Grief, Abundance + Expansion
August 1 & 2, 2026
Aubrey Acres | Astorville, Ontario
This two-day gathering is held at the height of summer, a time often associated with growth, fullness, and abundance.
And yet, for many people, that experience is more complex.
Grief doesn’t disappear when life expands.
It moves with us, shaping how we experience joy, connection, and possibility.
This gathering creates space to hold both.
Over two days, we come together to reflect, connect, and explore what it means to expand without leaving parts of yourself behind.
Co-facilitated by Cristin and Melissa, this space invites you to work with what is present in a way that feels grounded and supported.
Across the two days, you’ll be invited to:
reflect on what expansion means in your life right now
explore your relationship to abundance beyond productivity or output
acknowledge and work with grief in a way that feels honest and supported
reconnect with your own knowing through nature, reflection, and shared experience
This is not a traditional grief retreat, and it’s not a typical summer gathering.
It’s a space to move with what is present.
What’s Included:
A pre-retreat call with Melissa or Cristin to ease you into the experience
Two full days of guided facilitation
Evening fire circle on Saturday
Breakfast lunch and dinner on Saturday, breakfast and lunch on Sunday
A curated take-home gift
A customized journal to support your reflections
Daily restorative + land-based sessions
Evening fire circles with warm drinks
Access to walk the property at Aubrey Acres
Accommodation information - coming soon
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nope. Share as much or as little as you’d like. You don’t need to talk about your grief to tend to it.
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Grief doesn’t disappear when life expands.
For many people, it becomes more visible. Moments of growth, joy, or change often bring us into closer contact with what we’ve lost, what has shifted, or what we’re still carrying.
Rather than separating these experiences, this work creates space to hold both.
Abundance, in this context, isn’t about having more. It’s about being in relationship with your life as it is, including the parts that are unresolved, tender, or complex.
When grief is acknowledged and held with care, it often allows for a different kind of expansion. One that is more grounded, more honest, and more sustainable over time.
This is not about choosing one or the other. It’s about learning to hold both.
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Our host is Aubrey Acres in Astorville Ontario, a our cozy farm venue providing a unique, serene atmosphere.
Enjoy open fields, lush forests, and the timeless character of the beautifully restored barn and charming outdoor spaces. Aubrey Acres is designed to support meaningful experiences, blending authentic rural warmth with comfortable amenities.
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This gathering moves at a slower pace than most.
Over the two days, you’ll be invited into a mix of reflection, conversation, and guided practice, with space to step back from the pace of your day-to-day life and pay attention to what is present.
You can expect:
time to arrive, settle, and transition out of the urgency of everyday life
guided reflection and journaling to explore what you’re carrying
thoughtful conversation, both in small groups and as a full circle
somatic and embodied practices to reconnect with your own knowing
space to acknowledge grief in a way that feels supported and grounded
time in and with nature, noticing what is mirrored back
Creative inquiry sessions that explore your intuition and expression
quiet moments for rest, integration, and personal reflection
evening programming on Saturday
This is not a rigid schedule.
The rhythm of the gathering will respond to what is present, while still offering enough structure to feel held and supported throughout the experience.
Meet your Facilitators
Melissa Sulley, Founder of josiah+co.
Grief + Loss Coach | Bereavement Doula | Grief Literacy Educator
Melissa Sulley (she/her) is a Certified Grief + Loss Coach and Bereavement Doula offering trauma-informed, heart-led grief support in Canada and beyond. As the founder of josiah+co., she creates inclusive, non-clinical spaces for individuals navigating the layered realities of loss—including miscarriage, stillbirth, pregnancy after loss, divorce, religious deconstruction, identity shifts, and other life-altering transitions.
With over a decade of lived experience in grief and extensive training in psychology and bereavement care, Melissa blends emotional intelligence, somatic awareness, and gentle guidance. She is a single co-parent to three living children and seven children in the stars, including her son Josiah who died at 20 weeks gestation—a pivotal moment that ignited her path into grief education and support.
Melissa’s approach is rooted in deep compassion, nervous system literacy, and a firm belief that grief doesn’t need to be fixed, simply witnessed. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Education, a Grief + Loss Coach certification, and a Pregnancy & Infant Loss Doula certification. She facilitates community events, support groups, and collaborates with organizations to increase awareness and education around the real, lasting impacts of grief. Her spaces are known to be soft landing places where people feel seen, supported, and gently reconnected to their own inner knowing.
Current offerings include grief + loss coaching, pregnancy + infant loss bereavement care, and community engagement gatherings to deepen awareness around how grief shapes our lives.
Cristin Talentino, Founder + Steward of Birch + Bloom
Cristin Talentino is the founder and steward of Birch + Bloom, a Northern Ontario–based gathering practice that supports individuals, teams, and communities as they navigate change.
For more than twenty years, she has worked in leadership, facilitation, and community building, designing spaces where people can come together to think clearly, reconnect with themselves and others, and move forward in more intentional ways, especially in moments when the path ahead is uncertain.
Her work brings together creativity, embodiment, nature, and dialogue, not as techniques, but as ways of returning to what matters. The spaces she holds are grounded, relational, and shaped by what is present, rather than a fixed agenda.
Cristin’s facilitation is steady and intuitive, informed by both professional experience and her own lived experience of change. She creates environments where people can slow down, reflect honestly, and engage with the complexity of what they are carrying without needing to perform.
Birch + Bloom gatherings are intentionally different. They are rooted in place, shaped by story, and designed to meet each moment with care for the people inside it.
Cristin lives and works on the ancestral lands of the Anishinabek in Northern Ontario. Through Birch + Bloom, she offers Leadership Circles, one-to-one work, retreats, and facilitated gatherings for organizations and communities.