Holding Space: Claire Bidwell Smith & Charles Coté
This is a unique time in our world for people who are experiencing grief and loss on many different levels. As a therapist who has specialized in grief and anxiety for over a decade, I hope to use the knowledge and tools I have amassed to help others who are struggling. These weekly discussions are open to anyone who wants to join, and each week I'll be bringing on a special guest to help explore our collective grief and anxiety. We will offer coping tools and techniques and take live questions from participants. If you can't make it to the call you will receive a recording.
Claire Bidwell Smith is an internationally renowned author, speaker, and grief expert. She is the author of three books of nonfiction: The Rules of Inheritance, After This: When Life Is Over Where Do We Go? and Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief. Her books have been published in 18 countries and Claire lectures and writes regularly about grief.
Charles Coté’s poetry laments and celebrates the life embodied in every loss, taking the reader through seasons of grief, recovery and transformation. He lost his oldest son to cancer in 2005 and sees his own writing as a living legacy to his son’s creative spirit. Taking inspiration from poet Gregory Orr who writes that “poetry is the thread that leads us out of the labyrinth of despair and into the light," he believes poems that emerge from crisis have the power to heal and re-stabilize us.
As the board chair for 13thirty Cancer Connect, he promotes its mission to help adolescents and young adults with cancer (AYAs) live their very best lives - TODAY! and often volunteers as a creative writing wellness facilitator. AYAs at 13thirty build a new peer community of others who understand, in a way no one else can, through fitness, nutrition, arts, or just hanging out together. 13thirty also informs healthcare providers and educators about AYA cancer.
Coté is a clinical social worker in private practice in Rochester, NY and the author of I Play His Red Guitar (Tiger Bark Press, 2019) and Flying for the Window (Finishing Line Press, 2008). He teaches poetry at Writers & Books and serves on the boards of 13thirty Cancer Connect, and BOA Editions, Ltd, a not-for-profit publisher of poetry and other literary works, fostering readership and appreciation of contemporary literature.
