Hi Lynne,

I wanted to thank you for letting me participate in your course on dealing with grief and death. Attending the course was an amazing experience and I wanted to explain why.

Dealing with death is a huge subject. The fact that in the course it was very well organized  and broken down into many specific areas such as a child’s concept of death, fear of death, how to break the news, different causes of death, etc., made it less overwhelming. Also, the reading material and weekly homework assignments which applied to each specific subject brought it into a practical level, one that we could later integrate into our work.

Aside from the well-organized material we were presented with, we were asked to explore our own ideas and attitudes to death including our own death. We were asked to describe the death of loved ones, write letters to the deceased. This brought the whole course to a very personal level. This I find quite necessary as was pointed out in the course. In order to listen to others, we must have our own inner awareness

After exploring our own awareness and feelings towards death, we were also given many tools as to how to listen and speak more effectively with the dying, their families, and communities. All of this was done in both a very sensitive, yet very direct way.

Finally, I would like to say that when facing the inevitability of death, ours and of others, we are dealing with a subject that remains taboo in our society on the whole. I feel that Lynne’s presentation, sensitivity, common sense, and vast experience, plus a sense of humor now and then, opened both myself and others in the course to how very important dealing with grief and death is, how much an intimate part of our lives it is.

I will always be grateful for this course. As the days pass, I finds myself able to use and integrate many of the ideas she gave us, for all a more open attitude towards death which allows everyone around me to do that a little more as well.

I would recommend this course to anyone dealing with grief and death, which is all of us.

Sincerely,
Diane Geffner
Music Therapist in Jerusalem Hospital

• conduct in-house training to assist hospital staff in acquiring tools to deal with death in departments that have a high mortality rate.
• teach supplementary seminars for students in medical schools, nursing schools and social work schools.
• do debriefing sessions following traumatic death by any cause in high schools, small communities or other involved groups.
• facilitate support groups for specific types of grievers (widow/ers, bereaved siblings, etc.).