Some of you know what I’ve been up to since I last posted here, because you signed up for my new newsletter at Remembering For Good where I’m working with people who are struggling with grief. This is to update those of you who are wondering what’s up with me since I last posted here…
I’ve been incredibly busy… it’s amazing how inspiration arrives and so do the clients, when you’re doing the work you were born to do. In many ways I’ve come to view Agile Living as my training ground… the place where I was learning about life and personal development in general, the place where I stuck my neck out and launched a business so that I could offer my expertise in more flexible ways that allowed us to have a traveling lifestyle, the place where I learned about the online world and all the technology that you can use to make it possible to work with people anywhere in the world.
I was close but I wasn’t yet doing the work I was born to do. I didn’t yet have the life experience that would enable me to know the work that I was born to do. Having lived through loving and losing Juggernaut, and all the smaller losses that have been associated with losing Juggernaut (including my health and the possibility of naturally birthing children), I now know that helping people to live wholeheartedly after loss is what I was born to do. Here’s what I’ve been up to in the past few months:
- I wrote a free ebook about living wholeheartedly after loss. I’m really proud of it – I regularly get emails from folks saying that they found it really valuable. I even have people emailing me to ask who my designer was because it’s such a visually beautiful book to read. I’m proud to say I designed it!
- I’m writing weekly articles about grief and living wholeheartedly after loss at Remembering For Good.
- I’ve been running a “Wholehearted Living After Loss” group for people who are struggling with grief. This is closed for now, but I’ll run another one starting in April.
- I’ve continued to work with the MISS Foundation as their volunteer coordinator. if you’re interested in volunteering with an organization that supports families who are grieving the death of a child, drop me an email at Cath (dot) Duncan (at) MissFoundation (dot) org.
- I’ve joined up with another grief coach/ artist, Kara Jones, to create a Creative Grief Coach Certification course that we’re incredibly proud of. It’s 12 weeks of the latest grief & resilience theory, ground-breaking practice models shared by leaders in the field (including Dr Harriet Lerner, Dr Lorraine Hedtke, Dr Joanne Cacciatore, Jamie Smart, Heather Plett, Vanessa Gorman and more to come), and a rich library of practical creative grief coaching tools. The course registration closes on 26 Jan 2012 and our first class starts on 2 Feb 2012. We have some wonderful people already signed up and we’re already receiving applications for our Sept 2012 class that will take place in the evenings.
- Kara and I are building a Creative Grief Tool Library that’s currently only available to our Creative Grief Coach Certification course participants, but we’ll open up to the general public in the second quarter of this year.
- I’m preparing to speak at the Martha Beck Coach Summit in March. It’ll be my first time speaking to a large and live audience about my new work, and I think it’s especially appropriate that I’ll be speaking about the work I was born to do on my birthday!
Coming up later this year:
I’m already working on the following projects that will run through this year:
- A free ebook about using Facebook and other online technology to “Remember For Good.” I’m looking to start running a free live call once a month to support people who wish to use technology to Remember For Good. I’m aiming to release this and start the calls in April.
- I’ll run another one or 2 Wholehearted Living After Loss groups.
- Heather Plett and I are planning a hiking grief retreat for August 2012 (based on all of the richness that we got from our Kidney March walk!).
- I’ve put together material for 3 live calls on 1.) Managing relationships and conflict or difference when you’re grieving 2.) Dissolving fear and shame when your grief is making you feel bad about yourself 3.) Creating a vision for a wholehearted life after loss. These 3 classes will each be a 2-hour webinar and I’ll run one of them each month, starting in Feb 2012.
- Kara and I will run the Creative Grief Coaching Certification course again in Sept through Dec 2012.
- Oh, and I hope to start my Masters of Social Work program at the University of Calgary in Sept 2012! I hope to complete a research thesis on the impact of shame on grieving.
- And this will be the year that I start writing my book, “Shameless Grief.” (I expect this will take a few years to write, and I want to go the traditional publishing route so it’ll take time to find a publisher and go through the editing and publishing process, but I’m putting it out there that I’ll be getting started this year!)
There’s other stuff on the boil too, but it’s a bit too early to share! To stay up to date about my grief-related work, sign up for my weekly newsletter at Remembering For Good.
Free Live Call on Grief & Creativity, & Our CGCC Program
On Thursday this week, 12 Jan 2012, Kara and I will be running a free live call where we’ll talk more about the importance of creativity in grieving and living wholeheartedly after loss, and we’ll share about the core values and beliefs that our Creative Grief Coach Certification is based in. If you’re interested in working with people who are grieving – or if you already do – we’d love you to join us and consider whether our Creative Grief Coach Certification program is a good fit for you.
