Grief

Interview with the World Creativity channel

I was interviewed for World Creativity Day. I talk about creativity and trauma, co-design and grief, and the Artist’s Way.

Book

‘Cry Heart But Never Break’ – by Glenn Ringtved

A beautiful book symbolising death with a profound message about grief and joy being siblings.

Book

‘Sad Book’ – by Michael Rosen

Probably one of the more famous books about loss, with Michael Rosen’s typical humour shining through (and it is indirectly about his own experience of losing his son to meningitis).

Website

Child Bereavement Network

Huge amount of resources and support here for professionals supporting grieving young people.

mental health

Book

‘The Wild Edge of Sorrow’ – by Francis Weller

By far my favourite teacher on grief. Beautiful model of grief that welcomes in different forms of grief and sees the alchemical potential of grief.

Grief
- Adult Grief and Death

Book

‘Staring at the Sun’ – by Irvin Yalom

A classic text on coming to terms with our basic fear of death, by the classic existential psychotherapist.

Grief
- Adult Grief and Death

Book

‘The Worm at the Core’ -by Solomon et al.

Great book summarising the research from the Terror Management School, who showed through some brilliant experiments how much fear of death affects our everyday life.

Grief
- Adult Grief and Death

Book

‘A Monster Calls’ – by Patrick Ness

This book is aimed at teens, but I cried reading it, it is such a moving story, also made into a film which is quite good. Highly recommend buying this book.

App

This is a therapeutic app we created after I worked in a hospice and realised the need for better support for young people. Has two pathways, one for young people who have a loved one with a life-limiting illness, another for bereaved young people. Has been used by over 90,000 people at time of writing, is being translated into 8 languages as we speak, and was shortlisted for a Bafta.

Grief
- Adolescent grief

Course

Life and Death Wisdom Course

Beautiful course created by Me! With guided meditations and lessons on working with ‘Fear of Death’, ‘Grief’, Life and Death Instincts.

Grief
- Adult Grief and Death

Book

‘Active Hope’ -by Joanna Macy

The best teacher on ecological grief, which is increasingly going to be an issue for people young and old. Some simple easy to access exercises in this book.

Book

‘Denial of Death’ – by Ernst Becker

A classic text on how humans deny death and the consequences of doing this. A bit dense in places, but some really profound insights in here.

Grief
- Adult Grief and Death

Book

‘Five Invitations’ – by Frank Otaseski

Beautiful, Buddhist-inspired teachings on what death has to teach us about living fully.

Grief
- Adult Grief and Death

Book

‘Die Wise’ – by Stephen Jenkinson

He is a very deep, philosophical teacher about what death has to teach us about living sanely in a mad world.

Grief
- Adult Grief and Death

Website

Death Cafe

An amazing movement started by therapist and Buddhist Jon Underwood, who died about 2 years ago now. Great place to recommend to people who aren’t quite ready for formal counselling, but want to explore death in a free, safe non-formal setting.