On today’s episode of the Telewellness Hub podcast, we hear from Wendy Kesler.
Wendy is a grief specialist, and owner of Griefguide Consulting LLC. She has a background as a Hospice Bereavement Specialist, and she walks with her clients through various experiences of grief and loss by offering a compassionate, listening presence.
Wendy’s approach emphasizes the role of being a supportive guide. She sees every one of her clients as the expert in the room, because it’s their own personal grief journey.
While working in Hospice, Wendy saw first-hand that our society contains a lot of common misconceptions about grief.
For instance, parents tend to hide their grief expressions from their children, and there seems to be an expectation to grieve silently and alone as opposed to finding community. Also, many medical professionals don’t have formal training in how grief works or how to interact with or help people who have just lost their loved one.
Grief is one of the most common experiences in life, and it’s proven that having someone there to offer support and empathy can aid the grief and healing process. When we grieve, we need a witness to validate it, and that doesn’t often happen in our social structures.
Wendy also shares that some types of grief have even less social support than average, such as LGBTQ+ relationship loss, or the death of an ex-spouse.
Wendy is passionate about social education in this area, and hopes to spread awareness about how to grieve in healthier ways, combatting the typical narrative about maintaining unhealthy levels of independence during grief.
I love how Wendy describes non-judgmental compassion. We can know it’s their pain, not ours to fix, but we can create space where the grieving person can express whatever they need to express. Grief brings up emotions and we need to stop judging or comparing them in order to accept and process.
Wendy also mentions that some of us can force ourselves to have more of an intellectual experience initially during grief – making decisions and analyzing our situation. She encourages clients to experience and validate the emotions that come up in grief as well.
She also reminds us that mental wellness is being on the path of growth. In seasons of grief, this path is often uneven and unpredictable, but we can remember it’s not about arriving, but intentionally being on a path, and wherever we’re at is beautiful.
Learn more about Wendy’s practice: www.GriefGuideConsulting.com
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