Rod Bravo, MPH, is an MD Candidate at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson. He holds a BA in Neuroscience & Psychology from Harvard University and a Master of Public Health focused in Healthcare Management and Policy from the Yale School of Public Health in conjunction with the Yale School of Management. He is a Co-Founder of RAPHI, a digital health platform bridging globally sourced healing modalities for patients enduring chronic and complex illness, as well as Co-Founder of Bravo Conscious Health, a boutique wellness practice focused on emotional wellness and biofield therapy. His previous clients, advisees, and collaborators have included Forbes alumni, Fortune 500 executives, Harvard & Yale faculty, and patients with conditions resistant to conventional treatment—generally spanning across medicine, the life sciences, and social-good enterprises. His passion for community health and relational communication draw from his time creating anti-heteronormativity and healthy relationship programming at Harvard College, establishing a free community clinic in Tucson, AZ, and teaching patients practical tools within mind-body medicine to support emotional and physical well-being across all areas of functional living.

Most relational stress does not come from saying the wrong thing—it comes from never being taught HOW to clearly express what we need. In families, friendships, and intimate relationships, unmet or unspoken needs often drive emotional reactivity, conflict, and disconnection, even when care and goodwill are present. This interactive workshop introduces Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication (NVC) as a practical, needs-based approach to navigating everyday challenges to mental health and relational life. Participants will learn a formula to shift conversations away from inadvertent blame or defensiveness and toward clear, emotionally neutral expressions of need. Drawing on real-world examples, including experiences common within LGBTQ communities and other contexts shaped by difference, attendees will practice applying NVC tools to conversations that matter most to them. This session offers concrete skills for communicating with greater honesty, stability, and emotional neutrality—without self-erasure or escalation. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

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• Identify how the needs-literacy gap connects personally unmet or unspoken needs with emotional reactivity, relational stress, and mental health strain in everyday relationships

• Apply the core Nonviolent Communication framework to express needs clearly while reducing defensiveness and escalation in interpersonal conversations

• Practice translating real-life relational challenges into emotionally-neutral, needs-based language that supports emotional regulation, relational clarity, and community building

Melissa Delizia, MSW, LSW, DSW (she/they) is a death doula, educator, writer, and professional coach whose work lives at the intersection of sacred care, transformative education, and social justice. With a Doctorate in Social Work from Monmouth University focused on human rights leadership, Melissa’s scholarship and practice center queer and trans experiences of death, dying, and grief, and the urgent need to bring these narratives into educational and communal spaces. Through LaMort and other community projects, they teach classes in death coaching, hold grief-writing workshops, and create spaces for collective mourning and mortality awareness. Certified in grief companionship, deathcare, and sacred ceremony, Melissa integrates ancestral connection, mediumship, and energy work with clinical insight. As an adjunct professor and facilitator, they are dedicated to reshaping how death is taught and understood—centering marginalized experiences, challenging systems of harm, and cultivating spaces where grief and identity are honored in all their complexity.

This 60-minute experiential workshop invites participants into a queer-centered Death Café: a supportive space to talk openly about death, grief, and mortality. Grounded in death positivity and collective care, we will explore the unique needs and strengths of LGBTQ+ communities, from chosen family to inclusive deathcare. Participants will engage in reflective conversation and a writing activity, crafting a eulogy for themselves or for someone they are grieving, whether through physical death, a breakup, or another life transition. Attendees will leave both nurtured in their own reflections and equipped with tools and inspiration to create queer-affirming Death Cafés in their own communities.

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• Describe key principles of death positivity and their relevance to queer and trans experiences of grief and mortality

• Experience the impacts of participating in a Queer Death Café

• Develop strategies and resources to create and host affirming grief-support spaces in their own communities, learning the core components and facilitation practices of a Queer Death Café