Wellbeing Week - Grief Literacy 101 Workshop

As part of the TMU Wellbeing Week programming, Rachelle Bensoussan is hosting a workshop for all TMU community members on grief literacy.

Why Grief Literacy?

Grief is not a response to death, but rather our whole beings’ involuntary response to loss (physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and sexual). Our experiences of loss can take many forms including, but not limited to, the loss of a loved one; the loss of one’s health, mobility, or capacity; the loss of access to resources including housing, food security, healthcare etc. When our grief and loss go both unacknowledged and unsupported, it can impair our ability to cope. This can then negatively impact our relationships, decrease our job performance and increase our risk for poor health outcomes.

Significant loss can result in a grief response that can impair people’s ability to work and increase the risk of workplace injury. In the United States, the productivity losses of all of these sources of grief combined cost companies over $75 billion in 2003. A grief-literate work culture/environment can increase employee retention, resiliency, capacity to be with and support one another as a larger team and increase company performance through improved employee productivity. As a result, more companies recognize the importance of supporting bereaved workers and are making significant changes to their employee benefits. 

Often when loss arrives – whether at home or at work- we turn to professionals to seek out guidance, advice, and counsel. What most of us don’t realize is that grief and loss fails to be a mandatory component of any medical, nursing, social work, or mental health curriculum. At no fault of their own, the very experts we turn to are often ill-equipped to offer the support we need most. Grief Literacy Training is designed to provide you and your organization with the language, skill, and route map needed to navigate the unpredictable terrain of grief and loss.

About the Speaker:

Rachelle Bensoussan is the original co-founder and former managing director of Being Here, Human, an organization that provides grief literacy, education and support to BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled and chronically ill communities. She holds a master’s degree in Thanatology and has spent the last fourteen years building community-based bereavement programs for hospices across Southern Ontario. Rachelle is a former faculty member at McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, in the department of family medicine, division of palliative care, as well as a former faculty member at King's College, Western University in the department of Thanatology. Rachelle is a two-time nominee for the Association of Death Education and Counselling’s Clinical Educator Award and Community Educator Award. Rachelle is a queer-identified woman of North-African & Middle Eastern descent.

This workshop includes:

A Comprehensive Model of Grief
Common Myths and Misconceptions
Impacts of grief – physical, cognitive, emotional, social, sexual and existential
What Supports or Impedes the Metabolization of Grief?
Tangible vs. Intangible Losses