Flourishing through flower therapy

Brooks Floral & Co. workshops provide space to connect and process grief

BY ELICIA HESSELGRAVE SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

“We laugh, cry and share memories knowing it’s OK to not be OK.” ese are the words of Kaitlin Christenson Austin, a Denverite who started her small oral design business to honor her older brother. Her story is one of healing through owers.

Austin started Brooks Floral & Co. in September 2021, roughly three months after her older brother, Brooks Christenson, died unexpectedly at age 36 when COVID-19 rapidly turned into pneumonia.

“I feel so connected to him through this and I know he is so proud,” Austin said.

Austin grew up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in a close-knit family of four children. Brooks was the oldest, followed by siblings Jon, Kaitlin and MarieClaire.

Brooks and Kaitlin were connected on a deep level, said their father, Bob Christenson of Sioux Falls.

“Of all the kids, they were the two most bonded by the spirituality of the human condition, and I think (Kaitlin) is expressing that in what she’s doing with owers,” Bob Christenson said.

He added that their bond continues to grow — even now that Brooks is gone.

“ ey had a good relationship,” Bob Christenson said. “ ey still do, because she’s doing these things that involve him.”

Austin expanded her business in April 2022 when she opened a studio on South Broadway in Denver’s Platt Park neighborhood. Brooks Floral & Co. specializes in weddings and pop-up events, but it’s the intimate oral design workshops that gives Austin great pride. e workshops promote healing through “ ower therapy,” Austin said. is type of environment has been successful in allowing people to open up, she said. e workshops close with a gift — writing a mantra on a card to set an intention and a reminder for people to see the beauty in themselves.

She begins each workshop session with her story and the inspiration for Brooks Floral & Co. en she opens the oor to attendees who would like to share a story. Austin believes designing oral arrangements is like meditation because one has to become intentional and re ective.

“In the beginning, there are nerves, fear and self doubt,” Austin said, but “those shift to a place of abundance and pride.”

She added that it’s important to talk about grief, even though it is hard.

“Avoiding it doesn’t make it go away,” Austin said. “Life goes on and we are still stuck with this void.” e workshops aren’t speci cally for individuals experiencing loss, but are intended to provide a safe space for healing. ey are designed for any skill level and participants don’t need to consider themselves creative or have any background in designing oral arrangements. Attendees learn oral design tips, tricks and techniques, but Austin does not use a model bouquet.

“ at would take away the beauty of personalization,” she said. “Each design ends up uniquely di erent.” Centennial’s Caroline Neale attended her rst oral design workshop with Austin earlier this year, in part due to a New Year’s Resolution — to focus time on her passion of oral design. She said she was attracted to Austin’s workshop style and the workshop’s focus on the whole person.

“While I thought I would get instruction, I got so much more,” Neale said. “I found a safe space to explore and connect.”

Austin has only one rule for the workshops. It is to not judge yourself.

“We tend to be really harsh critics of ourselves, but owers don’t judge us,” Austin said. “ ey just ask that we take care of them and appreciate their beauty.”

Fond memories

Bob Christenson described his mother, Jean “Jeannie Bird” Christenson, as a “ ower nut,” and he believes Austin inherited her love of owers through her grandmother.

Austin has fond memories of playing with her siblings and cousins in their grandmother Jeannie Bird’s garden. It was like a maze, Austin said, and they would spend hours exploring it together.

Austin’s late brother, Brooks, loved nature, traveling and adventure, she said. After high school, he spent a year abroad on a Rotary Exchange Program in Romania. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of South Dakota in 2008, and a juris doctor from the university’s School of Law in 2012. In 2015, he graduated from the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies with a master’s degree in organizational management, global health, and political theory.

Among other professional accomplishments, Brooks served as a grant writer and advisor for nonpro ts and led e orts to combat global poverty.

He was a craft brewer and was working on collecting wild owers from each county in South Dakota to create di erent oral-inspired avors in his beer. He used cooking as a creative outlet and taught Austin, who moved to Colorado in 2014, how to cook.

The late Brooks Christenson had a passion for adventure and travel. Here, he is pictured during a trip to Uganda when he travelled there with a nonprofit as a grant-writer. The trip was to do humanity work that focused on clean water and medical supplies.

COURTESY PHOTO

Austin’s core memories of her brother are tied directly to the inspiration for her oral company. His adventurous spirit is re ected in her asymmetrical and whimsy oral designs.

“Whenever I feel imposter syndrome or feel like I’m not enough, I feel his presence guiding me, saying thank you for doing this,” Austin said. “‘You’ve got this.’”

Flourishing through floral design

During the initial period following Brooks Christenson’s death, the family home was ooded with oral arrangements and plants, transforming it into an indoor garden. ese owers brought comfort during a tragic time, and Austin realized she didn’t want the owers to go to waste.

“Once the owers were gone, it was like a piece of my brother (was, too), in a sense,” she said. “It is therapeutic to still feel connected.”

So, Austin did everything she could to keep the owers alive. She rearranged fresh bouquets to give them a longer lifespan, then dried and pressed the owers and sent them to Brooks’ friends and family who could not be present to honor her brother’s memory.

Prior to her brother’s death, Austin was a wedding planner. But owers are her true passion, she said. Floral arranging as a creative outlet has helped her process grief and stay connected to her brother’s memory. She wanted to share this with others.

“By combining my creativity, passion and love for owers with education, I’m able to create a community that allows connectedness, kindness, compassion, acceptance

Kaitlin Austin was inspired to open her business, Brooks Floral & Co., in honor of her late brother, Brooks, who died in 2021 from complications brought on by COVID-19. Austin expanded her business about a year ago to include a studio space on South Broadway where she hosts flower therapy workshops.

COURTESY OF MARY ANN CRADDOCK and self-love to ourish through oral design,” Austin said.

She knows this mission is something her brother would be proud of.

“Flowers can teach us so much about ourselves,” Austin said.

“Flowers are nite and there is something really special about caring for and designing orals. Experiencing their beauty allows us to really live and re ect in the moment while asking for nothing in return.”