Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Claudia – Art in community versus art therapy

Claudia explains how art therapists are trained and how what they do is different that doing art in community

Caileigh – Working with children in grief

Caileigh shares why she likes working with and supporting children in grief. “Over the course of their lives, children and youth and families experience a lot of losses, and it’s an empowering job to empower others. I’m not only empowering them, but I’m also building parent capacity in recognizing that it does take a village and it takes a community to support a child.”

Maureen – Holiday kindness and grief

Maureen discusses grieving during the holidays and being lifter up by kindness

Jacqueline – Crying

Jacqueline talks about how grief is love and how crying is natural

Maureen – “Trust yourself”

Maureen talks about finding your own way in your healing process.

Kristal – Attending Memorials as a Support Worker

Kristal discusses the importance of finding ways to honour people that have been lost and how they have impacted you. She speaks to how she often chooses not to attend public memorials for those she has lost as a support worker as they are often very overwhelming. Instead, she has her own personal rituals or ways of honouring those she has lost personally including opening a window. She discusses how this practice was used when she worked in palliative care.

Janice – “Practical tools”

Janice reveals some practical methods to help with grief.

Carrie – Grief and creativity

Carrie talks about creativity and expressing grief and loss… that in many ways can offer insight and comfort for those who are grieving

Community Grief Toolkit [Downloadable!]

This toolkit also reflects on how we support grief in the community. The tools to come together and honour our collective experiences and how to build the resources for further support.

Preparing For and Coping with Special Days

Special Days can be days we have honoured with our loved ones that many others celebrate or more personal dates and milestones with your loved one. As these days approach, it can be difficult to figure out how to move through a Special Day. Do you do what you’ve always done? What do you do…

Janice – “Let the feelings come up”

Janice talks about how it can help to let the feelings come up.

Jenn – Your art completely belongs to you

Jenn explains the wonderful thing about art is that piece belongs completely to you and you have the power to do whatever you wish with it . She makes some suggestions as to what you may want to do.