Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Sara – Music and celebration of life

Sara explains how music can play an importand and significant role in celebrations of life.

Madelyn – Accept what you are feeling

Madelyn talks about how it’s ok to not be ok.

Sara – Music and grief

Sara discusses how music can connect and help by acknowledging grief and bringing comfort

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.

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

Who are we to Decide? The Many Paths through Grief

A lot of my work with clients involves hearing their stories, but also answering many questions about if their grief is “normal”. Their grief is overwhelming, and our dominant culture’s strong message is – that grief should be kept at its edges, I often find this pervasive intention creeps into griever’s experiences – and my…

Rev. Sky – “What is a trigger”

Rev. Sky explains triggers, identifying them and what you need.

Keith – “How can you help”

Keith explains that by imagining being in someone’s position can show you practical ways of helping them.

Maureen – “Trust yourself”

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

Sara – Music at the end of life

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

Tending to My Garden of Grief

So long as I remember the lives of those I have lost, honour their presence and impact on me and celebrate their spirit, they will continue to live with me and the pain will feel bearable. It will no longer stop me in my tracks. Instead, it will encourage me and propel me forward through the transmutation of that grief into something different, something more nuanced and fluid. I’d like to share a practice for processing grief which I have found to be especially helpful.

Claudia – My story

Claudia tells her story about art and grief