Gatherings
While every person’s grief is individual, we aren’t meant to grieve in isolation.
Social support is integral to moving through grief. For that reason, The Loss Art offers workshops and retreats designed for small groups. These gatherings aren’t like traditional support groups. Here, you’ll focus on the gifts, lessons and memories you have from the relationship or experience you’re grieving. We seek to reduce suffering by not revisiting the details of the death. The Loss Art can help you:
- Remember loved ones and consider who you might become when you see yourself through their eyes
- Create a meaningful legacy for future generations through creative expressions and deeds that won’t die with you
- Use creative techniques – like words, music, photography, crafts and other artistic outlets – to move through grief when you lose a loved one or experience a non-death loss, like moving, leaving a job or the end of a relationship
Workshops
I’m busy designing unique and distinctive workshops for small groups of people living with loss. Each taps into the innate creativity we all have – you don’t need to be an artist. Contact me to schedule a workshop for your group or complete the intake form to select the scheduled workshop you’d like to join.
Here’s a calendar of gatherings in Spring 2024, followed by brief summary of each:
| Workshop | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Honour and re-member your loved one | Thursday, April 18 – 1 to 4 p.m. | Port Dover |
| Reimagine your future | Friday, April 26 – 1 to 3:30 p.m. | Port Dover |
| Honour and re-member your loved one | Friday, May 10 – 1 to 4 p.m. | Port Dover |
| Full-day workshop – Re-member your loved one and reimagine your future | Friday, May 31 – 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. | Port Dover |
Two-day retreats will be scheduled upon request. Please contact me directly and we’ll plan your unique experience.
Grieve a job loss
When you lose a job, there are many losses beyond the financial benefits, like a sense of purpose, identity, status, confidence and relationships with colleagues. In the midst of grieving these losses, you may not be able to acknowledge the gifts you received and take with you. This workshop will help you feel ready to move on to your next opportunity.
Participants will:
- Identify the many losses that come with losing a job
- Appreciate the lasting gifts
- Acknowledge and symbolically abandon aspects of the job that won’t serve them in the future
This workshop features education, creative activity and ritual.
Length: 3 hours
Fee: $144 per person. The fee includes materials, beverages and a light snack.
Honour and re-member your loved one
In this workshop, participants will tap into your innate creativity to honour your loss from a place of love and joy rather than suffering. You’ll revisit who your person was for you in life and discover how they’re present for you today. Participants will experience:
- Mini coaching session, which follows the “re-membering conversation” method – designed using narrative therapy, continuing bonds and the goal of helping you feel better
- Guided creative activity that will help you process and celebrate what’s revealed during the conversation
- Individual and group revelation
Number of participants: 3 to 5
Dates: April 18, May 10, 2024
Length: 2 hours, 45 minutes
Fee: $133 per person. The fee includes materials, beverages and a light snack.
Reimagine your future
Participants will experience:
- An informative and inspiring introduction that will guide you to imagine a fulfilling future that incorporates the love, values and lessons from your loved one who’s died
- An activity that lets you choose writing, drawing or collage to design a tangible illustration of your future
- A series of thought-provoking questions to guide the session from information to creation to revelation
Maximum number of participants: 4 to 8
Date: April 26, 2024
Length: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Fee: $133 per person. The fee includes materials, beverages and a light snack.
Number of participants: 4 to 8
Full-day workshop options
Re-member your loved one and reimagine your future
Number of participants: 4 to 6
Date offered in Port Dover: May 31, 2024
Length: 7 hours
Fee: $333 per person. The fee includes materials, beverages, light snacks and lunch.
Grieve your job loss and reimagine your future
Following the Grieve your job loss workshop described above, participants will experience:
- An informative and inspiring introduction that will guide you to imagine a fulfilling future that incorporates the gifts, values and lessons from your past job
- An activity that lets you choose writing, drawing or collage to design a tangible illustration of your future
- A series of thought-provoking questions to guide the session from information to creation to revelation
Number of participants: 4 to 8
Date offered in Port Dover: April 12, 2024
Length: 7 hours
Fee: $333 per person. The fee includes materials, beverages, light snacks and lunch.
Note: There will be an additional charge for mileage if I come to you to facilitate a workshop.
If you’d like to attend a half- or full-day workshop or retreat for a personal group – such as couples, friends, family, colleagues or graduates of any support group you attended – I’d be happy to design a gathering just for you. And I can come to you! Please contact me directly to chat about options. If you’d like references, please see testimonials from past participants.
Two-day retreats designed to help you creatively express your grief
Two-day retreats will be scheduled upon request. Please contact me directly and we’ll plan your unique experience.
The Loss Art creative grief retreat participants will enjoy 2 full days of:
- Conversations that guide you to imagine a future with hope and joy
- Tapping into your innate creativity to honour your grief for a beloved person or pet who’s died, or any significant ending
- Time to bond with a small, intimate group, reflect on your own and explore, shop and walk by the water
- Specially prepared food sourced from Ontario’s Garden
- A calming, lakeside environment in Port Dover, Ontario
Fee: $555
The fee includes 2 full days, accommodation for 2 nights*, breakfast, lunch and snacks. You may choose to enjoy dinner at one of several great local restaurants.
*In groups of 4, participants have the option to stay at the lake house the night before and on the night of Day 1 (2 nights).
Larger groups can be arranged without accommodations. See the Frequently asked questions page for a list of local accommodation options.
Here’s a flyer you can download as a reminder and to share with anyone you think may wish to attend.
Bring your phone or camera and join me for picturesque walks to pause, take in the benefits of nature and take breathtaking photos. I’ll show you how to edit those photos and make them into meaningful artwork and mementoes to honour your grief and your loved ones.
One-on-one coaching
I value the importance of the supporting relationship. It’s important because grieving is a social meaning-making process and my voice will join the choir of voices that influence the meaning you make of your loss and your grief. We have to have a connection.
I believe the most important aspect of my job is to be wholly present for you. I’m inherently curious and through creative conversations, I’ll learn about your values, ideals and preferences. They’ll guide our time together and how you choose the meanings and ways for living after loss.
If we haven’t met, please check out my videos to get a sense of who I am. This preview will help you determine if I’m the coach for you.
Rates for one-hour sessions*
Individual: $125 ($300 for a package of 3 sessions)
Group: Determined by the size of the group
Follow-up coaching sessions for individuals who participate in groups, workshops and retreats: $100
*These rates don’t include travel costs if I come to you.
Creatively express your grief
Writing has always been my go-to way expressing myself. Therefore, it wasn’t surprising that I became a professional writer – in journalism, marketing and public relations roles. I’ve written many stories about people’s lives and legacies. It turns out that writing is also a way to creatively express my grief.
In one personal and meaningful story, I wrote about my grandfather just after he died. When The Globe and Mail published that article as a Lives Lived column in 2002, it inspired someone from my grandparents’ past to reach out and share memories of their own. That was a meaningful gesture for my grieving grandmother. Stories are powerful.
I’m curious by nature – about people, places and things. Through supportive conversations, I’ll learn about you and your loss or the legacy you wish to leave. Together, we can create stories that breathe life into memories, life lessons and more in:
- Ethical Wills (see more about these below)
- Eulogies that breathe love, light and laughter into ceremonies honouring loved ones
- Rituals that honour your beloved person or pet, or a life experience that brought change and loss
- Obituaries that give you or your loved one the last word
An Ethical Will isn’t a legal document. It’s a document or a more creative expression of your thoughts, dreams, stories and wisdom. For example, you may wish to share these life lessons in stories, poems, images or a video.
If writing isn’t your passion, I’d be honoured to help you create an Ethical Will that will become a beautiful and lasting legacy from you for those you love.
Here are a few of my creative expressions of grief.
