
UPCOMING CLASSES AND PRESENTATIONS
Calendar of Events
Maestra Grace offers individual and family consultations as well as lectures, workshops, and presentations using story-telling, PowerPoint, song, and ritual to fit the needs of organizations or universities on a variety of topics via Zoom and in-person. Please refresh your browser to ensure you are accessing updated information.
Services
• Curanderismo sessions, including limpias, pláticas (heart-to-heart conversations), and Indigenous hands-on healing (Indigenous protocols are followed; details provided prior to session). Sessions can take place via telephone or Zoom, if preferred.
• Individual and family counseling using cross-cultural Indigenous spirituality-based approach.
• One-on-One Personal Coaching, via telephone or Zoom.
• Women's Circles (private events will not be listed here)
• Reiki Therapy & Training Courses. In order to respect the culture and uniqueness of both the Curanderismo and Reiki path, Grace maintains a separate website for her Reiki practice at Reiki Energy Healing Therapy.
2022
January 14, 2022, 11 am to Noon Pacific Time: Free Webinar/Platica with Dr. Shamini Jain, Founder of CHI Consciousness and Healing Initiative on Curanderismo. Register at Consciousness and Healing Initiative.
April 11 - 12, SDSU Healing Your Inner Child: Sharing Circle & Group Healing Ceremony
This event is part of the Breaking Silences: Uprooting Child Sexual Abuse series. The event is for all SDSU students. For more information, contact Ser Flores, nfflores AT sdsu.edu
May 13: Keynote: Respecting Indigenous Healing Ways: from Colonizer to Ally.
24th International Conference on Energy Psychology: The Art & Science of Transformational Change
Hyatt Tamaya - Santa Ana Pueblo, NM USA
August 13, Cafecito & Platica on Zoom. Register here before August 5, 2022
August 20, Honor Your Ancestors & Heritage. A free online video event in collaboration with The Shift Network, Saturday, August 20, starting at 11am Mountain Time, for a free online plática with Stephen Dinan (CEO, The Shift Network) and they explore the why and how you can celebrate your ancestor’s life and memory with love and respect as part of a Día de Muertos observance. Maestra Grace will also offer a guided imagery practice to help you connect with the wisdom of your ancestors. If you register and miss it, you’ll receive a downloadable recording as soon as it’s available. After the plática, you will have the option to register early for my 7-week livestreamed Dia de Muertos course that starts in September (which will be downloadable, with written and video materials included). Deep thanks and appreciation to The Shift Network for their generous donation and support of the House of the Moon MMIWG2S+ Advocacy Facilitator Program.
September 2: 11 am PT: Honoring the Feminine. Join the free online circle with Dr. Sue Morter, Eileen McKusik, Maestra Grace Sesma and Dr. Shamini Jain as they explore honoring the feminine -- in medicine, healing and our daily lives. Register here.
2023
January 8, 10 am to Noon, Pacific Time. Ways of Being a Good Relative. Join Maestra Grace for a heart-to-heart talk on how to conduct oneself appropriately when visiting elders, traditional healers, teachers, and Indigenous communities. Past participants have written to say how this class deepened their understanding of ways to reconnect respectfully with their Indigenous heritage. Others, that hearing how colonialism has affected all of us, Indigenous, Euro-American, Mexican-Americans, African-Americans -- all our Relatives living on this continent -- motivated them to seek out books with an accurate telling of our shared history and holistic healers courageously set aside time for deep introspection and reflection on how their healing practices could be causing harm to Indigenous people and communities and have begun finding ways to become better allies and best of all: relatives. The class will not be recorded so that we can have a good conversation. The class is 2 hours with the last 30 minutes for Questions & Anwers, offered on a sliding scale: $20-$60. Deadline to register: January 5, 2023. Please click for instructions on how to register.
February 19, 2023, 9:30 to 10:30 am PT. Cafecito & Plática with Maestra Grace via Zoom.
This platica will kick off monthly cafecitos to continue our conversations around Indigenous etiquette, reconnecting with cultural ways, menstruation protocols, and curanderismo in general — your questions will help guide our plática. Click here for details and how to register.
March 25, 2023, 9:30 to 10:30 am Pacific Time, Cafecito with Maestra Grace on Zoom.
This platica will kick off monthly cafecitos to continue our conversations around Indigenous etiquette, reconnecting with cultural ways, menstruation protocols, and curanderismo. Click here for details and how to register.
April 23, 2023, 10:00 am to 11:00 am Pacific Time, Cafecito with Maestra Grace on Zoom
September 10, 2023, 9:30 to 10:45 am Pacific Time, Cafecito with Maestra Grace on Zoom. Click for details and to register.
September 16, 2023, Celebrating Cultura, Ceremony & Resiliency! Aliento and The Center for Latinx Communities at Pepperdine University invite you to an Opening Ceremony with Maestra Grace Alvarez Sesma. We are all related across this continent known as the Americas. Our history is one of shared values of interconnectedness, respect for the earth, love of family, and walking a path of healing to break intergenerational wounds. We are way-showers, seed-keepers, activists, and knowledge-keepers. Today we are reclaiming our identity, language, culture, and sacred connections. Join us as we celebrate Latinx Heritage Month, our roots, and the resiliency of ancestors, their descendants, and our vibrant community with prayer, ceremony, and sharing by Maestra Grace Alvarez Sesma. This event is FREE and open to all community members. Once you register for the event, a Zoom link will be sent to you on Friday, September 15, 2023. See poster for details.
NEW! October 13, 2023, 11 am to Noon, Pacific Time, Mexican Day of the Dead, a Living Tradition. Join Dr. Shamini Jain and Curandera Grace Sesma for a conversation about honoring life and death as the natural cycle of living and sacred ways of remembering our ancestors on Dia dia de Muertos. For details and how to register, visit CHI website.
NEW! October 15, 2023, 9:30 to 10:45 am, Pacific Time, Cafecito with Maestra Grace, monthly cafecitos to continue our conversations around Indigenous etiquette, reconnecting with Indigenous ancestry, Women's medicine, dreaming and dreams, and other Curanderismo and Mexican Indigenous cultural topics. Click for how to register.
NEW! October 17, 2023, 5 p.m. Pacific Time. Restoring the Heart of our Relationships: Racial & Earth Healing. What would it mean to “become indigenous” to the place we are now? How would we live if we were? Our indigenous communities and leaders hold ancient wisdom that offers profound insights into the challenges facing us today. As we navigate the cultural, climate, and ecosystem shifts happening on our planet now, we need to hear the wisdom and insights from these traditions. And, to truly hear and value these insights, we need to continue to heal the racial divisions and wounds in our cultures and communities. In part one of this series, join Host Brenda Salgado as she speaks with Grace Sesma, a Yaqui/Mexican cultural practitioner in the curanderismo tradition. They will share personal stories, talk about the importance of being in connection with Mother Earth right now, and share wisdom about ways we can “become indigenous” to our place and each other. Presented in English with a live Spanish-language interpreter. Co-presented by The New School at Commonweal, Racial Healing Initiative and Retreat Center Collaboration. To register, visit TNS.
NEW! October 21, 2023, 11 am to 1 pm PT, online platica: Love Never Dies, Life Lessons from Mexican Day of the Dead, hosted by the Consciousness & Healing Institute. Dia de Muertos is more than placing photographs on an altar or painting one’s face like La Catrina. Every aspect of this sacred celebration of life and death has a profound significance that creates a bridge between our world and the Place of the Ancestors. Did you know that Dia de Muertos begins not on November 1 & 2, but much earlier? Join Maestra Grace as she shares the Day of the Dead's history, rituals, observances, and wisdom. Learn how to create your own ofrenda (altar) and how to make offerings to honor your ancestors and this beautiful cultural tradition with respect and an open heart. There will be an opportunity for Q&A at the end of the webinar. Register here
New talks and events coming soon! Private events will not be listed here. Subscribe to Maestra Grace's email list to receive notifications of upcoming online talks and presentations. Announcements of pláticas (talks/lectures) that she hosts are usually sent to subscribers first.
If you missed the 7-week The Shift Network course, it is now available on-demand!
Immerse yourself respectfully in Día de Muertos’ rituals, wisdom, and healing as a path that leads to the sacred within you and your own ancestral roots.
Learn how Dia de Muertos, Day of the Dead, traditions can be reverently explored and celebrated by everyone as they ultimately teach us how to reclaim our own ancestral traditions as a path to healing and wholeness.
The Dia de Muertos course is seven 90-minute pre-recorded classes, a complete course originally hosted by the Shift Network, viewable and downloadable. Includes lifetime access to written, audio, and video materials. Click here for more details and to purchase or copy and paste, https://shiftnetwork.isrefer.com/go/alGS/a25058/
Discover and be guided by the ancestral wisdom of Día de Muertos — and learn how to reverently participate in Día de Muertos celebrations:
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Rediscover ancestral connections as a path to healing — and those parts of you that have been hiding and hindering relationships
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Discover the real meaning behind La Catrina and El Catrin — popularly used as the models for painting one’s face as a skull or skeleton during Día de Muertos
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Learn about Indigenous cosmology and cultural practices that are embedded in Día de Muertos observances
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Learn which purification herbs and foods to use for your Día de Muertos ofrenda (altar)
Disclaimer:
Maestra Grace Sesma is not a physician, psychologist, or nurse. These culture-specific spiritual healing services are not meant to replace medical or psychological diagnosis and treatment. It is recommended that you see a licensed physician or licensed health care professional for any physical or psychological ailment you may have. Your information is confidential. With your prior written authorization, she is happy to discuss your session with any of your health care providers.