Description
Presenter: Dr Elisabeth Philipps PhD BSc(Hons) BSc Nut. Med.
Join Dr Elisabeth Philipps for a lifestyle medicine approach to support physical and emotional wellbeing during bereavement.
Grief is a many varied response to loss. You may have recently experienced different levels of grief around the collective global, national and community changes and losses during and post the 2020 pandemic; and then there are the individual losses throughout our lives such as the death of a loved one or loss of a job, home or relationship. This multi-layered perspective helps us to see that grief cannot be avoided. It visits us all in different ways and at different times of our lives: yet so often grief remains an unspoken and even taboo subject.
In the face of grief we may find ourselves “putting on a brave face”, pushing down those raw and society-labelled “negative emotions” because to feel uncomfortable, unhappy, angry etc. is for many culturally deemed not a desirable state for self, or simply a difficult state to witness in others. But loss is a natural part of the rhythms and cycles of life; this makes grief an ever present experience waxing and waning in its intensity and complexity depending on where we are in the unpredictable personal “loss cycles” of life. Ultimately we need to know more to understand how to respect, work with and even feel comfortable and move forward within the uncomfortable aspects of grief.
So let’s talk about grief! Grief needs to be treated with great compassion and respect (by self and others) for what the episode of loss represents for your past, present and future self. Like all emotions, the loss and related grief is a highly personal experience, one that transcends physical symptoms, which may eventually fade away, instead leaving the deeply rooted feelings and emotions that may feel difficult, if not impossible to shape and shift. The ripples of grief spread throughout our physical and energy bodies so understanding the fluid inward and outward spirals of this natural emotion is crucial for our physical and emotional wellbeing.
Join Dr Elisabeth Philipps, Clinical Neuroscientist, who will share her personal experiences and the lifestyle medicine work she has undertaken to offer a deeper understanding of the myriad factors that impact grief: how to support the physical body to maintain resilience alongside unravelling emotions rooted in grief to help integrate and weave into the new life path that any bereavement presents.
During the webinar Dr Elisabeth will explore:
- The gateways of grief: Teasing out a deeper understanding of grief not as a problem to be solved or set of negative emotions to be avoided but an experience to be honoured and integrated into life
- The neurobiology of emotions – the brain pathways involved in loss, bereavement and grief
- The psychoneuroimmunology of grief – exploring the crosstalk between our brain and heart where stress and inflammation patterns impact physical and emotional health
- Nutritional support to nourish the body during and post bereavement
- Simple rituals and practices to integrate the energies and experiences of grief – what we can learn from ancient cultures
Grief and bereavement is a huge topic for just one webinar to unravel. Elisabeth will provide signposting to different organisations, groups and tools to provide additional support.
