Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Claudia – Being stuck and art therapy

Claudia discusses remunating how art therapist can help create different positive perspectives

Maureen – “Trust yourself”

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

Amanda – “Hospice like home”

Amanda discusses the value of feeling like being at home during palliative care.

Weathering the Intense Emotions of Grief

Grief often comes with powerful, unpredictable emotional shifts that can be painful to experience. While it’s important to find ways to sit with these feelings, to acknowledge the pain of grief and accept loss, it’s also necessary to find ways to ease and manage the pain. There are several simple activities that you can explore to help.

Jacqueline – Digital Story

Jacqueline discusses what a digital story can be and how creatiing one can create positive breakthroughs

Jessica M – It’s OK not to cry

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

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

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…

Collective Grief

When the death of a person affects many members in a community, city, country, or across the world, people will experience collective grief.

These are some things that can help people through the experience of collective grief across a community.

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

Keith – “Disenfranchised Grief”

Keith describes disenfranchised grief.

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.