workshops
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workshops •
THIS INTIMATE SPACE USES AFRO-DIASPORIC MOVEMENT AND RHYTHM AS A SOMATIC PULSE, INTEGRATING ANCESTRAL RHYTHM WORK, DRUM-LED EXPRESSION, AND RESTORATIVE YOGA TO DISCHARGE WHAT THE BODY HAS CARRIED AND GROUND DEEP HEALING INTO YOUR BONES.
What to Expect: The Anatomy of Our Space
This intimate space uses afro-diasporic movement and rhythm as a somatic pulse, integrating ancestral rhythm work, drum-led expression, and restorative yoga to discharge what the body has carried and ground deep healing into your bones.
We begin by lowering the volume of the outside world, inviting your nervous system to land in the room without the pressure of forced performance or immediate vulnerability. Settled together on the studio floor, we will establish our shared boundaries, name what has brought each of us here, and close the door on digital distractions by going completely offline. Once quieted, we open with a gentle grounding sequence to orient to the space, locate our physical center, and settle into the honest weight of what our bodies have been carrying — the accumulated toll of moving through the world in a body that is asked, daily, to brace.
The heart of our time is spent directly in the body, bypassing talk therapy to communicate straight with your body's implicit wisdom. Drum-led rhythm opens the space, and we move through kinetic, ancestrally-rooted sequences that let expression happen through the body rather than about it — shoulders, hips, feet, breath, sound. Throughout this work you hold complete agency; you can move intensely, move slowly, or simply stay in stillness and witness, protected by a fierce boundary of non-interference, meaning absolutely no unsolicited advice, correction, or forced processing from anyone else in the room.
We devote our final stretch to integrating this medicine and safely settling your nervous system. We transition into a restorative yoga sequence — slow, low-to-the-ground postures that press your hands, shins, and feet into the floor to quiet a tired system. We then gather in circle to witness one another, with the absolute freedom to share or to remain in quiet, respected presence. Before we part, we share grounding nourishment to fully bring your awareness back into the room, ensuring you are alert, anchored, and safely back in your body before you head home.
This offering is held exclusively for melanated and mixed heritage folx, in service of collective healing and rest. The class is free — donations are welcome, and any contribution helps sustain access for our community.
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CAPACITY IS LIMITED TO PRESERVE THE SAFETY AND DEPTH OF OUR COLLECTIVE ENERGY.
meeting the deep hues of grief
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with roxanne capparelli
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meeting the deep hues of grief 〰️ with roxanne capparelli 〰️
When we are staring down the throat of complicated, heavy, or non-linear loss, language often fails us. We look at the sheer weight of what we are carrying, and the honest, somatic response is a deep, quiet exhale—or simply: I don’t even know what to say. I don’t even want to say it.
If you are arriving at this page feeling wordless, heavy, or fragmented, please know: you do not need to have it figured out to be here. Your confusion, your silence, and your overwhelm are welcome.
roxanne
I am a Integrative Mental Health Practitioner (LCSW, CADC-I) who works at the intersection of clinical depth, somatic nervous system awareness, and spiritual liberation.
My work does not sit in a sterile, academic vacuum. It is deeply, intentionally intertwined with my ancestry and my lived experience. I am rooted in the West African diaspora. Over the last several years, and with deep intentionality over this past year, I have been actively listening to, learning from, and connecting with my ancestors.
My path to clinical therapy wasn't linear:
The Ritual & Sensory Roots: For five years prior to pursuing my Master’s in Social Work (MSW), I owned and operated a fragrance and ritual goods apothecary. I spent half a decade studying, collecting, and working with items rooted in spiritual ritual practice. I learned how the senses—scent, touch, external elements—can soothe a raw nervous system when cognitive talk-therapy isn't enough.
The Clinical Integration: I brought that deep respect for ritual, earth, and spirit into my clinical training. As an LCSW and CADC, I merge evidence-based trauma therapy and harm reduction with ancestral technologies, using tools like cartomancy and spiritual divination to help clients map out what is happening beneath the conscious mind.
I owe the deepening of my own spiritual and emotional healing to my community—which includes my family, my friends, my clients, my teachers, and the facilitators who have held me. I do not show up as an untouchable "expert" who has bypassed pain. I show up as an integrated human being in constant, reciprocal relationship with the collective.
My Philosophy on Grief & the Nervous System
In my own life, navigating the deep hues of grief within my own nervous system has been a humbling, clarifying, tender, painful, and messy process. I have had to learn that grief is both partial and whole, all at once. You can feel entirely broken and completely intact in the very same breath.
Here are the non-negotiable values I bring into this workshop space:
Grief and Trauma Cannot Be Forced: Healing does not follow a linear timeline, and it certainly doesn't adhere to a capitalist schedule. We do not "fix" grief here. We expand our nervous system's capacity to hold it without collapsing.
We Honor Your Autonomy: You are the ultimate authority on your body, your lineage, and your pacing. There is no forced sharing, no performative vulnerability, and no expectations of "closure."
Collective Care & Liberation: Grief is not just a personal psychological issue; it is often tied to systemic oppression, ancestral displacement, and collective loss. By witnessing each other in a culturally grounded, anti-oppressive space, we begin to heal the isolation that supremacy culture inflicts on us.
Witnessed in the Dark: testimony
Because accountability is a core pillar of my practice, I believe you should know how a facilitator actually moves when the lights go out. I do not ask clients to touch depths that I myself am afraid to look at.
These are brief, intimate testimonies from the people—clients, peers, and loved ones—who have sat alongside me in spaces i’ve held, and the latter whom have witnessed me in my own dark hours: