feel very at home with grief, and are honored to co-hold this space with Dagny.
Dagny Deutchman
Dagny (they/she) is a semi-feral human of the heart, a movement enthusiast, and a mycelial storyteller. Their eclectic background as a career-long backcountry guide, an artist, a psychology researcher, and a dreamworker is constantly challenging them to ask the question "what is true for me, today?"
Owner and founder of The Art of Rest, Dagny has robust experiences hosting community spaces for agency, stability, growth, and imagination. As it relates to meditation, story, and ceremonial spaces, Dagny has trained continuously with The School of Lost Borders, Maria Souza of Women & Mythology, and Rupert Marques—who is a direct student of Joanna Macy. Dagny has also spent a substantial amount of time holding space as a retreat manager at Southern Dharma Retreat Center in Hot Springs, North Carolina and more formally has a Master's of Science where she studied the relationship between Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, and Sleep Health.
Her deepest love is sharing and catching the stories of the world around us and inside of us. They look forward to catching yours alongside you.