Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Cara – My story with intellectual disabilities and grief

Cara talks about how she came to see how people with intellectual disabilities need to be supported in grief

Maureen – “Pregnancy and infant loss”

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

Sara – Lyrics

Sara talks about how lyrics can have an impact on how we experience music

Cara – The real issues for grieving people with intellectual disabilities

Cara provides some context for the real issue of grief in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and those supporting them, including that we consider that there’s not a lot of education or information out there about how best to support someone with an intellectual disability who is grieving.

Weathering the Intense Emotions of Grief

Grief often comes with powerful, unpredictable emotional shifts that can be painful to experience. While it’s important to find ways to sit with these feelings, to acknowledge the pain of grief and accept loss, it’s also necessary to find ways to ease and manage the pain. There are several simple activities that you can explore to help.

Amanda – “Ministry of Presence”

Amanda discusses how being present with someone can be helpful.

Keith – “Grief at any age”

Keith discusses grief and age.

Chantal – Physical symptoms and grieving

Chantal talks about panic attacks and thinking she was having a heart attack

Marija – Acknowledging feelings

Marija talks about our tools for coping

Carrie – Validation

Carrie talks about validation and feeling that someone is full responsive and fully present to you and what is going on in your grief… feeling “felt”

Christian – “Overdose Death”

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

Chantal – My Story

Chantal discusses finding a release in doing a graphic novel to explore her grief as a thesis in art therapy school