“Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.” Helen Keller
While driving down Elm Street in Kingston, you can’t help but notice the endearing, yet classic, meandering streets through the quintessential Southern New England village. The roadside is dotted with beautiful antique homes, stone walls and picket fences, and backed by woodlands and river marsh. You will also likely notice a white antique home perched upon a steep hill with a welcoming sign beckoning onlookers with dragonflies and the words, “Hope Floats Healing and Wellness Center.” In our modern-day society, with signs saying a myriad of things to us from stiff-upper-lip business names to noticeably abrasive advertisement slogans, seeing the words “Hope Floats” leaves a lingering curiosity as to what business such lovely words belong to.
This gentle name and sentiment are the physical face of an even lovelier purpose housed in the walls of the 1844 farmhouse, carriage house, and barn. The dragonfly slogan was designed by Amanda Brack who lost her brother, Mike, in 2002. She drew a picture of a girl on a swing, surrounded by three dragonflies for her grieving mother and the image fast became an important symbol for her family.
Hope Floats Healing and Wellness Center was born in 2009 from the love and grief of Denise and Ken Brack after the loss of their son, Mike at age 18. When looking for ways to work through and find support for their loss, they realized there were no places offering what they needed and hoped to find. They began to envision a center specializing in and providing services for people working through the grief -a center that did not feel clinical in nature, but comforting and cozy…like home.
“That was hugely important to the Brack’s -that this place felt like a sort of home for people who were grieving,” explains Elizabeth McKenna, Executive Director of Hope Floats. Sitting in the cheerful office with McKenna and Program and Event Coordinator, Emily Sarney, it is easy to feel a rather “warm-blanket energy” about the place. “We have the main house, the carriage house, and the barn where all of our groups and workshops meet. It is also where the offices of our counselors are and where we have yoga.” The grounds also have a Memory Garden, and labyrinth, and a path to the Jones River. “It is such a peaceful place,” says McKenna.
It is not just the buildings or the grounds, however, that make Hope Floats Healing and Wellness Center special -it is what happens here that changes people’s lives for the better. “Grief and loss are a part of life for everyone, yet grieving still has a stigma about it,” Sarney points out, “Here we work hard to destigmatize the mourning process and to help people find healthy coping mechanisms to move forward in their lives. We have programs tailored to groups and individuals that help us do that.”
Hope Floats offers separate groups for children, teens, and parents/caregiver adults who are dealing with death-related loss of a parent, caregiver, loved one, or sibling. These programs help participants process their grief through creative activities like arts and crafts, book clubs, games, workshops, and camps with the guidance and help of professionally trained support staff. Families who come to Hope Floats are able to connect with others dealing with similar circumstances in the home-like environment. Parents and caregivers can talk about common issues, concerns, and ways to help their children cope. McKenna adds, “Mike’s Club is also free for children 5-18 years old. The Brack’s wanted to remove any financial barriers during an already difficult time in people’s lives.” These uniquely tailored support groups meet every other week during the school year and are led by Hope Floats staff, clinicians and trained volunteers.
The professionals at Hope Floats Healing and Wellness Center understand that varying ages and groups process grief differently, and they accommodate as many facets of loss and mourning as they can to make sure there is a safe, therapeutic place for everyone to focus on their own healing process or connect with people experiencing similar situations. With support groups for all ages for those experiencing things like infant and pregnancy loss, loss of young children, newly bereaved parents, loss of siblings, losses to suicide, loss of a parent, loss of a spouse, single father groups, loss of a child or loved one to addiction, and disenfranchised loss from divorce or other family and life tragedies, Hope Floats has grown exponentially to cast a support net over a wide range of situations.
In fact, it is not just the local community who find what they are in need of here while in mourning. “We actually have people come from out of state to participate in camps and programs,” says McKenna, “We have recently had people from Connecticut, New Hampshire, and even Illinois that we have been able to help on their healing journey.”
Each room inside the main house at Hope Floats is decorated and equipped for different age groups. Young children are surrounded by arts and crafts stations, colorful murals painted on the walls, and cheerful décor. The teen-support group rooms are designed in a more sophisticated fashion and lined with giant bean-bags and posters with positive messages about self-acceptance and esteem. Adult group rooms feel like walking into a peaceful room at a friend’s house with plenty of comfortable seating, historical touches relevant to the antique house, and a welcoming kitchen. In every room, books on loss and grief line the shelves that are age appropriate to the room they are kept in. Hope Floats, indeed, feels like home.
In addition to support groups, Hope Floats offers various camps throughout the year. One of the most popular programs is a four-week summer camp for children, teens, and families coping with death-related loss. “People can come enjoy pizza, vendors, and outdoor activities at the camps,” McKenna says “Children will also have the opportunity to engage in expressive-arts activities focused on processing grief and loss. Art is a great channel for grief. If you ask a child, ‘What color is your sadness?’ or ‘Can you draw something you remember about your mom?’, they are able to get that out on paper or canvas and it is incredibly beneficial.”
While the children and teens participate in their various groups, the parenting adults are able to participate in a peer-facilitated support group for those who have subsequently lost a partner or spouse. Registration is by the week to accommodate individual schedules and routines that are often difficult to return to following loss.
One of the most beneficial and relied on ways to work through and manage grief is the many yoga classes offered in the barn at Hope Floats. Held in a sun-filled, calming space., participants at Hope Floats can explore various kinds of yoga -Kripalu yoga, Hatha yoga, Kundalini Yoga, and Yin to Slow Flow Yoga. These classes are taught by instructors who specialize in leading healing groups.
Day long retreats are also offered multiple times a year and are specific to mothers/parents who have lost children, those affected by suicide loss, people dealing with cancer and other illness, and a retreat for caregivers. Hope Floats also hosts special Mother’s Day retreats and retreats for military family members. Retreats are holistically based and often include meditation, stretching and breathing exercises, yoga, group discussions and mini-healing treatments given by certified practitioners. Treatment offerings include Reiki, Healing Touch, chair massage and more. Participants are able to explore the peaceful gardens and trails and enjoy a catered lunch.
The retreats at Hope Floats offer opportunities for self-care and the chance to meet others dealing with similar situations. “Grief can be such an isolating feeling,” McKenna notes, “It is really important that we counter that feeling of being alone with connections -especially with others who can relate to how you feel. Our retreats and groups and workshops really bring people together and they often form long-lasting friendships.”
One of the most utilized and popular offerings at Hope Floats are Family Nights. Family Night is for children of all ages and their families. A pizza dinner will be served, then children and adults will be invited to work together on a fun family art project that is meant to be as enjoyable as it is therapeutic. Family nights are led by Hope Floats staff, clinicians, and trained volunteers.
With all of the recreational and group-centered activities offered, it is important to note that Hope Floats Healing and Wellness Center also provides on-site, insurance-accepting counselors. On-site Licensed Clinicians/Social Workers, Master’s Level Clinicians, and Master’s Level Interns are accepting new clients for one-on-one counseling services at Hope Floats. “All of our professional counselors are focused on providing grief counseling, anxiety and depression management, life stressor and transition management, and helping to navigate other life challenges that require extra support,” McKenna explains. The House of Hope does not stop at providing learning and assistance on their homesite, they are also bringing grief management strategies and preparedness to the community.
The Hope Floats Education and Awareness Response Team (H.E.A.R.T) offers training for teachers and staff on grief education and awareness, and provides resources and techniques on how to help grieving children at school and in the classroom. “Oftentimes, following the death of a loved one or family member, the first point of contact outside of the grieving home is at school with a teacher,” McKenna says. “So, we are providing training for teachers and administrators to recognize and manage the grief process in school-age children.”
Spearheading the grief education and outreach program is Maureen Walsh, NPFT and Education Outreach Director. “The H.E.A.R.T. program is an eight-week, free course that trains teachers and administrators how to best support students dealing with loss and grief. I believe we have now been to 30 schools to train them on grief management,” Sarney points out, “In fact, some of them have asked us to come back with more. They finished the eight-week course and they want to continue it so we are working to develop an extended program.” Grief training is also offered for a fee for LICSW’s, LMHC’s, and community members.
On the horizon for 2026, Hope Floats is working on launching a program directed towards senior citizens called Healing Hearts. Grief education programs will be taken to senior centers, nursing homes, COA’s, and anywhere in the community where seniors are managing the losses that come with aging. “We plan to offer a range of things from knitting groups, writing opportunities, crafts to take the mind off of things and reignite purpose, and even quilting -anything seniors enjoy doing but we will also focus on helping them with the grief and loss that aging brings,” says McKenna.
With all of these offered opportunities and expansion and demand on the rise, it is important to know that Hope Floats Healing and Wellness Center relies on grants, fundraisers, and donations to keep services free and readily available to the public. Some workshops and retreats incur a minimal cost that can either be refunded to the participant or accepted as a donation to the center. The two main fundraisers for Hope Floats to keep aware of are the 5K Memory Walk and the Hope Floats Golf Classic. The 5K, golf tournament, and dinner bring in sustaining funds not only to provide free services and events for participants, but also to maintain the various buildings and grounds at Hope Floats. “There is a lot to think about,” says McKenna, “We are always focused on the management of the programs here but we also have to keep up with home and property repairs.” Future plans for an additional garden this spring to be installed by the local Boy Scouts will add to the already well-landscaped, tranquil grounds where visitors and guests can wander and explore.
Hope Floats Healing and Wellness Center is a beacon of light to many in the community. Untold amounts of comfort and guidance have taken root there and helped people branch out and eventually flourish in their communities and personal lives after loss. McKenna explains, “Almost all of our staff and volunteers here first came as participants. We experienced first-hand how important this work is and we came to love this place so much that we never wanted to leave.”
Though building a legacy from grief is hardly what anyone wishes for themselves, it is a skill all can benefit from because loss is part of living -nobody is immune. Hope Floats Healing and Wellness Center gave comfort, strength, and community to over 1,300 people last year. It is said that grief is just love with no place to go, but at Hope Floats, the Bracks have given their love and grief for their son, Michael, and the love and grief of all who enter this sacred space, a place to rest, heal, and grow; they have given the community a home that houses the love of thousands of healing hearts.