I Am A Professional

Left Out: Enfranchising Children’s Grief and Loss

August 13, 2025

By: Jessica Milette, MSW, RSW All human beings have the capacity to grieve: people with intellectual disabilities, those living with a traumatic brain injury, and children of all ages. However, many people can experience disenfranchised grief when someone dies. Disenfranchised grief is generally grief that is not usually openly acknowledged, socially accepted or publicly mourned.…

Bereavement Professionals' Insights / Blog Post / Grief and Trauma / I Am A Griever / I Am A Professional / I Am A Supporter / Supporting Others

Grief, Exhaustion, & Rest

March 21, 2024

Many people consider grief to be a response to the death of a loved one, but we grieve so much more than that. Grief is an emotional response to loss of any kind. Both real or perceived loss can trigger the response. The loss of a job, a miscarriage, a breakup, losing a sentimental item,…

Bereavement Professionals' Insights / Blog Post / I Am A Griever / I Am A Professional / I Am A Supporter

Caileigh – Grief and child behaviour

February 23, 2023

Caileigh explains when a child experiences grief or a traumatic grief experience, there’s often behaviour that comes from that. Grief impacts behaviour. And sometimes it can be outward behaviour and sometimes it can be internalized behaviour. The good news about grief and behaviour is that it can be managed and supported through effective communication, through therapy and through coping strategies.

Bereavement Professionals' Insights / I Am A Professional / Video

Craig – Resilience in the Face of Adversity

August 1, 2023

Craig how he overcame a series of challenges, including the loss of his marriage, his job, and his home. He talks about how he found the strength to keep going and how he learned to be more resilient.

Bereavement Professionals' Insights / Death of A Loved One / Death of a Parent / I Am A Griever / I Am A Professional / Video

Caileigh – A safe place to grow and heal

February 23, 2023

Caileigh talks about how accessing play therapy can support everybody. When children have that safe place to heal, everybody around them feels good and can heal, too.

Bereavement Professionals' Insights / I Am A Professional / Supporting Others / Video

Caleigh – Play Therapy

February 22, 2023

Caileigh explains how play therapy, a form of psychotherapy can help children in grief. It is specifically used when working with children and families and youth because it’s developmentally appropriate. They are never expected to sit down and to talk. And it is through the language of play that they’re able to learn about the confusing feelings of grief. They are able to learn new skills to cope with their grief, and they’re able to go at their own pace.

Bereavement Professionals' Insights / I Am A Professional / Video

Kristal – Drug Poisoning During Pandemic Stigma

April 23, 2023

Kristal discusses how the pandemic has created additional stigma surrounding those who use drugs. She dissuses how it seems like some losses are treated as more deserving of being mourned than others. Many people have had to grieve privately instead of publically within a community. She touches on the state of the public health system during the pandemic.

Collective/Community Grief / Death By Overdose / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic / I Am A Professional / Video

Nicole – Using Art and Creativity to Express Grief

March 25, 2023

Nicole discusses the work she does to allow access to creative outlets such as art hives and gardening.

Art / Collective/Community Grief / Death By Overdose / Death of A Loved One / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic / I Am A Griever / I Am A Professional / I Am A Supporter / Video

Christian – Grieving spaces

April 23, 2023

Christian talks grieving spaces and people coming together when grieving

Death and Grief During a Pandemic / Death By Overdose / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic / I Am A Professional / Video

Kristal – The Value of all Those Lost

April 23, 2023

Kristal emphasizes that the lives of those lost to drug poisoning had value, they were an opportunity that was lost, and that the community is missing so much in their absence.

Death By Overdose / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic / I Am A Professional / Video

Kristal – Grieving the Whole Person

April 23, 2023

Kristal discusses the importance of recognizing and grieving the entire person who was lost – not just who they were before they had been using drugs.

Death By Overdose / Drug Poisoning and the Pandemic / I Am A Professional / Video