National Grief Awareness Week, 2nd - 8th December 2023
To support you and your teams this Grief Awareness Week (2nd – 8th December) and beyond we’ve joined up with three brilliant experts to create four bespoke grief workshops.
We will all experience grief at various points throughout our lives – and at Elevate we believe in breaking the taboo around talking about death, and in doing so better supporting people in their grief.
Please see below and get in touch if you would like to have a chat about any of the sessions in more detail.
Workshops to support you this December
GETTING TO KNOW GRIEF with Annie Nicholson
Grief is unique. It impacts everyone differently and manifests in a multitude of ways. Grief is universal. We will all experience loss and grief in our lifetime. Grief is often misunderstood. In this session, Annie Frost Nicholson, a visual artist and trauma and loss facilitator will be debunking some of the grief myths, talking about how we can live with grief, grow around grief and how we can support people who are grieving.
‘DECEMBERED’ GRIEF – WHEN CHRISTMAS ISN’T ALWAYS THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR with Dr Fenia Christodoulidi
December is a month of festive lights, colourful celebrations and gatherings, heightened expectations and commercialised messages around feeling joyful, exchanging presents and sharing precious moments with loved ones and the broader community. And yet, numerous people may be quietly mourning broken relationships, may struggle with isolation and mental health difficulties, may be feeling paralysed by financial hardship or finding themselves in a position of geographical or psychological ‘exile’ as a result of a wide range of challenging personal circumstances. In this session, we will:
- Reflect on some of the triggers associated with the ‘holiday myth’
- Identify factors that may influence our responses to periods of collective celebration
- Consider the cross-cultural dimensions of how the Christmas period may impact different groups
- Explore ways towards attending to our wellbeing when our internal state and the messages around us may be out of sync
HOW TO TALK ABOUT DEATH with Rose Rowkins
When a colleague is bereaved, what do you say? Often, at a time when a person most needs to hear comforting words, we can struggle to know what to say. When we want to comfort and soothe, there’s a danger we can instead worry ourselves into silence: Will I make them feel worse? Will I say the wrong thing? How can I make everything OK?
This session is designed to support you to support someone who is grieving: what you can say and do, what might be less helpful, and how to truly listen whilst resisting the urge to make things better, to fix or solve, or to take away their pain.
FACILITATED GRIEF SESSION with Start the Conversations Rose Rowkins and Liz Dean
Sometimes, the unthinkable happens: a colleague dies suddenly, and your team is thrown into collective shock, as are you. Questions and confusions can often follow: What happened? Was there anything we could have done to prevent this? As a colleague/manager, am I allowed to feel this level of grief? What can/should we do now, as a team?
This gentle, sensitive session can help you and your team to begin to process a sudden loss together. We acknowledge that any loss will bring back memories of previous losses – often something not spoken about in the workplace. We carefully share wisdom already held by the group about grief, loss and coping. We discuss some simple ’theories’ of grief, including Kubler Ross and Tonkin, which can bring some comfort. And we start to work through ‘what next?’ Including making personal self-care and safety pledges, and identifying meaningful sustainable external support.
Following an initial session, additional follow up sessions can be booked if needed (for the group or for individuals).
