Practicing Dying

This three-part workshop will explore death and dying through embodied practices like meditation, ritual, art and writing.

March 21, April 18, May 16 2026. 12:30-3:30pm

hosted by Good Work Institute, Kingston NY

This three-part workshop offers a supportive, intentional space for adults who are curious about exploring death and dying through embodied practices, including guided meditation, simulation, movement, ritual, art and writing.

Across three, three-hour sessions, beginning on the Spring equinox and over the course of three months, participants will be accompanied by Jefre and Christie in gently exploring their personal relationship to death, loss and grief with the understanding that turning towards these inevitable experiences is a way we can deepen compassion, connection, gratitude. The invitation is to move toward a deeper relationship to our own grief and mortality by creating a shared space for embodied reflection, ushering us all closer to life.

This offering is open to adults from all backgrounds. No prior experience is required, you have everything you need. This workshop is emergent, experiential and relational by nature. Participants are encouraged to attend all sessions to support continuity and depth of experience.

Jefre Cantu is a Soto Zen Priest & Hospice Chaplain based in the Hudson Valley. He has worked with the sick and dying for nearly a decade and holds a Masters of Divinity in Buddhism & Interreligious Engagement from Union Theological Seminary. Jefre began practicing Buddhism at the San Francisco Zen Center over 20 years ago and was ordained in the Suzuki Roshi lineage in 2021.

Christie Jordan Barron is an educator, mother, mover, maker and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner™ based in the Hudson Valley. Christie believes deeply in our essential need for connection- to our own hearts, to nature and to each other. She is dedicated to holding space for people to sense into, and stay curious about, the various parts and pieces that make us all tenderly human.