Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Jacqueline – Crying

Jacqueline talks about how grief is love and how crying is natural

Amanda – “Listening”

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

Carrie – Thanatology

Carrie explains how thanatolgy is the study of death dying grief and loss.

Maureen – “Trust yourself”

Maureen talks about finding your own way in your healing process.

Maureen – “Carrying grief”

Maureen gives an analogy of how hard it is to carry griefMaureen gives an analogy of how hard it is to carry grief.

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.

Maureen – Holiday Traditions

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

Marija – Permission to mourn

Marija discusses the value of being allowing yourself to mourn

Rev. Sky – “Yearning”

Rev. Sky discusses yearning and how it’s OK to feel those emotions.

Adrianna – Triggers and the ball in the box analogy

Adrianna gives some great insights on how to deal with triggers

Cara – People with intellectual disabilities need to be recognized and honoured in their grief

Cara talks about grievers living with intellectual disabilities and that it’s not about those of us who are neuro-typical, giving them a voice or providing them or saying things for them. Rather, it’s that they already have a voice. They already have these experiences and they want them to be recognized, acknowledged and honoured.

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