Befriending Disability:

Weaving Grief and Growth

The aim of this program is to support disabled people to have creative, loving community to explore how disability lands in your life. In an ableist world, it’s an act of resistance to identify as disabled. But there are very few spaces for disabled people to practice integrating disability into our lives.

This program is for people who have disabilities, mental illness or neurodivergence and are curious about what identifying as disabled can look like and mean. In community, we’ll start with naming our grief, move to understanding ourselves in context of ancestors and the disability justice movement, then connect to our bodyminds and ourselves by naming our needs and building plans to get those needs met. We’ll end with disability identity and what it means to be politically disabled in a time when eugenics is so rampant.

Eight Anchor Sessions

  • Session 1: Welcome and introductions

  • Session 2: Disability and Grief

    Led by Colleen of Death Doula Does

  • Session 3: Connecting to Disabled Ancestors and Elders

    Led by fen rené

  • Session 4: Disability Justice

    Led by Mary Fashik

  • Session 5: Understanding your body and naming your needs

  • Session 6: Mapping your care team

  • Session 7: Will be chosen based on group want/need!

  • Session 8: Disability identity

What’s included

Anchor sessions

This is the primary part of the experience! The details are listed above, but we will spend 2 hours together every other week on zoom focused on these topics. Three of the sessions will have guest facilitators, who are also listed above.

Individual coaching

In addition to our group sessions, every participant will also have one individual coaching session with me. The aim of these sessions is to provide more space for you to integrate the program into your life. It will be an hour on zoom and led by what would be most supportive for you. If you’d like to read more about my coaching practice, check out my Transition Coaching page. Note that this coaching session doesn’t need to focus on a transition!

Image Description: Two masked disabled people of color chat and walk through a lush outdoor courtyard. On the left, a Latinx non-binary person looks toward their friend as they step forward with their teal cane. On the right, an Indigenous woman gestures with her hands, which are wrapped in wrist support braces. She has a faux hawk, Native beaded earrings, and waist trainers resembling an intricately stitched corset. From the Disabled and Here project.

Community spaces

My aim for this program is to foster a community space. To support this, all participants will be able to join a group discord so we can stay connected between sessions. We can also schedule additional meetings as the group wants for things like body doubling, doing medical admin or other community-led time together!

Interested in participating?

Fill out an application here!

Applications are open January 17 - February 28 or until the program is full. People will be admitted on a rolling basis until all spots are full. There are 10 spots total. Check out the FAQ for more information on payment!

✺ Frequently asked questions ✺

  • This program costs $800 total over 4 months. You can pay all at once, or pay $200 per month for four months.

    There are community supported spaces available for this program as people sign up. Once four people sign up and pay full price, one fully funded space becomes available. Once eight people sign up and pay full price, two fully funded spaces become available.

    There is space to indicate how you would like to pay in the application.

  • Everyone, including people who are participating in one of the community supported spaces needs to apply to the program. Once a community supported space becomes available, I will use a random number generator to choose someone on the waitlist for the community supported space. I will let them know the spot is theirs via email and they will have 24 hours to claim the spot. If they don’t claim the spot within 24 hours, I will choose another person on the list.

  • This program is capped at 10 people. This is to ensure that everyone is able to participate fully.

  • This program is a commitment of your time and energy. Before you jump in, I want to make sure that you are ready to be fully a part of this with us. The application is pretty short and if typing responses is not accessible to you you can also submit a video or voice memo.

  • There are so many avenues into disability and even with the same illness, the experience can be wildly different. If you’re looking to spend time deepening your relationship with disability in a loving, creative, community, this program is for you.

  • It makes so much sense that you have more questions! I would love to answer them. You can email me at hello@wovenexperience.com or dm me on instagram at @woven.experience