Are you part of an organisation, company or volunteer group whose work relates to death or to dying well?
Our facilitated group workshops are designed for volunteers and professionals who support dying people, their families, or the recently bereaved.
Our workshops open up new conversations about death through the reading of and reflection on short extracts or pieces of literature, both historical and contemporary. The aim is not to be prescriptive but rather to provide a different (and non-medical) structure within which to approach aspects of death, dying and bereavement: including for example, dying at home, the nature of ‘care’, the experience of pain, and complex emotional and intellectual reactions to the idea and the reality of death and dying.
Through a series of practical activities – reading, self-reflection, and discussion – our workshops provide open but supportive spaces for the testing out of ideas, as well as for enjoyable conversation about some great works of literature and, if you wish, the chance to write creatively yourself (no experience necessary!)
It is hoped that all participants will benefit from this opportunity to widen their perspectives, vocabularies or strategies for thinking and talking about death, dying and grief, and to tune in to what clients and patients may be articulating.
We can tailor the workshop to suit the needs of each group and can also facilitate a guided intention-setting exercise in order to benefit participants in terms of continuing development in the weeks and months after the workshop.
There is no charge for workshops, which are run by the project leaders. They are designed for groups of 4-10 people. We also make further resources available for participants during the session and via our website.
“I wouldn’t have spent time looking at poems and literature …[but] the different views of the group really encouraged me to look again and again and again.”
“Now I might encourage my clients to use words poetically to express their feelings.”
“I will take away thinking more deeply about the meaning of words. I’m very motivated to follow this up with further reading.”
