Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Jean – Traditions and grief

Jean discusses belief systems and traditions

Caileigh – My own grief and supporting others

Caileigh tells about her own grief and now it has given her a really powerful lens on how to support children going through grief as well. Along with her professional education and training, there is now a different perspective on grief and how that fits in with supporting others.

Cara – The real issues for grieving people with intellectual disabilities

Cara provides some context for the real issue of grief in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and those supporting them, including that we consider that there’s not a lot of education or information out there about how best to support someone with an intellectual disability who is grieving.

Michele – Normalizing conversations around death dying grief and loss

Michele discusses grief literacy, the importance of talking and that dying is a part of life

Chantal – Physical symptoms and grieving

Chantal talks about panic attacks and thinking she was having a heart attack

Keith – “Hope”

Keith talks about time, healing and hope.

Maureen – “My miscarriages and attachment”

Maureen tells about her miscarriages, attachment and understanding why she felt so terrible.

Rev. Sky – “Retraumatization”

Rev. Sky discusses trauma and re-experiencing the initial emotion had at the beginning of a loss.

Cara – Grief and intellectual disabilities is a topic that needs to “get out there”

Cara shares some information from a participant in her research on intellectual disabilities and the bereaved. A person with an intellectual disability said… “Grief: It’s a topic that needs to get out there” Grief is something that so many people are hesitant to talk about, to display, to show, because there’s so many social rules around how we grieve. This is particularily challenging for the intellectually disabled.

Claudia – Art, art as therapy and art therapy

Claudia discusses the definition of therapy and how art therapists are formally trained.

Janice – “It’s never too late to grieve”

Janice talks about the importance of noticing feelings.

Carrie – Validation

Carrie talks about validation and feeling that someone is full responsive and fully present to you and what is going on in your grief… feeling “felt”