Workshops
A half-day coaching-led workshop where you'll create your own personal grief wellbeing plan you can keep and return to when you need it.
Grief can be unpredictable. Sometimes you know exactly what you need; other times you're tired, overwhelmed, or having a particularly difficult day and can't quite work out what would help. Sometimes we also forget what we already know about ourselves: the people who are good to be around, the places that help us feel more grounded, the things that give us breathing space, or the ways we prefer to spend time with our grief.
The Grief Toolkit is a chance to work some of this out when you're not necessarily in the middle of one of those moments.
During the workshop, we'll explore how grief tends to show up for you, what you've already learnt about yourself since the person died, what has helped before and what hasn't. We'll then look at five different areas of support: physical, emotional, social, meaning and connection, and build these into your own personal toolkit.
There will be coaching questions, grief education, individual reflection and opportunities to try some practical and creative activities. You won't be expected to find everything useful. Part of creating your toolkit is noticing what fits you, what doesn't, and what you might want to experiment with.
By the end, you'll have created something you can take home and return to for times when it is harder to remember what you need.
The Grief Toolkit is for adults who have experienced the death of someone important to them and would like some dedicated time to think about what supports them in living with their grief.
You might be finding that what helped immediately after the death doesn't necessarily help now. You might have received lots of advice but still be unsure what actually works for you. You may know that certain days, situations or anniversaries are particularly difficult and want something you can return to when they come around. Or you may simply be curious about finding different ways to tend your grief and look after yourself alongside it.
You don't need to be at a particular point in your bereavement, and you don't need to arrive with a problem you want to solve. Your relationship with the person who died doesn't need to have been straightforward either.
There will be opportunities for discussion, but you won't be expected to tell your story or share anything you would rather keep private.
Grief can be experienced physically as well as emotionally. We'll notice what happens in your body when things are difficult and explore what might support you at those times. This could include rest, movement, being outside, sensory comfort, breathing, grounding or simply recognising when your body is asking for something different.
The question isn't “What should I be doing?” but “What have I noticed actually helps me?”
There are many different emotions that can be part of grief, and sometimes there may be very little feeling at all. We'll explore what helps you give your experience some attention or expression when you want to, whether that's talking, writing, music, creativity, movement, solitude or something entirely different.
We'll also consider the other side of this: what helps when you don't want to spend time with grief and need some respite from it.
Different people can offer very different kinds of support. Someone who is wonderful to talk to about the person who died might not be the person you would ask for practical help, while somebody else might be exactly who you want when you need ordinary company and don't want to talk about grief at all.
You'll create your own Support Map, looking at the people, groups, communities and professional support available to you and what you might turn to each of them for. There is also room to acknowledge where support is missing rather than assuming everyone has the network they need.
Loss can change our relationship with meaning, purpose, beliefs and the things that once felt important. This part of the workshop isn't about finding a meaning for the death.
Instead, we'll explore what still connects you with life: your values, nature, creativity, spirituality, work, contribution, interests, places, relationships or ordinary experiences that remain important to you.
Death changes a relationship, but that relationship can continue to have a place in our lives.
We'll explore different ways people remember and remain connected with someone who has died through photographs, objects, stories, music, food, places, traditions, writing, rituals and everyday acts of remembrance. There is no assumption that maintaining a connection has to look a particular way, or that the relationship was uncomplicated. There is room for love and longing alongside anger, regret, relief, distance and unfinished business.
Throughout the workshop, you'll gradually build your own toolkit.
It will bring together what you've discovered across the five areas, alongside some particularly useful things to know about yourself:
How do I recognise when I'm having a difficult time? What tends to help me? What tends not to help? Who can I contact? Where can I go? What gives me respite? What helps me spend intentional time with my grief? What reconnects me with what is important? What helps me feel connected with the person who died? And where can I turn if I need more support than my own toolkit can provide?
The finished toolkit becomes a personal grief wellbeing plan that you can keep somewhere accessible and return to when you need it.
It isn't supposed to contain everything, and it isn't finished when the workshop ends. You can change it as you change, add things you discover later, cross out things that stop being useful and keep learning what you need at different times.
The Grief Toolkit is a coaching and educational workshop, not counselling or psychotherapy. I will bring questions, information, ideas and activities for you to explore, but I won't tell you what you should be doing with your grief.
You already know more about yourself than any generic list of grief advice ever could. The purpose of the workshop is to give you the time, questions and different possibilities to turn some of that knowledge into something useful that you can come back to.
For information and upcoming dates you can email me or check Eventbrite.