Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

There One Day and Gone the Next : Art Therapy and Grief

This blog post contains information about using art therapy to process grief, including specific examples.

Jen – “1st year non-judgmental”

Jen discusses the ups and downs of the 1st year.

Janice – “More to deal with than death when someone dies”

Janice explains that when somebody dies it’s not just the death that you are dealing with but the entire relationship.

Chantal – Anticipatory grief

Chantal defines antipatory grief and the grief before the physical loss

Sara – Creating music

Sara explains how creating music can be a part of the grieving process

Janice – “Risks”

Janice talks about risks in behaviour and progress.

Jenn – Art can be grounding and meditative

Jenn explains how the textures , qualities and colours of art can be grounding and meditative

Maureen – “Carrying grief”

Maureen gives an analogy of how hard it is to carry griefMaureen gives an analogy of how hard it is to carry grief.

Rev. Sky – “Why”

Rev. Sky talks about the question of why and how to look beyond it.

Janice – “Feelings just are”

Janice explains the importance of listening to, trusting and honouring ourselves and our feelings.

Jacqueline – My Story

Jacqueline talks about getting through the feelings after her mother’s death

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.