Dr. Catherine Hajnal

The wait is over! We are so pleased to share REGISTRATION FOR THE 2024 CANADIAN CHILDREN'S GRIEF SYMPOSIUM IS NOW OPEN!
🤩Full Event Info & Link To Register In Bio! Check it out!🤩

With investment from Healthy Canadians

Extra special thank you to our leadership partners for all of their work and support!

Seasons Centre for Grieving Children Lumara Grief & Bereavement Care Society Canuck Place Children's Hospice
Lighthouse for Grieving Children and Families Canadian Virtual Hospice

Loss isn't a lesson, gift, or blessing dressed in disguise. There is no positive spin that changes the reality that our loved one is no longer here. Loss wasn't your choice, but creating meaning from it can be.

Minecraft Virtual Spring Break Camp March 18-22
This one-week virtual kids grief group will meet in a Minecraft world created specifically for this group. This is for kids ages 7 – 12. It’s a chance to connect with other kids who have experienced the loss of a loved one and have fun hanging out, creating and exploring in this popular game. We'll be playing with 'Bedrock Edition', so you'll need a device that has it downloaded as well as another device for Zoom so participants can chat while we play online. Space is limited to 8 players - register today!
https://lumarasociety.org/events/virtual-minecraft-camp-for-grieving-kids-255-647-605-657-395-270-631-447-564/

"Why, why, why does this hurt so much?!" She begged me to help her understand why the death of her daughter's dog, two years later, was so painful.

Losing our precious child feels unbearable enough.

But then, to lose those fragile threads that connect us to them is oft incredibly painful.

When we lose a crucible, a vessel of emotional connection, that gently held deliquesced moments and memories of their child, we can again feel wrecked.

Some parents have lost their child's pet, a being that symbolized a tender filament of love and a source of solace in the aftermath of grief. One lost her child's memory album, one that was excruciatingly created in the midst of grief's flames, in a fire. The other lost the ball cap he saved for his newborn son; a ball cap that was his own when he was a child.

When we lose those tender links to them, it can feel like a re-fracturing of the original wound.

It can feel as if, somehow, they have died all over again. And we learn, somehow, to regrieve, and remember, and rebreathe into life again, albeit slowly, with the loving and compassionate support of others.

We remember that in our hearts, every piece of them is safe, untouchable, eternal, even if this is not the way it should be, not what we wanted, and not what any family deserves.

-Dr. Joanne Cacciatore

www.CenterForLossAndTrauma.com

Join me and my colleagues?

Grief Education Workshop (GEW) offered by Lower Mainland Grief Recovery Society.

Two day in-person workshop designed for anyone who wants to develop a better understanding of how to help those who are dealing with loss and grief. May be of special benefit to those professionals who work in healthcare, financial services, insurance, law, HR/EAP and college/university counselling departments.

March 31 and April 1, 2023 (Friday, Saturday)
9am – 4pm in Downtown Vancouver
If you are interested in this workshop, please email: [email protected]

Learning Objectives
- Gain an in-depth knowledge of the grieving process
- Develop skills of how to support the bereaved – individually and in groups
- Learn various grief management models
- Understand the different kinds of losses
- Increase awareness of disenfranchised and complicated grief

Those who take this training will receive a Certificate of Completion Please note: we cannot provide CEU’s.

Education | Welcome to the LMGRS GRIEF EDUCATION WORKSHOP (GEW) This 12 hour, two day workshop is designed for anyone who wants to develop a better understanding of how to help those who are dealing with loss and grief. It may be of special benefit to those professionals who work in healthcare, financial services, insurance, law, H...

Recently collaborated with my colleagues Seanna Quressette, M.Ed., CCDP and Jennifer Sumner on an article in which we share information about su***de ideation, some examples of what you might hear a client say and ideas on how to respond. We hope you will come away from this article with trauma-informed strategies that empower you for future conversations.

The importance of uncomfortable conversations: Su***de ideation - CareerWise This article contains discussion of su***de. Please take care while reading. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of su***de or experiencing a mental health crisis, help is available. Visit talksu***de.ca to find helplines and other crisis resources by province/territory. Or you can call Ta...

The greatest damage done by neglect, trauma, or emotional loss is not the immediate pain they inflict but the long-term distortions they induce in the way a developing child will continue to interpret the world and her situation in it.

All too often these ill-conditioned implicit beliefs become self-fulfilling prophecies in our lives. We create meanings from our unconscious interpretation of early events, and then we forge our present experiences from the meaning we’ve created.

Unwittingly, we write the story of our future from narratives based on the past…Mindful awareness can bring into consciousness those hidden, past-based perspectives so that they no longer frame our worldview.

Choice begins the moment you disidentify from the mind and its conditioned patterns, the moment you become present…Until you reach that point, you are unconscious.’ …In present awareness we are liberated from the past.― Gabor Maté

Grief Education Workshop (through Lower Mainland Grief Recovery) Society.

This 18 hour, 3-day workshop (Oct 15, 22, 29 in downtown Vancouver) is designed for anyone who wants to develop a better understanding of how to help those who are dealing with loss and grief. It may be of special benefit to those professionals who work in healthcare, financial services, insurance, law, HR/EAP and college/university counselling departments.

If you are interested in this workshop, please email us at: [email protected]

Education | Welcome to the LMGRS GRIEF EDUCATION WORKSHOP (GEW) This 18 hour, three day workshop is designed for anyone who wants to develop a better understanding of how to help those who are dealing with loss and grief. It may be of special benefit to those professionals who work in healthcare, financial services, insurance, law,...

Delighted to once again to offer the Grief Education Workshop with my colleagues at the Lower Mainland Grief Recovery Society. This 18 hour, 3-day workshop (Oct 15, 22, 29 in downtown Vancouver) is designed for anyone who wants to develop a better understanding of how to help those who are dealing with loss and grief. It may be of special benefit to those professionals who work in healthcare, financial services, insurance, law, HR/EAP and college/university counselling departments. For details including rates and how to register:

Education | Welcome to the LMGRS GRIEF EDUCATION WORKSHOP (GEW) This 18 hour, three day workshop is designed for anyone who wants to develop a better understanding of how to help those who are dealing with loss and grief. It may be of special benefit to those professionals who work in healthcare, financial services, insurance, law,...

I'm imagining that many of us will resonate with the sentiment of this poem - that the grief, the sense of loss, never totally goes away with many of our losses or endings.

This poem speaks specifically about when we lose someone who matters to us. I think it applies to people, places, things. For example, I have had the privilege to hear the stories of many newcomers to Turtle Island/Canada. Their sense of loss continues in the face of crafting a new life here.

YOU DON’T JUST LOSE SOMEONE ONCE YOU DON’T JUST LOSE SOMEONE ONCEYou lose them over and over,sometimes in the same day.When the loss, momentarily forgotten,creeps up,and attacks you from behind.Fresh waves of grief as the realisat…