Art

Chantal – You don’t have to be an artist to take part in art therapy

Chantal explains that you don’t have to be an artist to participate in art therapy and acutally if you have less art experience you will enjoy it more.

Jacqueline – Humour

Jacqueline talks about how huour has a place in grieving

Chantal – Giving space

Chantal discusses how it is good and honouring to the one you’ve lost to give space and feel everything

Claudia – Defining an art therapist

Claudia talks about art therapy as a form of psycho therapy

Jenn – Art can give a break from grieving

Jenn talks about one of the most overlooked benefits of making art during bereavement. It can provide and escape from your grief.

Tending to My Garden of Grief

So long as I remember the lives of those I have lost, honour their presence and impact on me and celebrate their spirit, they will continue to live with me and the pain will feel bearable. It will no longer stop me in my tracks. Instead, it will encourage me and propel me forward through the transmutation of that grief into something different, something more nuanced and fluid. I’d like to share a practice for processing grief which I have found to be especially helpful.

Doodles

On the first anniversary, I invited people who would understand – friends who knew Marshal’s love of art, and his creative spirit. They all came.

I had copied several of Marshal’s doodles of incomplete characters and creatures, with some finished for the kids to color. I eagerly watched to see which doodle or drawing each person chose.

Jacqueline – Where to store art works

Jacqueline explains how art can be like journal entries that you would keep private

Jackie – Expressive arts can help when grief is confusing

Jackie talks about how working with an artist therapist helped her after her sister and mother died

Michele – Expressive arts and healing grief

Michele defines expressive arts and how they can help healing in grief

Carrie – Photography and grieving

Carrie discusses how photography can be very freeing in that it allows for exploration and move us away from the need to explain and can be more about experience what our own process is all about.

Saved by a Unicorn: How I Found the Positive in Grief, One Stitch at a Time

Looking back, I had no idea how to even continue to live. A simple attempt at something therapeutic sent the negative bereavement energy into a positive direction. It made me realize my strengths, at a time when I felt I had none at all. It provided a space where I am now better able to manage grief when it hits.