Are you someone or know someone who is grieving, yearning for wonder, hope, meaning, and belonging?
Navigating grief from the end of something deeply significant—person, country, relationship, identity, pet or life chapter can make you:
- Feel lost, alone, disconnected
- Struggle to find meaning or joy
- Have emotional overwhelm
- Have a lack of grounding spaces to express grief
- Desire for soulful, hands-on creative connection
The Creative Hug Package is for those seeking compassionate, creative support to reconnect.
What You Get
- Any 5 *workshops from Storyholding’s unique creative offerings: collage, gelli-plate printing, polaroid photo emulsion lifts
- 2- 3 hours each (depending on which day you choose), in-person at Montsalvat (you don’t have to stay the whole while if it gets too much)
- Flexible attendance: come when you feel ready (leave the admin of booking/keeping track to Storyholding – all you need to do, is let us know which 5 session(s) you’d like to attend)
- You don’t have to have all 5 your dates ready at booking. With booking, you’ll receive Rochelle’s personal number to contact her with your ideal date(s).
- Designed to unblock flow, unblock emotional “muck,” foster storytelling through visual art
- Emphasis on nostalgia, emotional expression, feeling truly seen
- 1 Year valid from purchase
Transformation Promise
Find relief from grief, rediscover meaning and joy, reconnect with yourself and your story, and experience gentle grounding through creative flow.
Why Choose This?
Blend of art, storytelling, and soulful healing in a nurturing space that honours grief’s complexity and invites hope and belonging without pressure.
Why Trust Storyholding?
Since 10 years old, Storyholding’s founder, Rochelle Van Der Merwe, has had the unusual opportunity of approximately 40 years’ of lived experience with grief in its many forms.
She understands it has different faces, phases and seasons, that there is no one timeline for it all.
Stories through creative manifestation, inventing fantastical worlds and better worlds with the help of the written word, photography, contemporary collage and other creative disciplines, along with human and inner connection and with the world of nature, have helped and heal (and will always) bring meaning to her personal losses.
She now wishes to offer accessible yet deeply meaningful self-care to those ready to move gently through grief by offering her stunning studio space and its art experiences as a transformational respite from grief’s challenges.
Book Now
For $250, receive any 5 *workshops/classes (worth up to $325).
Secure your place at Montsalvat’s beautiful studio and wander its beautiful grounds and galleries if you need space to breathe and reflect (or need more distraction with our oddly peculiar and entertaining birdlife!).
Is there a limit to how many packages you can buy?
You are welcome to buy as many packages as you want, as long as those 5 sessions go to one person. However, there is no limit to how many packages that one person may have.
How to choose the 5 *workshops/classes:
(If you’re gifting this to someone else, please send them to this page so they can read these instructions)
- Once you’ve bought the package – you’ll soon receive a personal email from Storyholding founder, Rochelle, containing a very short (not overwhelming) questionnaire regarding your grief (if this was bought as a gift for someone else, you’d be asked to forward this to the recipient, unless you may find it better to answer on their behalf if they are unable to).
- Once a response to the very short questionnaire has been received, Rochelle will send an official Welcome SMS to the recipient of this package’s mobile nr, which will include all the relevant links for any further communication regarding bookings.
- When ready, you can explore all the offerings on the Art Experiences *Workshops page in your time (*t&c’s appy – please see below).
- If you see something that piques your interest, check if any of the dates suit you.
- You can choose up to 5 dates (of the same or of different *workshops).
- You don’t have to know all 5 of your dates to request your booking. Even if you just have one, you can contact Rochelle on the direct mobile phone line she has sent you for this very purpose.
- Booking availability (i.e. amount of spaces left) is always visible on the website. Rochelle will personally confirm your booking as soon as humanely possible after your request.
Show up when you’re ready and step into the beautiful embrace of Storyholding’s sanctuary of a studio. We’ve got your back.
*Terms & Conditions:
*Excludes any workshops off-site & exceeding 3hrs.
*Valid for 1 year from time of purchase.
*This is only applicable to the person this has been bought for (yourself or someone you’ve gifted this to). Thus, you cannot send someone in your place to one for any of your 5 booked workshops.