Aspen Roots Collective, PLLC

01/06/2026

Save the date y’all… on February 11 we’re launching our first Book Club gathering.

Neither Chris nor I have ever actually been in a book club, so this is one grand experiment- and the intention is to keep it casual, to gather, to deepen, to validate and normalize the wild human experience, to co-create, learn, share wisdom, and be curious about the paths we are on.

We’ll alternate with virtual and in-person offerings to see which is a better fit, and our books will range from therapeutically resourceful, to adventurous, to spiritual, to poetic, to even a bit zany.

There’s no expectation to finish the books, no commitment necessary to more than one book club meeting at a time, no pressure to share, to perform in any way, and certainly not to be a book club person… mutual respect and willingness to wonder is all that is required.

Registration will go live later this week along with announcing our first book via our newsletter. If you want to be in on that drop, you can sign up through the link in the bio or head over to www.bright-shadow.org

Hoping that you’re taking the on-ramp into the year slowly- it’s still winter!

With care,

Sommerville and the Bright Shadow team 📚🤓🌊

10/14/2025

Bright Shadow creates spaces for community, healing, and reconnection for those grieving losses to and of the natural world.

We are honored to be a partner in this installment of the post-Helene docuseries, The Swannanoa Speaks, by and moved by the voice of the river calling us back to her edges.

Any new creation is a risk, and this is one we are willing to take, because of the need we feel - after death, after disaster - to hold the tension between our passions and our sorrows, to grow capacity to go in the dark and the light.

Will you join us in solidifying our future? Each dollar raised is matched up to 10k between now and Friday ... each dollar is a drop in the collective river, allowing us to reclaim the art of grief.

Each dollar helps us offer retreats and councils, gather in circles led by trauma and grief therapists, offer holistic healing modalities, and deepen our currents of connection in the aftermath of loss.

Learn more, watch the documentary, and find your way to donate at the link in the bio

With a full heart and much gratitude,

Sommerville
mp4 .brown .winters.cello .swoap .deiwa

10/08/2025

Tonight! Wednesday Bright Shadow Council. An hour set aside for presence, sharing, honoring what we have lost, and cherishing what we have found.

Link in the bio to register on Eventbrite. No cost, just presence.

Every second Wednesday of the month.

09/24/2025

Podcast alert! Check it out on Spotify or Apple

02/19/2025

02/19/2025

Why do we go to wild places?
And what do we do when the natural forces we love then take someone or something precious from us?
🌊 🏔️ ❄️ 🔥
These questions are becoming more and more prevalent.

Registration closes tomorrow (2/20) for the next Bright Shadow retreat… but the journey is just beginning.

Without having to know the answers, we invite you to join a community willing to open our hearts to feeling the duality of it all, the expansion and contraction, the pulse of life/death/life, the light and the shadow, so that we may grow our capacity to navigate life’s ebbs and flows while strengthening the mycelial network of our connections- to each other- to the earth- to that which is greater than us- and to that which lives inside each of us.

The retreat is a blend of outdoor play, workshops, ceremony and ritual, optional individual therapy sessions, yoga, unplugging, and diving into deeper community. All at no cost to you- just a commitment to participate and pay it forward in some way.

Join us March 6-9

Or if this weekend isn’t the best fit, get a taste of the experience in our final installment of a community winter mental health series on Monday Feb 24, 7-8:30pm.

Link for both in bio.

Look forward to seeing you soon!

02/05/2025

Yep. It’s happening again. Rugged Renewal in Patagonia is about to begin! And, also here, I am running into fires and disaster. It’s inescapable- the hardships and loss and grief of this life. And that is exactly why we don’t run away, but we do deepen, seek beauty, rest and renew, and return to what matters. Our bodies, our communities, this Earth. Let’s feed magic and connection more than fear and division. It is all a practice.

01/27/2025

See that fist bump? 👊 yeah.

It’s fitting, cause it happened at what we did not yet know would be the location of our second Bright Shadow retreat!

Details are going out soon with a link to apply, find your way on over to our landing page and sign up for the newsletter for the full scoop.

www.bright-shadow.org

Grief work is life work. We look forward to co-creating this experience with YOU 👊

12/09/2024

Bright Shadow: Normalizing mental health care. Retreats, resources, and community for those who play in nature.

Join us next Monday, December 16, for our FIRST community offering:
“Our Nervous Systems Now: What the F is going on?!”
in “the Eddy” from 7-8:30pm

Our community continues to navigate the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, exacerbating the challenges we face on both a personal and collective level. Join Bright Shadow founders, Sommerville Johnson, LCMHC, SEP, and Chris Gragtmans, for the first of a series of workshops designed to educate, connect, and relieve a little of our held tension.

Spaces are limited, so snag yours and register for this free event at the link in bio…. And stay after for some hang time in the lodge.

About the series:
Each evening will include a brief presentation on a topic, opportunities to connect with others on both shared stressors and resources, and tools to help your mind and body not only cope but increase capacity for ALL the chaos and ALL the joy!

About this workshop:
Feeling irritable, overwhelmed, depressed, or glued to your screen? There’s a reason for that! Learn about the functioning of the stress response and how we can work with it to find our rhythm.

See y’all in a week!

12/06/2024

Tomorrow is the day. There’s still time to donate- just follow the link in my bio- and share this post to your story 💗💗💗💗💗

I am so blown away, with your generosity, your support, your immediate yes to giving to the Old Fort Endurance fundraising event. Thanks to you, I have blown past my fundraising goal (and set a new one 🤩)... money that will go directly into the hands of people who lost everything to the floods of Hurricane Helene. You’ve done your part, and tomorrow I will do mine. The miles I’ve been putting in, in preparation for this event, have been the medicine I have needed most. I’ve already run farther than ever before, and I’ve had my share of both smiles and tears on the trail. (When I started dating and getting outside with Josh, I had to tell him: if at some point I cry, then it’s a sign of a really good adventure.) The whole time I’ve been able to think of each of you, friends from childhood, Linville, Indian Springs, Greystone, Middlebury!, retreat participants, family friends, Berner friends 🐶, new friends, friends of friends I haven’t even met! and on and on. Each new email notifying me of your gifts has been the lift that has accompanied me on my jaunts to the woods.

And my time on the trails has been a gift in the midst of so much darkness. Faith and inspiration and ideas have all been (re)birthed and fed as I’ve shuffled through fall leaves, plodded up gravel roads, paused on summits, and followed my dog’s happy tail down hill and home again.

I offer this glimpse into the journey because I know we are all navigating hardships: losses of loved ones, of our own abilities, or of the lives we thought we would have. Especially as we roll into the holidays. More and more I am finding how beauty is found in pain, life is maybe defined most by our ability to embrace grief.

I am grateful for each of you, and will be carrying you with me tomorrow, for six hours, and beyond.

With a full heart,

Sommerville

10/02/2024

Beautiful community! Things are happening quickly and I continue to receive questions about how to help. 🩷I’m making a permanent spot for the stories I share about relief efforts here in WNC. That way the 24 hour expiration of stories doesn’t mean I have to constantly update 😉 Just head to my profile and click on “Helene Relief” for a history of sorties.

Second photo contains a poem I read to my yoga class today - The Peace of Wild Things. A reminder to pause, feel the wind in the trees, the sun on your face, and tend your own animal body.

Love to you all.