Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Sara – Listening to music

Sara discusses how listening to music can help navigate loss

Maureen – Holiday Traditions

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

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 – “Listening”

Amanda shares the importance of listening and being comfortable with silence.

Claudia – Art and coping with grief and loss

Claudia talk about how art is especially beneficial for someone coping with grief and loss

Janice – “It’s never too late to grieve”

Janice talks about the importance of noticing feelings.

Jenn – What an art therapist can show us about processing grief

Jenn talks about how art can give a form to grief. It can give it shape and texture so it can be seen when it is often so invisible. It can also be messy which so like our grief experience

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.

Sara – Music and celebration of life

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

Left Out: Enfranchising Children’s Grief and Loss

By: Jessica Milette, MSW, RSW All human beings have the capacity to grieve: people with intellectual disabilities, those living with a traumatic brain injury, and children of all ages. However, many people can experience disenfranchised grief when someone dies. Disenfranchised grief is generally grief that is not usually openly acknowledged, socially accepted or publicly mourned.…

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.

Jacqueline – Where to store art works

Jacqueline explains how art can be like journal entries that you would keep private