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Reimagine: Life, Loss, & Love
This event was part of Reimagine: Life, Loss, & Love

My Grief Story

My Grief Story
My Grief Story invites you to share and honour your grieving process through the expressive arts. Through art making, gentle movement, and creative writing, we will engage with and explore our grief.

Welcome to My Grief Story. I am honoured to work alongside you in exploring your grieving heart.

The work we do together will be grounded in the practice of expressive arts therapy. We will be influenced by our imaginations and stick to the needs of what comes up in the image. With expressive arts therapy, there is a crucial intermodal approach, which means we shift from one art form to another. By doing so, we begin to process more of what the underlying image may need and we can begin to understand why it may be showing up. The work is done through a gentle, person-led approach from a judgement-free place. It is not my role to analyze or try to make sense of your work --only you have the answers and resources within yourself.

Together we will be creating visual art (please make sure you have some basic art materials such as markers and/or pencil crayons and/or pastels and/or paint, paper, pen or pencil, scissors). We will also be doing some gentle movement (think stretching) as well as some creative writing. You may be asked to share what the process of exploring the different modalities is like with the group. Come with an open heart.

It is important to note that you do not have to be an artist to engage with the expressive arts. The benefit is in the process, not the product.

To get ready for the event, please have an object that is of importance to you and be ready to share its story. Does your item reflect your loved one that has passed?

IMPORTANT NOTE I am a practicum student that will be graduating in June 2020. A practicum student is someone who is enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate-level course, in a specialized field of study, that is designed to give students supervised practical application of a previously or concurrently studied field or theory. I receive weekly supervision from Peta Schur, co-founder of the Expressive Arts Therapy program at Langara College, as well as ongoing supervision from the Burnaby Hospice Society counsellor. In addition to receiving Expressive Arts Therapy training from Langara College, I have completed the End of Life Doula Certification from Douglas College and have received Hospice and Palliative Volunteer Training from Burnaby Hospice Society. Anything we create together during this My Grief Story workshop will be your property and thus will not be shared. Participating in this workshop does not take the place of seeking professional care or help if needed.

Should you have any questions regarding this event, please email heatherexpressivearts@gmail.com

This workshop is in collaboration with Burnaby Hospice Society. Burnaby Hospice Society is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing compassionate care to individuals and families during the end-of-life journey. Though this event is free, if you are wishing to support more workshops such as this, kindly donate directly to Burnaby Hospice Society by visiting their website: http://burnabyhospice.org/



Visual Art Workshop Storytelling

Track:

Wellness