Facilitator of Navigating Grief

In the mid 1990s when I was in my 40s, I was unhappy, stressed, frustrated, angry, and defeated. Even though I had a degree in social welfare, I could not see any way that I could possibly be any different. I had exhausted every way I had of looking at my circumstances to see my way to peace and happiness. It was then that I started reading books and participating in personal growth groups and seminars that gave me a new outlook on life and that I can choose how to BE in the worId. 

My experiences include premature deaths of both of my brothers, deaths of my parents, and more recently, the premature death of my daughter-in-law, and I have survived a divorce. During the last recession, the nonprofit I had founded dissolved, the house in Atlanta that I had lived in longer than any place during my adult life went to foreclosure, and I experienced financial ruin. Now in my 70s, having successfully survived it all, I can provide direction, wisdom, fun, play, and new life going into my “older years.” 

I went back to school and got a Masters in Social Work. Then I took myself to Alaska and worked as a Medical Social Worker (not a therapist), at a hospital and long term care facility on Wrangell Island in the Inside Passage,  and later at the long term care facility in Kotzebue, AK, in the wilds of the far North.

I came back to Atlanta to support my son and grandchildren when my 43 year old daughter-in-law died of cancer. This experience had me more thoroughly explore grief from the perspective of men, women, and children. I discovered some different perceptions that helped my family and me during this time. 

Navigating Grief is a course I created from some of that research. The ever expanding bibliography is included on this website (check the tabs). Most of the exercises come from the Grief Recovery Handbook by John James and Russell Friedman.