Resources to Help with Dealing with Grief

When we find ourselves experiencing Loss and Grief, it is helpful to understand more about the subject. Loss affects everyone differently; our situations are unique, but loss, great or small, can dramatically impact our lives. Mental health can suffer and self-awareness can help create growth and resilience. There is ongoing research and countless books that explore different aspects of Loss and ways to create resiliency. Understanding helps us see we are not alone in our particular Loss.  This page will offer information, concepts, and definitions, as well as suggest additional books and resources. 

The emotions surrounding grief and loss can be challenging to express. We live in a death-denying society, and very little time is spent teaching about and exploring any emotion, let alone the ones we don’t want to feel. We push them down and bury them rather than exploring, contemplating, inquiring, and expressing them. Music, Dance, Art, Writing, Cooking, Gardening, Personal Rituals, Giving Back, Journaling, Spirituality.  There are many ways to share our feelings, and this page is a space to creatively communicate and process your Losses. Be inspired by others, and explore ways YOU can express yourself.  

Having tools during Grief is essential. For those working as End-of-Life professionals, we tend to deny that we even feel the losses we experience. For these professionals, there is always another patient who needs care, and the loss quickly moves to the bottom of the priority list. For others, daily lives must continue, and caring for ourselves is pushed aside. Journaling, Meditation, Mindfulness Practices, Reflection, Contemplation, Support through Community, Movement Therapy, Bodywork. Finding balance provides a means to meet our responsibilities and care for our emotions, creating resiliency and better health. 

Susan McCashew, BA, MS

(she/her)

Thanatologist, non-denominational interfaith spiritual minister, chaplain, and end-of-life doula. Susan’s work is heart-centered and unapologetically authentic. She is an educator, author, and artist. Her day job is as a chaplain/bereavement coordinator for a hospice outside of Philadelphia. Her journey has taken her down many roads, including mental health, addiction, nonprofit, and restauranteur, before finding her path into spirituality and end-of-life. Susan prides herself on being honest, straightforward, and down to earth. Spiritually, her training and intentions are to provide the support and space for individuals to utilize their own beliefs in life and through loss and grief.