Healing from Grief and Loss
Healing from Grief and Loss:
Online Support Group
Losing a beloved animal companion can be deeply painful— and often misunderstood. This online group offers a supportive space to process grief, share memories, and connect with others who understand the bond between humans and their pets.
Join Niki and Austin online from 5-7 PM MST every Monday.
You can expect:
Guided reflection and gentle facilitation
Support navigating grief, emotions, and healing
Connection with others experiencing pet loss
Sign up
Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."
— Anatole France
Offering Details
Dates: Meets Mondays, from 5:30-7 pm MST
Location: Online (details shared upon registration)
To register: Email anne-marie@somaticnaturetherapy.com
Cost: Donations appreciated
About Your Facilitators
Austin Balfany believes healing unfolds through connection—to self, to community, to lineage, and to the living world that holds us. His work is rooted in the understanding that the body carries its own wisdom, that emotion is a form of intelligence, and that healing happens as we tend the places where connection and disconnection live within us.
Austin integrates somatic awareness, mindfulness, wilderness therapy, experiential and parts-based approaches, and brings a trauma-informed, LGBTQ+ affirming lens to his work. Drawing on years of guiding youth and families in wilderness settings, Austin is passionate about weaving queer resilience, rites of passage, and embodied connection into therapeutic spaces. He believes choice is an act of empowerment—and that joy is a brilliant, radical force. Read more.
Nikolaia Patterson, MTS believes the most important relationship we can all cultivate is the relationship we have with ourselves. She hopes to be your advocate in your deepening relationship with yourself, and to bring compassion and curiosity to your inner world.
In her therapeutic work, Niki brings an orientation towards the nervous system’s incredible healing capacity and its ability to help us meet the present moment in the most attuned and authentic way. She is trained in Hakomi, a mindfulness-based, somatic therapy modality, and in Authentic Relating, a group facilitation modality geared toward honest, connected communication. Niki has experience facilitating groups in corporate, academic, and therapeutic contexts. Her work and life are deeply rooted in a love of the natural world, and animals are some of her primary teachers. Read more.
