Grief in the Workplace By Dr Bill Webster It became obvious in January that Ken was losing his four year battle with cancer. Connie, his wife of over thirty years, took her vacation month from work, and then an additional five week leave of absence to be with him every agonizing day in the hospital.
Grief Resources
The death of someone we care about can be one of the most difficult experiences of life. Words seem inadequate to describe how painful the grief we feel can be. It is often much more challenging than we expect and than others seem to think.
These articles will help you understand something about the grief and how we can help ourselves and others through the difficult process.
These articles were written by Dr Bill Webster, our Director of Grief Education, and are part of a comprehensive library available on our Grief Journey web portal. Dr Bill is the founder and Executive Director of the Centre for the Grief Journey. He earned his doctorate at the University of Toronto in 1990, and has been awarded the prestigious Fellow in Thanatology by the Association of Death Education and Counselling (ADEC).
Dr Bill`s knowledge of grief is not just in theory, but from a very difficult personal experience. In 1983, Bill`s young wife died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving him not only to cope with his loss, but also to raise his 2 sons, who were only 9 and 7 when their mother died. Dr Bill has become a recognised author, a renowned international speaker and seminar leader, and brings 30 years of experience in the field of grief support and counselling.
Grief After Suicide By Dr Bill Webster “You never get over a suicide. You just learn to deal with it. The worst part is not knowing WHY. If I could just say he had been depressed, or seeing a shrink, or anything that might have explained it, it would have been better. But I just
Dealing with Special Days and Holidays By Dr Bill Webster You probably heard the expression “Some days are diamonds, some days are stones”. When you are grieving, there is no question that some days are more difficult than others. Many people don’t realize that grief comes and goes. Let me illustrate. If you get a
How to Help Someone who is Grieving By Dr Bill Webster I’d love to help but I just don’t know what to say or what I should do. I am sure many of us can identify with such sentiments. We hear that a friend or a neighbor has had a loss. Our hearts immediately go
Helping Children Cope with Grief By Dr Bill Webster It is important to note that children have many questions about death, and these are usually different than the ones that occur to adults. Children’s questions deserve simple, straight forward answers. The first task of a grieving child is to make sense of the factual information
Loss from a Child’s Perspective By Dr Bill Webster “My mother died when I was 5 years old. I felt like I was insignificant, as if I was getting smaller and smaller … so unimportant that I might disappear. It’s very hard to explain, but I believed I was wrong, somehow. For years I felt
Understanding Bereavement How are we to understand bereavement? Over the years, there have been numerous attempts to explain it. Perhaps the most influential and well-known theory has been that of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who in her 1969 book “On Death and Dying” focused on an emotional transition through five stages, beginning with denial and progressing through anger, bargaining and depression before arriving at acceptance. The
10 Facts about Grief and Grieving By Dr Bill Webster One reason that we often find grief such a difficult challenge is that we have never learned what to expect. The following facts will help you understand some crucial truths about grief and grieving and how we can work through the process to find healing.
Pet Loss:“One of the Family!” By Dr Bill Webster Marian was devastated by the loss of her husband Bob 2 years ago. She wondered if she would even survive the loss, but she persevered, worked through her grief and was at the point where she was beginning to rediscover herself, reconcile her loss and reconstruct
The Loss of a Spouse By Dr Bill Webster A 50/50 chance, to any gambler, is a pretty good bet. But did you ever stop to think that if you are in a significant relationship, there is a 50/50 chance that you will eventually grieve the loss of your partner. Listen to some of the
