The Good Grief Workshop is a unique Canadian group-delivered creative arts program for children who have experienced the death of a loved one. The purpose of the present study was to acquire a detailed understanding of the program with the additional intent of identifying implications for the school context. A case study research design was used and data collected from multiple sources. The student researcher participated in two training sessions for volunteer facilitators and then participated as a facilitator in the November 2006 offering of the Good Grief Workshop in Montreal, Quebec. Six individuals were interviewed: four volunteer facilitators, two former child participants, one of whom subsequently returned as a volunteer facilitator. Results suggest that the program is exemplary and represents contemporary directions in theory and practice. Findings include a rich description of the program illustrated with photos, and eight themes identified in the interview data: (a) motivation for participating in the workshop; (b) the importance of finding and creating a safe place, (c) being open in discussing death, (d) the experience of grief as not something you get over, (e) death education in schools, (f) challenges associated with participating in the workshop, (g) the use of music as an emotional release, and (h) ideas for future directions. Findings have implications for researchers as well as for helping professionals working with children and their families.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USASK/oai:usask.ca:etd-03312009-103510 |
| Date | 20 April 2009 |
| Creators | Wlasenko, Angela-Elizabeth-Grace |
| Contributors | Wright, Karen, Teucher, Ulrich, Nicol, Jennifer A. J., Mykota, David |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | University of Saskatchewan Library |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-03312009-103510/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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