Unpacking Loss with the Nervous System

Tending to ourselves through Grief and Loss

Integrate! Network

Jun 18, 2025

Transcript

Exploring Grief Through Empathy and the Body: Highlights from Our Latest Episode

Welcome back to the Empathy By Design podcast! If you’ve been following along, you know this space is dedicated to exploring how we create empathic, intentional environments for healing, growth, and connection. Our latest episode is a heartfelt conversation with Sarit Zimmerman Rogers and Karla, two incredible professionals who will guide our upcoming June 28th workshop, “Unpacking Loss.”

This episode dives deep into grief, the body, and how empathy weaves them all together. Stick around for all the details—including what you can expect at the workshop and how you can join us.

Understanding Grief Through a Somatic Lens

Our guest, Sari Zimmerman Rogers, is a somatic experiencing practitioner, trauma-informed yoga teacher, sound healer, and somatic touch professional. Beyond her impressive credentials, what shines most is her compassionate approach to grief. Sari sees grief as an intimate companion to loss, often lingering unnoticed after trauma.

Her work focuses on helping individuals reconnect with their bodies following trauma or grief. During the episode, Sari emphasized how grief often gets “stuck” in the body, sometimes surfacing decades after an initial loss. She explained her approach to tending to grief by giving it space and acknowledgment instead of suppressing it. Whether through somatic touch, weighted pillows, or simply sitting as an empathetic witness, her work fosters a sense of safety within the nervous system.

A standout moment was when Sari described how building a relationship with grief is key. “It’s not about pushing grief away but giving it the space to have its voice and meet it without despair,” she shared. Her insights remind us that healing unfolds when we allow our nervous systems to feel supported and our emotions to flow freely.

Yoga, Grief, and the Layers of Healing

Carla brings another powerful dimension to the conversation as a yoga therapist and licensed professional therapist specializing in grief. She explores the layers of healing—not just the physical and mental, but also the spiritual. Her integrative approach, rooted in yoga therapy, offers profound tools for navigating change, finding language for grief, and rediscovering a sense of groundedness.

Carla emphasizes the unique ways grief manifests in the body, often as sensations we might not initially connect to emotional loss. For many, yoga becomes a way to realign with their bodies, process heavy emotions, and grow their capacity for change. Her work reminds us of the gentle resilience that arises when we create space for grief in our lives.

One of the most insightful takeaways from Carla's discussion was about treating grief as a dynamic process, not a one-size-fits-all experience. Whether working with people navigating shock, disenfranchised grief, or deeply personal loss, Carla highlights the importance of compassion and flexibility in the healing process.

Why Empathy is the Key

A recurring theme in this episode was the role of empathy in grieving. Both Sari and Carla talked about the lack of empathetic witnessing in our culture. Society often creates unrealistic expectations around grief, such as rigid timelines for “moving on.” But as both experts shared, grief doesn’t follow a clock. It stays with us, and over time, we grow around it.

Sari shared a beautiful visualization of grief being like a wound encased in a growing circle of life. While the grief itself doesn’t shrink, our lives expand and develop around it, building resilience and a renewed sense of self. Recognizing this requires empathy—not just empathy from others but also self-compassion.

Empathy also supports survivors in rediscovering their sense of agency. Sari noted how validating a person’s grief helps them reconnect with the aliveness they may have felt disconnected from. Whether in moments of profound loss or the quiet ache of change, empathy becomes the bridge to healing.

Join Us June 28th for “Unpacking Loss”

This episode sets the stage for our June workshop, “Unpacking Loss,” happening on June 28th in the Let's Integrate app. Together with Sari and Carla, we’ll explore how grief affects the body, mind, and spirit. You’ll discover practical, body-based tools for navigating loss, building nervous system capacity, and creating space for healing.

This workshop is tailored for anyone who’s grappling with grief or looking to hold space empathically for others. Sari will share somatic experiencing techniques, while Carla will guide participants through yoga therapy practices and reflections on the types of grief we face.

Date: Wednesday, June 28, 2025
Cost: $50 (payment plans available)
Financial Assistance: If finances are a barrier, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We have a financial assistance plan and would love to support you in joining us.

We believe these conversations and practices have the power to transform how we approach loss—not by erasing grief, but by helping us build a new relationship with it.

Final Thoughts

Grief is universal, yet deeply personal. Whether through somatic experiencing, yoga, or the simple act of empathetic witnessing, there are paths to healing that honor both our individual and collective humanity. This episode of Empathy By Design, with Sari and Carla’s wisdom, reminds us that grief is not something we need to conquer or suppress; it’s something we can learn to hold—with care, compassion, and yes, empathy.

We hope you’ll join us for Unpacking Loss on June 28th to continue this exploration. And don’t forget to share this episode with someone in your life who might need a little extra support on their grief journey.