Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Cara – People with intellectual disabilities need to be recognized and honoured in their grief

Cara talks about grievers living with intellectual disabilities and that it’s not about those of us who are neuro-typical, giving them a voice or providing them or saying things for them. Rather, it’s that they already have a voice. They already have these experiences and they want them to be recognized, acknowledged and honoured.

Rev. Sky – “Trauma, grief, and loss, sudden death”

Rev. Sky introduces herself and explains why she is in these videos.

There One Day and Gone the Next : Art Therapy and Grief

This blog post contains information about using art therapy to process grief, including specific examples.

Maureen – “Our first miscarriage”

Maureen shares insights about her miscarriages.

Jessica M – It’s OK not to cry

Jessica discusses how grief is individual and finding the way forward can be different for everyone.

Sara – Music at the end of life

Sara talks about the values of music at the end of life

Caileigh – A safe place to grow and heal

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.

Keith – “My story”

Keith tells his story and why he became a counsellor.

Rev. Sky – “The grief tunnel”

Rev. Sky talks about going forward and growing in the grief process.

Amanda – “Listening”

Amanda shares the importance of listening and being comfortable with silence.

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.”

Left Out: Enfranchising Children’s Grief and Loss

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.…