Grief to Grace, Healing the Wounds of Abuse: London retreat this June

The next UK Grief to Grace retreat takes place from 8 to 13 June at The Kairos Centre, Roehampton, London, SW15 4JA. See their website here for full details.

General information about the programme follows here:

Grief to Grace is a specialised 5-day programme of spiritual and psychological healing for anyone who has suffered sexual, physical, emotional or spiritual abuse in childhood, adolescence or adulthood, including those who are the victims of rape, incest or abuse by a member of the clergy. We call it a retreat because for five days you will be in a safe, protected environment and because the process is grounded in the Scriptures, the Sacraments and prayer, enabling you to open your deepest wounds to the  healing power of Christ the Divine Physician.  However, this retreat programme has also been expertly and lovingly designed to make a path for that healing using therapeutic tools from the most up-to-date psychology and treatment of trauma.  The human science of psychology is integrated into a Christian view of the person whose meaning and dignity is deeper than the psyche. Body, mind and spirit are all engaged and cared for.

Grief to Grace is the creation of Dr Thersa Burke, Ph.D. LPS, NCP, DAPA a leading expert in the treatment of trauma.  She is the author of another healing programme called Rachel’s Vineyard which is renowned worldwide for the healing of post-abortion trauma.  Founded in Pennsylvania in 2006, Grief to Grace now ministers in several diocese in the USA, in Canada and in Kingston, Jamaica. With the support of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Southwark, The Most Reverend Peter Smith, the programme was first piloted in the UK in 2011 and established as a UK charity in 2014.  Fr Dominic Allain, a priest of the Archdiocese of Southwark is the International Pastoral Director, ministering in the US and also overseeing the programme’s work in the UK.   Participants travel from Europe and from as far away as Australia to attend our five-day retreats in England which are normally scheduled twice a year.    

We are based at an office is in Kensington, London, and the five day, residential programmes are held in various retreat centres in the South of England.

Our Journey

This effective healing process combines specialLiving Scripture meditations with journalling, group activity and discussion, therapeutic facilitation, congnitive restructuring and grief-work. Because it is a residential course, our work is more intense than would be possible in a series of hourly consultations.  No one shares more than they wish to share, and no one is pressured into doing anything that feels unsafe.

A Specialist Approach

A variety of different exercises gently help to identity the pattern of response that was first a reaction to trauma and then began to have a hold over us as our bodies stored the memory and sought to tell the story of a secret we couldn’t speak; a pain so deep that the mind split off from it to survive, or found ways of numbing it which turned unhealthy.  Our somatic approach is crucial to effective healing .

Our Team:

Comprises mental health professionals, a priest spiritual director and trained volunteers. They are each committed to providing retreatants with an atmosphere of safety and confidentiality in which they can lay down the burdens of shame and secrecy.  The staff have compassion and understanding not just for what you have suffered, but for what you hope to become as healing allows you to reclaim your true human dignity as a child in God’s image.