Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Jenn – Barriers to art

Jenn talks about the barriers that may prevent someone from including art as part of their grief or emotional process including judgment of your art skills and more.

Janice – “Grief is a response to loss”

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

Craig – How men process grief

Craig talks about his personal story of grief and how he learned to process his emotions in a healthy way. He discusses the challenges that men face when grieving, and offers advice on how to find healthy ways to cope with loss.Craig lost his wife, his mother, his job, and his home in a short period of time. He describes how he felt pressured to be stoic and strong for others, and how this made it difficult for him to grieve. He eventually realized that it was important to allow himself to feel his emotions, even the difficult ones.Craig shares some of the things that helped him to process his grief, such as talking to a therapist, writing in a journal, and spending time in nature. He also emphasizes the importance of finding support from friends and family. This video is a powerful and moving story of how one man found healing after experiencing a series of devastating losses. It is an important reminder that grief is a normal and healthy emotion, and that there are healthy ways to cope with it.

Maureen – “If someone you know has experienced pregnancy & infant loss”

Maureen explains practical tools to help someone who is grieving.

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.

Christian – “Overdose Death”

Christian talks about an overdose death not defining who that person was.

Michele – Expressive arts and healing grief

Michele defines expressive arts and how they can help healing in grief

Donna – “Living with grief”

Donna talks about the threads of grief and her personal experience.

Maureen – Holiday Traditions

Maureen talks about anticipating a holiday and considering honouring a loved one

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

Maureen – “Our 20th Anniversary”

Maureen talks about she dealt with her miscarriages and how she felt after 20 years.

Janice – “The importance of listening”

Janice explains the importance of not being judgemental and listening when helping someone is in grief.