Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Sara – My Story

Sara talks about why she became a music therapist, espression and connecting to feelings

Jenn – The difference between expressive and creative arts

Jenn explains the difference between expressive and creative arts. You don’t have to limit yourself to art making to help you through your grief process. Expressive arts encompasses a wide variety of approaches including drama, dance, movement, writing and music

Donna – “Helping a grieving friend”

Donna shares some practical ways to help someone in grief.

Cara – Intellectual disabilities, sharing and expressing about grief

Cara discusses how it’s very important that people living with intellectual disabilities have the opportunity to not only know about the information about the person being ill and dying and having the choice and opportunity to go to after death rituals. It’s also really important that they get the opportunity to share their story in whatever way they communicate. This can be verbally through sign language, through communication books, art, music, going for walks, being in nature

Adrianna – Triggers and the ball in the box analogy

Adrianna gives some great insights on how to deal with triggers

Madelyn – Rituals and the Chinese grieving process

Madelyn talks about expressing your grief in Chinese cultures and how rituals are a war of grieving providing comfort

Jean – My own grief and being a professional counsellor

Jean shares about being a counselor and going through her own grief

Grief, Breastfeeding, and Care

In this essay, I share a bit about my story of grief and breastfeeding. I also share some thoughts about the cultural grief some people are carrying about the lack of support afforded to lactating families whose goal it is to feed their baby from their body. I use some gendered language throughout this essay…

Shannon – Losing is a life skill

Shannon shares about losing her husband to suicide, her parents and her father-in-law. She felt broken and to be able to take care of her kids and her self seemed overwhelming. It took someone telling her that you can heal from trauma to give her hope for healing.

Craig – Resilience in the Face of Adversity

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.

Janice – “Practical tools”

Janice reveals some practical methods to help with grief.

Claudia – Materials in art therapy

Claudia discusses all of the wonderful options of materials to use in art therapy. Art, markers, clay, pencils, water collours, cutting, tearing. They physical engagment with the materials is like alchemy.