In relational trauma work, grief is rarely limited to loss through death. Much of the grief clients carry relates to disconnection, unmet relational needs, and the loss of belonging.
Francis Weller’s work explores how grief and repair are deeply relational processes and how communal spaces for grief can support healing.
One passage that resonates strongly with relational practice:
“Grief and love are sisters, woven together from the beginning. Their kinship reminds us that the pain we carry is inseparable from our capacity to care.”
If you are interested in exploring this perspective further, we recommend Weller’s work on grief tending and communal healing.
Maya will be doing an online presentation for the 8th International Complex Trauma Conference on 29 August 2026.
Her presentation, The NeuroAffective Relational Model® (NARM®): A Heart-Based Approach to Healing Complex Trauma, will introduce NARM as a comprehensive framework for working with complex trauma, with a particular focus on relational disconnection, embodied therapeutic practice, and a non-pathologising approach to healing.
The session will include both a theoretical overview and a short experiential process, offering participants a felt sense of NARM’s heart-based and somatic orientation.
Learn more about the conference.
This September, Maya will join an interdisciplinary panel at Transform Trauma Oxford 2026.
The panel, Which Modality When? Discernment in Trauma Healing for Body, Mind, and Spirit, will explore how practitioners listen for what is needed in a particular moment, for a particular nervous system, relational context and life history.
Bringing together perspectives from NARM, IFS, EMDR-informed practice, Craniosacral Therapy and movement-based approaches, the conversation will explore pacing, sequencing, relational safety, embodied integration, and the role of the body, psyche and spirit in trauma healing.
Virtual tickets are also available for those joining online.
Learn more about Transform Trauma Oxford 2026.
28 NOVEMBER 2026, London
We’re delighted to be planning more Heart-Based Experiential Days. These days offer a chance to slow down, reconnect with yourself and others, and deepen your understanding of embodied relational approaches through direct experience.
As you may know, the Heart-Based Experiential Days are a prerequisite for those wishing to apply for the Embodied Relational Counselling Diploma, but they are also open to those who simply want to experience this way of working for themselves.
Our next day is taking place on 28th November 2026, and we warmly invite you to join us.
We are also planning to schedule one further Heart Based Experiential in January 2027 (date to be confirmed) for those who are unable to make November. We look forward to welcoming you into this work.
To receive updates and priority notification when booking opens, join the waitlist.
“It was a great introduction to an embodied relational way of working - I love that it was truly experiential and allowed participants to really connect with their whole system (not just head) to this modality. Moreover, the team were especially warm and welcoming which created exactly the containing atmosphere needed when working at this kind of relational depth.”
– Bex
“I really enjoyed the safety the group and facilitators offered which held a space where I could give myself permission to be me in the space as me. It felt safe, it felt held, it felt understood.”
– Rebecca
“The people. I really appreciated the warmth, vulnerability, support and kindness of everyone in the room.”
– Holly