Grey Space

Processing and healing the impact of a black & white faith

Through Grey Space, people can explore their spirituality and reckon with any questions or pain they hold tied to their faith of origin. We gather without a theological agenda, meaning there is no pressure to arrive at certain answers or stay within a particular faith tradition. Our intention is simply to notice what our lives are revealing about our evolving beliefs as a way of coming home to our own embodied theology. The hope is that healing and growth will naturally emerge as we are in community, sharing our experiences, perspectives, and questions freely without fear of judgment.

What to Expect

This online cohort will largely be an experience of intentional reflection and conversation in the context of community. We will gather for 12 sessions, each 1.5 hours long, over the course of 6 months, learning from one another and from our own lives as we go. We will move through a cohesive arc that mirrors the healing process, by grounding ourselves in resilience practices, recognizing and naming harm, mourning our losses, exploring our own understandings of God, noticing our longings, and imagining a new way forward.

Each session will introduce a new topic. For some sessions, you will receive a question in advance to consider and we will share our reflections in our time together. Other sessions will include a brief time of learning a new framework paired with discussion and reflection of that topic. You will always know what is coming next and you will always have the option to participate through listening if you do not want to share.

  • Who is this for?

    Anyone who wants to earnestly unpack, process, and heal their experiences of church/Christianity and uncover the spiritual + emotional realities within their deconstruction/reconstruction alongside other curious explorers will find belonging here. No matter where you are in your journey or what conclusions you come to, whether you’ve left faith, love Jesus, left church, still go to church, don’t believe in God, adopted a new religion, or are spiritually curious, this is a space for you.

  • When is it?

    There is a new cohort launching Thursday, June 12!
    We will meet on zoom every other Thursday at 5:30pm PT/ 6:30pm MT/ 7:30pm CT/ 8:30pm ET.
    The subsequent dates will be June 26, July 10, July 24, August 7, August 21, September 4, September 20, October 2, October 16, October 30, & November 13.

  • What's the price?

    The suggested donation for Grey Space is $180, which breaks down to $15/session. This also will cover optional spiritual direction with me.

    Money should never be a barrier to receiving spiritual care. If you cannot afford this rate, please simply note it in your registration as scholarships are available.

    If you would like to and are able to contribute more than $180 in order to make Grey Space accessible for someone else, you are welcome to do so.

Testimonials

  • "Grey Space allowed me to filter through years of unprocessed spiritual plaque that was clogging my ability to move forward. The honest and rich environment established by the group's trust in the process made wading into vulnerable waters of my past a disarming experience. Each session's material and exercises is thoughtfully arranged to systematically explore what was, what is, and what could be. It was a hopeful and inspiring time that bore much fruit in a garden that I thought had gone fallow."

    Les

  • "I feel a lot more peace now - peace about being in a new place in life. Coming into Grey Space, I felt constantly aware of what I didn't like/didn't believe anymore and contemplating the negative impact of it all not just on myself, but on my family. Being part of this wonderfully honest and accepting group has been so healing. I feel less preoccupied with what I don't like or believe and instead curious about what's next for my awakening/transformation. I feel a general sense of peace in settling into my new identity.”

    Andrea

  • “This is the first time I’ve been out in a faith adjacent context and that’s huge. I felt like I got to be all of me in Grey Space. That’s really beautiful because usually I have to put something down to be in community. This experience helped change the way I value myself and expanded my sense of self and my faith. God is actually big enough to do the things he says he’s gonna do. I’m not fundamentally broken. I’m a beautiful creation. I’m part of this beautiful interconnected universe. I’m divine.”

    Jess

  • “Grey Space has been the most life- giving community for me. When I joined, I was deep in faith-deconstruction mode. Sharing those intimate spiritual details with people on similar journeys was deeply legitimizing, and being regularly smothered with love and wisdom by them was deeply relieving. Joining this group was certainly an inflection point in the exhilarating spiritual upswing I've experienced in the past year. "

    Jake

  • “Grey Space was a great way to address thoughts that were contradictory, yet true, in my life. It gave me a place to share openly and honestly about the way I felt and where I was in my journey with spirituality. The sessions allowed me to begin to find clarity in a very confusing space. Alison deserves a 10/10 for supporting, moderating, and encouraging discussion in the group and creating a safe space to share your thoughts.”

    Ryan

  • "I entered Grey Space with a heavy mix of angst and shame, the result of decades of struggling to fit into the mold of my faith of origin, which often felt constrictive and at odds with my personal experiences. However, as I journeyed with the cohort, engaging in open, non-judgmental dialogues and reflections, I experienced a meaningful shift. The communal sharing, the empathetic listening, and the absence of a forced theological agenda gradually allowed me to peel away layers of self-doubt and guilt. By the end of Grey Space, I felt like I had gone through a baptism. I entered with significant discomfort with the person I was, and I left with a degree of self-acceptance I had not previously experienced. I began to see my spiritual uncertainty not as failings, but as pathways to deeper understanding. In Grey Space, I didn't find theological answers to all my questions but rather, peace and reconciliation with my inner self."

    Justin

  • Grey Space has been transformative for me. Such a safe, inclusive, welcoming space to bring my full self & ask all the hard questions that other faith-oriented spaces often turn away from."

    Annie

Begin the Process

If you’re interested in learning more or participating in Grey Space, please reach out below.

I will set up a short meeting with you to share more about this cohort experience and to hear about your expectations so that we can discern if this is a good fit for you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

 FAQs

  • To register, fill out the form above indicating that’s what you’d like to do. From there, we will set up a meeting. If we discern that this space fits what you need, you will confirm your registration with payment.

    Registration closes May 30.

  • Grey Space approaches our journey together and the process of deconstruction/reconstruction from a trauma-informed, spiritual formation perspective. Being trauma-informed, in this case, means that grounding exercises will be a part of how we gather, the structure of the group is designed to support your healing while also being flexible to change based on your input, and everyone will be encouraged to honor their own needs and attend to their bodily experience. This is not therapy and all are encouraged to seek a therapist for any trauma work.

    A spiritual formation perspective, in this case, means that reflection questions and our own experiences, not lectures, will be our teachers. For example, one week we will reflect on the prompt, “Tell me about the God you don’t believe in,” and notice what our reflections show us about our evolving beliefs. A spiritual formation perspective also means that we will create space for and honor what our intuition/spirit speaks.

  • Each person, upon committing to participating Grey Space, must also agree to our community commitments and will receive a detailed version. Here is the abbreviated version:

    Honor people’s journey

    Be fully present

    Respond with empathy and compassion

    Center your own experience

    Practice perspective-taking

    Affirm each other’s belovedness & identity

    Get curious

    Respect double confidentiality

    If you’d like to see the more detailed version before registering, you may request the commitments below.

  • If this is you, fill out the form above to let me know you’d like to participate. Before launching a new cohort, I check with everyone who has expressed interest to find a time that works for them!

  • Each call does build on the other, so I strongly encourage you to be present for as many as possible. However, I understand that life is full and often unexpected so if you miss a couple sessions, that’s not a problem. If you can already tell that you will have to miss more than two sessions, I would encourage you to wait until our next cohort to join.

  • If you ‘d like to learn more about the structure, content, and commitments of Grey Space, or have any questions at all, I’d be happy to either send you information by email or set up a time to meet with you! I know that trusting a space like this is a risk, especially if you’ve had adverse religious experiences in the past, so I want to do everything in my power to honor your courage and support you in your process of discerning whether to join. You can fill out the form above to begin the conversation.

  • Yes! I would be glad to do a cohort for your community. Reach out via the interest form below.