Grief Education

Grief changes everything. You are no longer the person you once were. Your place in the world changes. Your roles change as does your identity. Relationships with friends and family are not the same. Your future is no longer as you imagined.

Grief arrives without your permission.

We live in a grief illiterate society. We avoid the D words. We don’t talk about death and dying within our circles. Yet one thing is certain, every one of us will die.

David Kessler, author of “Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief” is one of the world’s experts on grief and loss. He, along with a host of others are leading a charge to open conversations pertaining to grief, correct misconceptions around the five stages of grief, and spread understanding that grief is not something to be fixed.

Each person’s grief journey is unique - yet we share commonalities. We are not the person we were before our loved one died and we never will be again. Our stories need to be witnessed, so we can grow around painful wounds. We must forge a path forward so that in time we remember the person who died with more love than pain.

While I have experienced my fair share of grief throughout the years, I never learned about grief and its commonalities. My journey to becoming a Certified Grief Educator with David Kessler and Grief.com. taught me that I will never go back to who I was, that the pain is as big as the love, and the importance of simply sitting with others as they experience their own grief journeys.