Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Caileigh – A safe place to grow and heal

Caileigh talks about how accessing play therapy can support everybody. When children have that safe place to heal, everybody around them feels good and can heal, too.

Amanda – “It’s a gift to love someone”

Amanda talks about grief and it’s connection to love.

Michele – My Story

MIchele talks about her multiple losses starting from when she was very young

Madelyn – Advice to younger self

Madelyn discusses how having feelings is a gift and you can work through tough ones. There is hope.

Janice – “Grief is a response to loss”

Janice discusses waves of grief and how important it is to go with it.

Cara – Defining Intellectual disabilities and grief

Cara discusses how grief literacy needs to be improved across the board for people with intellectual disabilities to learn more about grief, death and dying. There is a great need to include them in this natural, normal part of life that we’ll all experience.

Jacqueline – Digital Story

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

Keith – “Hope”

Keith talks about time, healing and hope.

Janice – “Crying”

Janice explains how crying helps physically and emotionally.

Donna – “Grief in conversation”

Donna discusses language and talking about grief.

Cara – People with intellectual disabilities need to be recognized and honoured in their grief

Cara talks about grievers living with intellectual disabilities and that it’s not about those of us who are neuro-typical, giving them a voice or providing them or saying things for them. Rather, it’s that they already have a voice. They already have these experiences and they want them to be recognized, acknowledged and honoured.

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.