Grieving as a Family Carer

Description

Caring for a loved one at home is a journey that can begin at any stage of life. It may initially involve helping an older parent or relative with shopping, assisting with meals and medication management but this role can grow and intensify over time. For others, their caring role can arise suddenly due to the birth of a child with special needs, a spouse or family member becoming ill or a parent having a stroke, for example. There are a number of losses a Family Carer may experience throughout and beyond their caring journey, including the loss of a hoped-for future for the cared for person, the loss of employment or the loss of a sense of self. There are a number of factors that impact on how these losses and experienced and processed, including the quality of the relationship between the Family Carer and the cared for person. This workshop will explore the nature of some of the losses experienced by Family Carers, provide insight into elements that impact on how these losses are experienced and provide guidance on supporting a Family Carer who is grieving

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the workshop participants will have:

• an overview of the grieving process
• an understanding of the different losses associated with being a family carer
• an understanding what can impact on the grieving process for family carers
• practical tools to support a grieving family carer

Presenter Profiles

Anna de Siún is an accredited Psychotherapist with a background in health services research, project management and programme development. Anna is also a qualified yoga teacher and alternative therapist. In 2021 she established Family Carers Ireland National Counselling Service, which she continues to lead today. Anna works from an integrative approach, recognising the mind-body connection as core to good mental health. She has extensive experience of leading and coordinating health sector projects on a national level, in both statutory and non-statutory settings, including the development of a programme to improve end-of-life in residential care. Most recently she has developed a number of workshops and online programmes to support and enhance good mental health for Family Carers.

Tanya Bryan is a Humanistic Integrative Psychotherapist who is part of the counselling team with Family Carers Ireland National Counselling Service. Her formative years of counselling were focused on sexual health and educating and supporting recent diagnosis of HIV. During her academic training Tanya worked frontline services, as support worker for drug users in wet hostels and shelters and later, as a rehabilitation assistant in a post-detox facility. Previous to her training in psychotherapy she qualified as an Addiction Counsellor. Tanya qualified as a TYM therapist 11 years ago and has a keen interest in embodiment practices and supporting therapies that listen to the language of the body and that recalibrate the nervous system. Tanya offers experiential workshops in her private practice that assist groups to release/address loss using the voice through the artform of lament.