Bereavement Professionals’ Insights

Marija – Grieving Situational Losses in a Pandemic

Marija talks about feelings associated with grief and Covid

Jenn – Art can give a break from grieving

Jenn talks about one of the most overlooked benefits of making art during bereavement. It can provide and escape from your grief.

Madelyn – Holding space

Madelyn explains how holding space can help anyone in grief

Sara – Listening to music

Sara discusses how listening to music can help navigate loss

Craig – How men process grief

Craig talks about his personal story of grief and how he learned to process his emotions in a healthy way. He discusses the challenges that men face when grieving, and offers advice on how to find healthy ways to cope with loss.Craig lost his wife, his mother, his job, and his home in a short period of time. He describes how he felt pressured to be stoic and strong for others, and how this made it difficult for him to grieve. He eventually realized that it was important to allow himself to feel his emotions, even the difficult ones.Craig shares some of the things that helped him to process his grief, such as talking to a therapist, writing in a journal, and spending time in nature. He also emphasizes the importance of finding support from friends and family. This video is a powerful and moving story of how one man found healing after experiencing a series of devastating losses. It is an important reminder that grief is a normal and healthy emotion, and that there are healthy ways to cope with it.

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.

Caileigh – Advice to my younger self about grief

Caileigh talks about things that you can do to balance out feelings that it’s okay to experience all of the big feelings that you have, to find joy in little moments, and to find ways that you can cope with those big feelings.

Amanda – “Reach out”

Amanda discusses the importance of connecting with others.

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

Janice talks about the importance of noticing feelings.

Nicole – Grieving as a community

Nicole discusses the power of grieving together as a community. Finding connection and trust.

Caileigh – Through play children learn so much about their grief

Caileigh discussed how children learn so much about their grief through play. There’s less confusion, there’s less anxiety, there’s more awareness. For the child and the parent, there is more acceptance of grief.

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.