Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

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”

Amanda – “The Little Things”

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

Keith – “We need one another”

Keith talks about the importance of story, understanding our journey and how we are connected.

Shannon – Growing through Grief

Shannon discusses post traumatic growth and how it can be an expectation

Caileigh – Wanting to fix a grieving child

Caileigh gives advice about the desire to fix, especially to parents who are grieving themselves as well as supporting children who are grieving.

Craig – Resilience in the Face of Adversity

Craig how he overcame a series of challenges, including the loss of his marriage, his job, and his home. He talks about how he found the strength to keep going and how he learned to be more resilient.

Michele – Expressive arts and healing grief

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

Maureen – “Your experience of loss is unique”

Maureen explains how your experience of grief is your own.

Jen – “From funeral director to yoga for grief”

Jen talks about how being a funeral director and how yoga and grief became connected for her.

Christian – “Grief can bring new life”

Christian explains where he found hope in grief.

Alongside

That is also our best, and only role, when supporting a person with a developmental disability to grieve. We must be the one that comes alongside. There is no closer place we can get to. We must be present, be with, perhaps not understanding or comprehending what the person we support is experiencing, but alongside them nonetheless. We must be there, ready to provide whatever we can discover of their unique need in grief.

Maureen – “Our 20th Anniversary”

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