Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Chantal – What is art therapy?

Chantal explains how art therapy helps us express in ways that words can’t

Claudia – Art in community versus art therapy

Claudia explains how art therapists are trained and how what they do is different that doing art in community

Ripples of Grief: Supporting Ourselves, Others, and our Communities After a Death

By Jessica Milette, MSW, RSW When death knocks on the door of a community, each of us are impacted. Sometimes a death will touch many lives across a community, whether people knew the deceased personally or not. We may grieve the death of a family member, friend, or acquaintance, a well-known community member, or someone…

Chantal – Grief and art therapy group

Chantal talks about the honour of being witness to other peoples story and exploration of grief and art therapy

Janice – “Own our feelings”

Janice discusses the goals of emotional work and arriving at a peaceful place.

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.

Shannon – Enough

Shannon talks about us all doing the very best we can from the perspectives of a licensed clinical counselor and losing her husband to suicide.

Sara – Listening to music

Sara discusses how listening to music can help navigate loss

Caileigh – Grief and child behaviour

Caileigh explains when a child experiences grief or a traumatic grief experience, there’s often behaviour that comes from that. Grief impacts behaviour. And sometimes it can be outward behaviour and sometimes it can be internalized behaviour. The good news about grief and behaviour is that it can be managed and supported through effective communication, through therapy and through coping strategies.

Rev. Sky – “Weepies”

Rev. Sky talks about weepies, that they are OK and how to deal with them.

Community Grief Toolkit [Downloadable!]

This toolkit also reflects on how we support grief in the community. The tools to come together and honour our collective experiences and how to build the resources for further support.

Christian – “Grief in the opioid crisis”

Christian talks about looking for answers in great sadness.