National Grief Awareness Day Professional Development Conference

National Grief Awareness Day Professional Development Conference

I was proud to be part of the inaugural National Grief Awareness Day Professional Development Conference organized by On Tuesdays We Wear Black. The event provided grief training for business professionals. I presented How to Human: Normalizing and Navigating Grief in the Workplace:

We don’t leave our humanity at the door when we go to work. That means that when we experience a major life event like a death, divorce/breakup, illness or injury, it will impact how we show up for our job and how we navigate our workplace relationships. Because all of those events can involve a grief response. Moreover, grief can be present in “good” things, too. Weddings, having/adopting children, retirements—all of these milestones involve change. And, when you get down to it, grief is about adapting to change. In this session, we’ll explore what grief is (and isn’t) and discuss strategies for responding to grieving coworkers with compassion and competence.

Penn State Outreach – Speaking and Learning Grief: Improving Grief Literacy

Penn State Outreach – Speaking and Learning Grief: Improving Grief Literacy

Many of us have been taught that grief is bad and should be avoided at all costs. This outlook transforms a natural, healthy experience into something taboo and often results in unnecessary disconnection and isolation. The good news is that grief literacy (knowledge about grief and grief support) is a skill that can be learned. To help you get started, I shared three things to avoid when supporting someone who is grieving, along with three strategies to try instead in this Penn State Outreach blog post. You’ll also find information on WPSU’s grief literacy initiatives: Speaking Grief and Learning Grief.

Open to Hope: Superhero Grief – The Transformative Power Of Loss

Open to Hope: Superhero Grief – The Transformative Power Of Loss

The majority of superheroes have had a significant loss in their life.  What can we learn from these superheroes about finding hope after loss?  To find out, watch this discussion on Open to Hope TV. To find out, I joined  Dr. Jill Harrington and Greg Adams in a conversation led by Dr Heidi Horsley and her co-host, Doneley Meris, about superhero grief and the transformative power of loss.

Watch the episode here.

Learning Grief on PBS LearningMedia

Learning Grief on PBS LearningMedia

PBS LearningMedia is a library of more than 30,000 resources that are designed to supplement classroom instruction, aligned to state and national curriculum standards, and created in close collaboration with educators. And now, those resources include Learning Grief modules to help educators nurture grief literacy in young people.

Check it out now:

Improving Grief Literacy

Understanding Loss

Supporting Others

These materials were adapted from Learning Grief, a free online resource that helps you help the kids and teens in your life navigate the big feelings that come with loss.

Learning Grief is produced by WPSU and is made possible with funding provided by the Imagine Learning Foundation. It’s a sister-initiative to Speaking Grief, a public media initiative working to create a more grief-aware society that is produced by WPSU with philanthropic support from the New York Life Foundation.