Philippines: Grief Education Lecture Series Program launched

Ms. Annabel Uy, a compassionate and dedicated certified grief educator, and her organization, Rio of Wellness, launched a Grief Education Lecture Series Program on November 18.

The event took place at the Sabbatical Hall of the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) in the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University, Manila.

The presentation of the teachings on the grief experience to participants in clearly laid-out modules with the aid of PowerPoint slides and videos proceeded with professional polish.

They were helpful not only to those who were grief-stricken but also to those who wished to understand grief in ways helpful to loved ones or friends who were grieving.

Annabel’s volunteer work from her masters in pastoral ministry at the Ateneo de Manila University and her current grief education advocacy work as a Certified Grief Educator at David Kessler Training USA have enriched her with much to share in her Grief Lecture Series.

She began her presentation by emphasizing the fact that grief “is about loss, and that with loss comes change.”

Here are some highlights of her lecture that one may find interesting.

Any person grieving goes through the experience of loss in unique ways, and Elizabeth Kubler Ross’ Five Stages of Grief are some of the ways people who are grief-stricken experience their loss.

Grief affects one’s inner world and is hidden, and relationships in the outer world are “like mirrors” that reflect what is happening in one’s inner world.

There are grief experiences that run so deep that the body remembers them.

Hurt people hurt people; it takes great courage to be open and lay oneself vulnerable to love. One’s fears get in the way of love. They inhibit love and one’s capacity to live the fullness of life.

In grief, people are heartbroken. A broken heart is an open heart. This is the moment in time when one needs to feel what one feels, for “what one does not feel will not heal.”

To heal, one needs to acknowledge what one feels; one needs to not fight it but embrace it instead of running away.

Participants appreciated the grief yoga exercise, the exercise of writing a letter to themselves from their departed loved one, and the opportunity to hear that the ailing they were experiencing was “normal” in grief.

The day was a "self-care" day as they recalled memories of their loss that they had not had the time or courage to face for years until now.