Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Keith – “Timeframe for grief”

Keith explains it is never too late to grieve and there is no timeline.

Keith – “Grief at any age”

Keith discusses grief and age.

Amanda – “No person is an island”

Amanda talks about the power of community and the importance of reaching out.

Christian – “Growth out of pain”

Christian tells about how grief changes and we grow.

Caileigh – Working with children in grief

Caileigh shares why she likes working with and supporting children in grief. “Over the course of their lives, children and youth and families experience a lot of losses, and it’s an empowering job to empower others. I’m not only empowering them, but I’m also building parent capacity in recognizing that it does take a village and it takes a community to support a child.”

Madelyn – The power of music

Madelyn – discusses the potency of music and processing good and bad memories

Maureen – “Pregnancy and infant loss”

Maureen explains how pregnancy and infant loss is often misunderstood or underestimated.

Keith – “Difference between grief and mourning”

Keith explains how grief is internal and mourning is external.

Christian – “Grief can shape you”

Christian talks about realizing the impact grief has.

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.

Amanda – “The Little Things”

Amanda talks about how little things can be a huge gift during palliative care.

Cara – Intellectual disabilities and advance planning

Cara explains that people living with intellectual disabilities are growing to older ages, much like the rest of the population. And as folks are aging what we’re seeing is the need for families more so than ever, to do some advanced planning for who will take over any caregiving decision making or where that person may live, what sort of support they may need and what that’s going to look like after the parents or the guardians die so that this doesn’t become a crisis situation.