The Spiritual Growth and Community Center is an outreach program of the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson. We provide high-quality, inspirational programs, classes, and events to awaken peace, joy, love, compassion, personal growth, and creativity.  All programs are open to the community—people of all faiths, including atheists, can participate.

The Spiritual Growth and Community Center is made possible through the generous support of the members and friends of the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

Fall/Winter 2025 Events

Pre-registration is appreciated but not required, unless specifically requested in the event descriptions below. The “donate” button below is provided for your convenience. We appreciate your support of our programming!

Men’s Emotional Health Group – New!

Movement. Meditation. Message.

A donation-based sanctuary for men to reconnect with their emotional selves in community.

Many of us learned early that emotions were weakness. Anger was allowed—but tenderness, fear, and sadness were often silenced. These messages shaped our emotional lives during critical years and continue to affect our relationships, health, and sense of self. The Men’s Emotional Health Group offers a safe space to explore and begin reshaping those patterns through body awareness, reflection, and connection.

What to Expect Each Session

1. Grounding & Stretching (20–25 mins)
We begin with mindful, full-body stretching to release tension and reconnect with where emotion lives in the body. No fitness experience needed—just breath, movement, and awareness.

2. Guided Body Scan Meditation (20–25 mins)
Next, we move inward through a gentle body scan, noticing areas of tension, numbness, or discomfort. This process helps you reconnect to your body’s signals—without trying to fix or change anything.
You may experience emotion, memory, or stillness. All are welcome.

3. Message – Discussion Circle (40–60 mins)
We close with an open, voluntary sharing circle. You can reflect on what surfaced during the session—or speak on anything you’re carrying in your life. There is no pressure to share, and no one is here to give advice. Listening is part of the healing.

What to Bring & Wear

Please wear loose or comfortable clothing that allows for stretching. Bring a mat or blanket for seated meditation and comfort.

Core Values

• Confidentiality and respect
• Speaking from personal experience
• No judgment, no fixing—just presence and truth

Who It’s For

• Men feeling lonely, disconnected, overwhelmed, or emotionally stuck
• Men seeking a community where honesty, kindness, and vulnerability are welcome
• All backgrounds, identities, and orientations are respected. No prior experience is needed.

Why It Matters

“Boys who can’t express themselves are more likely to suffer in silence, to erupt in rage, or to become emotionally shut down. They grow into men who are strangers to themselves.”
— bell hooks
We are not here to diagnose or fix—we are here to feel, unlearn, reconnect, and grow.

Facilitator Bio

Daniel Ortega is a single father of three who has spent years navigating deep grief and emotional pain after personal loss. As a massage therapist, energy worker, and personal trainer, he has helped many people release the emotional weight their bodies carry.
“This group is the space I wish I had when I was struggling. I’m not here as a therapist—but as a guide, witness, and fellow traveler.”

Details

When: 1st & 3rd Wednesdays, 7pm – 9pm
Where: Unitarian Church of Hudson and MarlboroughUnion Hall
Cost: Donation-based – no one turned away
Contact & RSVP: DanielOrtegaMT@gmail.com

Space is Limited — Please RSVP

Group size is limited to 15 participants to help create a grounded and focused space.
Please email to RSVP and hold your spot.
If you reserve a space and can’t make it, we kindly ask that you let us know so someone else may attend in your place.
If interest exceeds capacity, we will consider starting a waitlist or offering an additional time slot.

Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash

Meditation Group

Sunday morning meditations will meet periodically during the 2025-2026 Worship season. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter (you can find a link at the bottom of our home page) for updated information.

Whether you need a time of solace during a busy weekend, want to deepen your personal practice, or aim to join Sunday service with an uncluttered mind, you are welcome.

Sessions will begin at 9:15 in the Alice Hart Room, downstairs at UCMH, and will include 25 minutes of meditation. No experience is necessary to join. Suggested donation $5

SoulCollage® Workshop 2025-2026

Date/Time: 2nd Saturdays beginning September 13, 1-4pm

Facilitator: Nadine Lucas

Cost: $30: discounts and scholarships available via Nadine at nadineelucas@gmail.com.

SoulCollage® is a deeply personal and intuitive form of art therapy developed by Seena B. Frost in the late 1980s, designed to facilitate self-discovery and emotional exploration through creative collage-making. Participants create 5×8 inch cards by intuitively selecting and arranging images from magazines, photographs, and personal artwork that resonate on a profound emotional level, representing different aspects of the self. For more information about SoulCollage, please visit: https://compassionbasedhealing.com/soulcollage-workshop/

Spirituality and Internal Family Systems (IFS)

An exploration of the core essence of being that exists within all of us

Date/Time: Monthly on the 2nd Wednesday, 7:00 p.m.

Facilitator: Nadine Lucas (https://compassionbasedhealing.com)

Cost: Free, donations to UCMH welcome

Location: UCMH Knight Room

Register at Meetup.com

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapy modality that incorporates a deeply spiritual dimension through its recognition of the “Self” – a core essence of being that exists beneath our various parts and subpersonalities. This Self is characterized by qualities such as compassion, curiosity, calmness, clarity, and connectedness, which IFS founder Richard Schwartz found to be universally present when people accessed their true, authentic nature. The spiritual aspect of IFS emerges from its view that this Self is not something we need to create or develop, but rather an inherent wisdom that exists naturally within all people, simply waiting to be uncovered and accessed.

IFS parallels many spiritual traditions in its recognition of a deeper consciousness beyond our everyday thinking mind. Similar to Buddhist concepts of Buddha nature or Hindu notions of atman, the Self in IFS represents an innate wholeness and wisdom that transcends our conditioned patterns and emotional wounds. The model suggests that connecting with Self energy can bring about not just psychological healing but also spiritual growth, as people experience their fundamental nature as loving, connected, and whole.

This group is NOT therapy but an exploration of how to connect with Self energy and live a Self-led life from a place of deep compassion. We will explore how the healing power of Self emerges naturally when we step back from our pain and suffering and access the inherent wisdom of the Self, allowing for spiritual transformation. The IFS model proposes that as we learn to lead more consistently from Self, we not only heal individually but contribute to collective healing in our communities and world, through our enhanced capacity for compassion, wisdom, and presence.
Parking is on Main Street or Church Street. Please enter the building from Church Street and follow signs to the event.
For more information contact Nadine at https://compassionbasedhealing.com/

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a model that recognizes a core “Self” – characterized by qualities such as compassion, curiosity, presence, and connectedness. IFS views this authentic Self as not something we need to create or develop, but rather an inherent wisdom that exists naturally within all people, simply waiting to be uncovered and accessed. The IFS model proposes that as we learn to lead more consistently from Self, we not only heal individually but contribute to collective healing in our communities and world, through our enhanced capacity for compassion, wisdom, and presence.

Open Creativity Studio

Facilitated by: Elisa Abatsis and Jennifer Rambridge

Date/Time: Monthly on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays

Cost: $5/class suggested donation

Location: UCMH Union Hall

Is there something you’d like to create in the New Year? Give yourself the gift of dedicated time to work on your project in the company of fellow creatives. Bring your novel-in-progress, your half-knitted sweater, your blank canvas, your barely-started dissertation, your architectural blueprint, your nascent symphony, your coding project, or your business plan. Or just bring a desire to explore the possibilities. We provide coffee, a short nugget of creative inspiration, some rudimentary art supplies, and time-keeping so you can lose yourself in creative flow; you bring the mojo and a willingness to clean up after yourself at the end of the night.

Free Your Inner Artist Collab! If you don’t currently have a project in the works, no problem! Jen Rambridge will be on hand with materials and supplies that you can experiment with. (Additional $5 donation requested for materials)

This group is suitable for adults and mature teens.

Pub Theology

Facilitated by: Caitlin Eaton-Robb

Date/Time: Monthly on second Thursdays

Cost: $5 donation requested; BYOB/snacks/dinner

Location: Varies – check our Facebook page for updated information

We welcome atheists, agnostics, humanists, people of all faith traditions, and people who identify as “spiritual but not religious” to gather together to talk while enjoying drinks and other refreshments. Join us for deep, respectful, and reflective conversation with our community. Each month we will reflect on a different theme.

Feel free to join in the discussion or just come to listen. Please bring your own wine, beer, or nonalcoholic beverage, and dinner or a snack if you wish – there are a number of great restaurants right nearby!  You can also take out beer from our neighbors across the street at Medusa. Everyone is welcome to participate! Contact Caitlin Eaton-Robb with any questions.

New Age Spiritualist Collaborative

Facilitated by: Members of the Collaborative

Date/Time: Monthly on 4th Thursday

Cost: $5 donation requested for use of the space

Location: UCMH Union Hall

The New Age Spiritualist Collaborative is part of Spiritual Growth and Community Center at the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

We’ll be exploring modalities such as mediumship, divination, energy healing, and astrology with the aim of evolving consciousness by understanding our soul’s place in the Universe.

Each meeting will be led by a member of the collaborative, who will provide information on a topic followed by discussion and a practice session.

Meetings will generally be held in-person on fourth Thursday of every month at the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson, 80 Main Street, Hudson, MA, from 7:00-8:30 p.m. Email: newagespiritualists@gmail.com.

Meetings are FREE, but we do request a $5 donation to UCMH for use of the building.

Please note that we are not a professional practice group (though professional practitioners are certainly welcome!).

Playing With Tarot Workshop

Date and Time: Fourth Fridays, every other month, 7:00 p.m.

Facilitator: Cynthia Menard

Cost: $5 for UCMH members, $10 for non-members

Join us for an every-other-month gathering in Hudson, MA where we ‘play’ with our tarot decks, ask tarot questions, and nerd out over tarot details and trivia.

These gatherings are not concerned with a card-by-card teaching of ‘how tarot works’. Rather, we play with our decks in fun and intuitive ways that build our unique understanding of the cards.

In our November gathering will explore and play with the court cards, and figure out why they’re such a challenge. We’ll practice reading for each other with a few new spreads, and play an I-Spy game with our decks. I hope you can join us!

Advance registration requested: email cynthia @ inkwoodhealing.com

This event repeats every other month on the 4th Friday of the month, alternating with the Spiritualist group. Questions? Email Cynthia at the above address!

Ongoing Events

Buddhist Book Club

We are hard at work preparing virtual and in person offerings for the upcoming season! Please check back for more information, or contact the office to receive notification via email:  administrator@ucmh.org