CURRENT RESIDENT ARTIST
Ari Simon
I’m a facilitator, strategy & engagement specialist, climate policy convener, producer, coach & grief care worker. I’m a big picture visionary with a strong pulse on the present – what’s the opportunity, lesson, or path to take in front of us, right now. I help people see the loss that’s hiding in plain sight, alongside all the wisdom, insights, and ways forward.
This is why my core belief is in both-ing – that everything is both/all. That we can work professionally and compassionately. That we can experience deep sadness through grief and find the joy and play in it. That we can make major transformations and we can rest. Weaving strategy with wisdom, and effectiveness with whole-heartedness, it is my mission to bring an expansive approach to offerings that help people thrive.
I’ve always been fascinated by deeper inquiries around what we do with loss, and what gives our lives meaning. Perhaps it’s par for the course of navigating growing up genderfluid without language or affirmation, along with a hearty dose of Jewish epigenetic trauma. But through a handful of deaths and major losses in my life, I experienced time and time again how immediate reactions were quickly followed by attempts to just-move-on. My own responses to loss were similar – I’d jump into logistics and take care of things for others, while privately drifting away and distracting myself with whatever felt easier. Working in city government and urban development revealed this dynamic extra intensely. When our own staff experienced loss, when communities faced injustice, when the news felt devastating, when the politician we worked for did amoral things, we just couldn’t really address any of it. Why couldn’t we talk about loss?
Thanks to developing a practice dedicated to navigating loss and change, the reasons why are clear to me now: we made no time for pausing, we left no room for questioning, and we offered no resources for reflection. The toxic defenses were all the way up. In so many workplaces, we’re too afraid to talk about loss because of how uncomfortable we think it might get, for what it might unravel, and our embarrassment and shame tied up around healing. Same goes in so many families, communities, relationships, and even with our own selves.
I’m sure this is why, after veering from that career path, I fell in love with work leading climate-focused projects alongside one-on-one coaching. Both these lines work called for deep listening and transformation, surfacing legacies of injustice, finding shared language and common ground, and learning from strong voices on how to deal with inevitable loss. At the same time, I began receiving mentorship in Zen Buddhist practice, and training in mindfulness and end-of-life care. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I had changed my life path towards one where navigating loss and change became the centerpiece.
The more I dove into the intersections of loss, grief, and resilience, the more I could see the ways loss underlie everything — it’s the shadow we (those caught up in colonial mindsets) have been doing mental gymnastics to avoid and erecting emotional and literal walls to hide from for centuries. And thus, I also saw the ways to move forward. Where lies the threat of loss or an experience of loss, I see opportunity for processing, being with what really is, strategizing and taking action, and healing.
Working with everyone from grassroots organizations, to private firms, to indigenous tribes, to academic leaders, to transit agencies, to entertainment workers, I’ve learned how to meet different individuals and workforces where they’re at while no longer shying away from the spiritual underpinnings of what’s in the way of moving forward. Presently, I offer this through my Grief at Work program, climate-focused collaboration projects, and one-on-one coaching clients. I also serve on the boards of Wellbeing in Entertainment and Creative Arts (WECA) and Spirit Mountain Retreat in Idyllwild, CA.
For whatever has brought you here, and for wherever you are on your journey, I hope to create spaces for/with you so you can receive heart-centered support, strategy, and transformation.
In love and warmthness, Ari
Grief School Summer Camp at Madhura Studios 2024
