Coping with grief through artistic activities

I have been living in a senior’s residence on Montreal’s South Shore for five years now. The project, which I had presented to the Provincial Council in 2019, was to offer psycho-spiritual services to the elderly while continuing therapy with people online. Marguerite Bourgeoys told us to live among the people and like the people, hence the decision to live in a seniors’ residence, like them and among them. I moved in May 2020 at the very beginning of the pandemic.

Here, I have created a workshop entitled “Art and Grief” for seniors to help them through the many bereavements they face at this stage of their journey. They could be mourning a person, but they could also be grieving the loss of their physical abilities, their home, their family circle, a pet, or other particular situations. This workshop consists of 8 two-hour sessions. We explore each theme through writing, drawing and collage. Topics include: the grieving process, secondary grief, emotions, self-care, unfinished business, forgiveness, letting go, the meaning of loss, and honoring the deceased.

Each theme is divided into three parts: an explanation of the theme, the artistic activity, and a time for sharing. The artistic activities help let go of the intellectual and rational side of things and go deeper into feelings and emotions. The sharing at the end is very rich and helps people gradually through their grief.

I finished this eight-session workshop in the middle of May, and the participants had nothing but good things to say about it. They appreciated the explanations at the beginning of the sessions that helped them better understand the topic. The artistic activities, done individually accompanied by music, were a time for reflection and interiorization. They could color, draw or do a collage, whatever they wished. The third part consisted of free sharing on what they had experienced during the session or on their grief in general.

I know that God is accompanying me in this realization with the bereaved. Giving this workshop has helped me gain more confidence on an artistic level, which was completely new in my life. It is an area that I am just beginning to develop, but one that offers so many possibilities. I am very happy to be able to help people through their grief. These encounters are real Visitations at the heart of these people’s daily lives.