Why is creativity important in grief experiences?

Grief is a universal experience that can leave us feeling disconnected from ourselves and others, particularly in a world that values productivity and success above all else. This disconnection can leave us feeling like outsiders and limit our ability to learn how to live life in the face of various grief experiences. However, reconnection is possible through the power of creativity with ourselves and others. By asking creative questions, exploring what we still carry, and finding what is generative in our lives, we can learn to reconnect with our heARTmaking and to live more fully. This process of creative exploration is not about healing or fixing, but about creating a crucible for connection and experimenting with various media to find what works for us. If you are seeking a way to explore and shape a practice of offering creative space to others, then the kind of exploration that the Creative Grief Studio offers may be what you are looking for in professional development.

Why is creativity important in grief experiences? Why would anyone want to learn these skills and invite others to creatively explore? Here are a few of our thoughts on how we envision our work together in the Creative Grief Studio:

• We are disconnected from others through grief and capitalist productivity demands, and this disconnection hinders the process of learning how to live life in the face of various grief experiences. This disconnect contributes to feeling like an outsider, to feeling we have few or no choices, and to imagine how to live post-loss.

• Reconnection is possible through creativity with ourselves and others. We can ask creative questions, be curious, explore what we still carry, and uncover what is still generative in our lives.

• While the dominant belief is that technology and lifestyle create disconnect, we posit that the intention of how we use technology and lifestyle is what actually disconnects us. We can change our intention on how we use technology and lifestyle to precisely, explicitly use it for good and reconnection. We model this through the Creative Grief Studio program.

• The process of creative exploration is not about healing, fixing, getting “better,” nor becoming greatest expert at anything, but rather it is about learning how to reconnect to a life of heARTmaking. We are explicitly taking a stand against expert capitalist culture which means this process is not prescribed or exactly reproducible in the same way for every person. It will take more time than “productivity” in dominant paradigms demands.

• Creating space is a crucible for connection. We are not prescribing exactly what happens in that crucible, but rather inviting people to the space and allowing the grace to just be: to slow down, to pause before reacting to situations or people. The crucible for alchemy is what we are setting up and opening up for others to experiment in.

• Creativity includes the body. How do we shift how we experience grief in our bodies – somatically – in creative ways so we are compelled to reconnect or to connect with our preferred selves, to have a better understanding of what we need in the moment?

• Can we be at ease with ourselves and others; accept our current state of life as it is? Can we find ways of being engaged in life again with some ease for our nervous systems, with as much harm reduction as possible?

• Can we allow ourselves to heARTfully practice as grief support practitioners while purposely noticing and releasing the moments when perfectionism rises?

• This kind of Creative Grief exploration is for people who are seeking; people wishing to explore through variety of media; people looking for opportunities to explore various ways of self-discovery and to shape a practice of offering creative space to others; people who want to shape an ease with creativity in their everyday life and living.

The Creative Grief Studio Certification Program exploration offers a transformative journey towards reconnecting with ourselves and others, for us and for our clients. By embracing creativity, we learn to find more ease in our everyday living and to engage in life again after loss. We invite you to join us in this process of exploration and to find ways to shape your practice of offering creative space to others. Let us continue to challenge the dominant paradigm of expert capitalist culture and prioritize intentional use of creativity for reconnection. With the tools of technology, creativity, and agency, we can co-create with others to find ways forward in the face of grief experiences and build a community of support that embraces the heART of living.