Grief & Loss: Sharing Personal Experiences of the Crisis Worker

Body of Abstract: As individuals that work in the crisis field, we see and hear the effects of grief and loss in others as they experience their own crisis. Personally, going through sudden and compounded grief and loss as a crisis worker changes your perspective and deepens your understanding of what it means to be in a personal crisis and how that impacts your coping skills and daily living. In a span of 6 months starting late 2023, I experienced the unexpected loss of a close friend and three close relatives. During that same time, a close friend experienced the sudden, unexpected loss of her husband. I will share these grief stories in this presentation and talk about what it was like to walk through this grief journeys and at the same time, attempt to continue to be present to my role within the crisis field. Through this lived experience grief and loss perspective, I hope to deepen the understanding of different types of grief and loss as well as deepen awareness of how we need to take care of ourselves and support each other in times of personal crisis as we continue our work in the crisis field.

Learning Objectives:

• Attendees will witness and reflect on stories of grief and note the emotions that are raised.
• Attendees will be able to reflect of grief coping tools
• Attendees will attempt to identify how personal grief experiences impact the work they do.