SOME PERSONAL INFO.

One of my devoted readers asked me to share how and why I got into this field, so I thought I would devote today's blog to this topic.  I have been a family educator since receiving my master's degree in family studies in 1986.  I focused mainly on parenting issues, in general, and communication skills, specifically.  In 1991, I came across an already designed program on grief and loss and how to communicate with those who were grieving.  I was hooked from day one!  This program focused on the same communication techniques and skills I had always used, but   it just shifted my focus from parenting to grief and loss.  Both involve listening, listening, listening!  I then expanded my horizons by joining two national bereavement associations, and attended national conferences and seminars, as well as local ones and now, web seminars where national leaders in the field teach me while I'm in my pajamas, eating breakfast in my kitchen! (Ya gotta love that!)  I have been a public speaker, writer and facilitator of grief support groups over these many years.  I've also been part of a federal inmate hospice training program, for 7 years, at a Federal Prison, where I was alone with the inmates, teaching them how to be compassionate to other inmates!  That was an experience I will never forget!  Lucky for me, I have always loved learning and  learn as much from my audience as they learn from me.  In this area of grief and loss, I am blessed that I can utilize all that I read (I love reading grief books as much as I love reading novels!) and learn, on a daily basis, because loss does not only encompass death.  "We lose not only through death, but also by leaving and being left, by changing and letting go and moving on."  Judith Viorst