“My grief says that I dared to love, that I allowed another to enter the very core of my being and find a home in my heart. Grief is akin to praise; it is how the soul recounts the depth to which someone has touched our lives. To love is to accept the rites of grief.”
― Francis Weller
Grief & Loss
As someone who has both experienced and studied the depths of grief and loss, I have come to understand that grief is not something we overcome but something we learn to navigate.
The terrain of grief is not only a conglomerate of complex and varied emotions, it is a shifting landscape that reveals unexpected weather, curious and surprising obstacles, and glittering time worn treasures.
Benefits of Grief Support
Grief work provides helps to reduce psychological distress and provide emotional support during especially challenging times.
After a loss, we often need support to process and validate our feelings, manage overwhelming emotions, find new ways to structure our lives and rediscover a sense of purpose.
Benefits of grief work includes:
Opportunity to express oneself in safe space
Help in processing grief related emotions
Reducing risk developing complicated grief or depression
Building resilience and coping strategies
Having consistent support through a difficult transition
Providing a safe space to memorialize and celebrate the loved one who has passed
Support healing of physical issues with fatigue and insomnia
Intersectional Grief
As I work with death and dying, grief and loss, I continue to study the intersections with ecological perspectives, social justice and ceremonial arts. Grief and loss especially complex, stigmatized and disenfranchised grief may stem from traumatic and compounded losses over time.
Grief can be especially challenging for LGBTQ+ & BIPOC folx who experience personal as well as collective and identity specific grief issues. As a queer person, I focus on how grief impacts the LGBTQ+ community, especially older adults and offer this as a specialty in my practice.
In a time when every human on earth is facing the grief of climate change, the losses compounded by the pandemic and the onslaught of political, social and ecological changes, we need to find new ways to process and integrate our grief.
My Grief Path as a Social Worker
At Care Partners Hospice & Palliative Care I served patients and their families at the end of life for three years. There I initiated and co – developed the LGBTQ+ Grief & Bereavement Program with my collaborator, Jamie Thrower of Queer Grief Club.
I host and facilitate Death Café, a space to normalize conversations about death in a casual and supportive environment.
I work with Multnomah and Washington Counties behavioral health staff leading grief ceremonies to honor the clients who have died on their service.