10 Free Events to Help you Understand and Cope with Grief
With so many to choose from we’ve handpicked a list of events which embody insight and practical guidance, shared by experts from healthcare, academia, art and culture, and more!
1. How to understand and process your grief… with Julia Samuel MBE
Returning Good Grief Festival favourite, Julia Samuel MBE, is the UK’s leading grief expert, awarded an MBE in 2015 for her services to bereaved children. She’s author of two bestselling books on the subject: Grief Works and This Too Shall Pass.
Sharing practical tools in not one but three events, Julia seeks to demystify the role that guilt plays in bereavement during The Grief Monster, offers ideas to help support yourself when grieving in Creative Psychotherapy Tools for Grief, and shares her wisdom on how to navigate Grief after a Sudden Death.
2. How to find meaning in grief … with David Kessler
In his groundbreaking new work, Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief, the world’s foremost expert on grief, David Kessler, journeys beyond the classic five stages to discover a sixth stage: meaning. Based on hard-earned personal experiences, as well as knowledge and wisdom accumulated through decades of work with the grieving.
Highlighting learnings from his book, join David as he shares a roadmap to remembering those who have died with more love than pain; he shows us how to move forwards in a way that honours our loved ones.
This event is kindly sponsored by Marie Curie.
3. How nature teaches us to grieve…
Our ancestors honoured grieving more deeply than many societies do today. They were also deeply attuned to, and revered, nature and the turning of the seasons – perhaps the most omnipresent example of the cycle of death and renewal.
In this session, we will look at the profound wisdom nature provides us with when facing our own losses, how we can be courageous in letting go and surrendering to our pain and, ultimately, how transformational that process can be.
4. How rest and retreat can repair us…
Katherine May is the author of the beautiful book, Wintering: The Power or Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times (2020). The book looks deeper into the power and wisdom of retreating and repairing when we find ourselves in life’s dark seasons.
This timely book has captured the mood of the moment, as people everywhere struggle to cope and yearn for hope and the light at the end of the tunnel after a very difficult year.
‘Wintering is every bit as beautiful and healing as the season itself … this is truly a beautiful book’ – Elizabeth Gilbert.
5. Post Traumatic Growth: The Grief Gift
For some, grief can be a powerful catalyst for change. In this conversation, our panellists will discuss finding meaning after the death of a loved one. We welcome: Stuart Lawrence – whose brother Stephen was murdered in a racially motivated attack in 1993; Simon Bray who created the Loved&Lost project where family photos are restaged years after someone has died; writer and journalist Clover Stroud whose book The Wild Other documents her extraordinary journey to heal her broken heart after her beloved mother was left permanently brain damaged as a result of a riding accident when Clover was 16.
6. How to find hope during Covid-19…
How can hope and grief be reconciled; how do we balance the optimism of the Covid-19 vaccine, with grieving for those who have died; and is it too soon or disrespectful to start talking about hope?
Our original lineup of expert panellists from ‘Reflections on Death and Dying’ (2020) will unpack these questions at Good Grief this year. It is with great pleasure that we welcome back oncologist, Sam Guglani, and palliative care doctors, Kathryn Mannix and Rachel Clarke to explore a new topic: how we can find hope, even in these darkest hours.
7. How to explore emotions with yoga…
Join this online Yoga Workshop from the comfort of your own home. Stress and grief are often held in the body and can leave us feeling overwhelmed. During this gentle session, Pip Roberts will guide you to use breathing, gentle movements and rest to allow your physical and emotional tensions to release.
Expect to take some time to feel your way into fuller breathing, practicing slow movements then relaxing into a deep rest to finish.
8. How to find meaning in grief…
Robert A. Neimeyer PhD is currently working to advance a more adequate theory of grieving as a meaning-making process, both in his published work and through his frequent professional workshops for national and international audiences.
Join this talk to hear about innovative approaches to address the needs of those whose lives have been shadowed by loss – whether through bereavement, serious illness, the rupture of a relationship, or other complex or intangible losses, such as of an identity-defining career, featured in Robert’s latest publication, New Techniques of Grief Therapy: Bereavement and Beyond (Taylor & Francis Inc, 2021).
9. How to find your grief tribe…
Community and connection are two of the most important factors in healthy grieving. As Julia Samuel MBE says, ‘The single biggest predictor of outcomes for anyone who is suffering is love and connection to others’.
In this session, our expert panel will talk about finding (and growing) community support, what the pandemic has taught us about connection and relationship, and how we can overcome our fears and connect with others, on- and offline.We are joined by Amber Jeffrey, creator of The Grief Gang Instagram community, Julian Abel, director of Compassionate Communities UK, podcaster and author of The Compassion Project (2020), and Amahra Spence an artist, creative producer and public speaker who views her work through the lenses of equity, service and community.
10. How to use the Grief School…
The Grief School features 60+ hours of on-demand content including talks, webinars and workshops recorded at previous Good Grief festivals and events. Events can be filtered to provide you with relevant content specific to your experience of grief or bereavement: from childhood bereavement to pet loss; stillbirth to sudden death; finding healing to creative therapy practices for grief.
We hope you find wisdom, comfort and healing at The Grief School.
All Grief School content will be available to watch on demand from 09:00 on March 27th to 20:00 on March 28th.