Name: When Life Goes On… Navigating our Losses
Start: 2025-11-01T09:00:00-07:00
End: 2025-11-01T15:00:00-07:00
Location: 5300 Crest Rd, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, United States, California 90275

$When Life Goes On\u2026 Navigating our Losses$

$75 per person / Lunch Included
“Even in a world that is being shipwrecked, remain brave and strong.”
St. Hildegard of Bingen
Shattered by grief or saddened by unexpected losses of life? Feeling disconnected or alone? Finding change to be too challenging?
This retreat looks at ways to integrate grief and loss, to choose hope and feel whole again in a world that seems beyond our control or understanding. Using art, discussion, video, story, and prayer in motion, Valeria and Sue lead a gentle and compassionate day of simple rituals and methods to console, comfort and survive the suffering life has handed us. Join us as together we examine the dual nature and relationship of grief and joy, anger and gratitude, and loneliness and solitude.
About your hosts:
Sue Ballotti is spiritual director at Mary & Joseph Retreat Center in Southern Ca. She is on the executive board for the Center and volunteers with the annual Nativity Exhibit as a docent, and as part of the Exhibit team. She is a Veriditas trained Labyrinth facilitator and leads groups in walks at the Center and has presented several Labyrinth workshops or retreats. She loves to walk, quilt, read and spend time with her husband John and their 5 grandchildren.
Valeria Chow, PhD, is a Health and Life Coach certified by the Health Coach Institute and The Life Coach School (The Model Tools). She guides clients to uncover answers that already exist within them, and uses habit-change techniques to help clients achieve their goals. Valeria brings extensive life experience and knowledge (e.g., domestic and international travel, ethnic dance, art and photography, spirituality, heartbreak, trauma, grief) to her coaching sessions. Areas that Valeria has helped tackle with her clients include wellness, weight loss and body confidence, healthy habits, life purpose, change or transitions, stress management, relationships, and grief. Valeria also facilitates monthly Grateful Gathering sessions which encourage and promote grateful living practices, and is a support member of the bereavement ministry in her parish.