Educational Signature Series: Narrative Power: Finding Words for Living, Dying, Death and Bereavement by Ted Bowman April 2025
A special presentation for Hospice Professionals, Clergy, Therapists/Counselors, Volunteers, Companions, Death Doulas, Death Care Professionals, including Funeral Directors, Leadership and Administrative Professionals, Law Enforcement, First Responders, and Victim’s Advocates.
If something is unmentionable, it can also be unmanageable (folk wisdom). Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced (Baldwin)
When losses occur, words are sought…sometimes found…sometimes offered. Drawing on bibliotherapeutic and narrative therapy principles, perspectives and tools for narrative power will be presented, demonstrated and discussed. Narrative is not about having people tell their stories. Narrative is interested in power – who has the power to speak stories into existence. Voices of grievers and the bereft , thereby, are heard and validated.
Using metaphor and related prompts, participants will be invited to consider using stories as prompts for words that foster grieving and healing.
Objectives
At the completion of the session, participants will be able to:
- Define and describe potential uses of bibliotherapy for their practices
- Describe the importance of metaphors in grief and bereavement care AND how metaphors will be addressed in future work
- Create a plan for use of the session content
Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Time: 8-10am (PT)/ 9-11am (MST)/ 10-12pm (CT)/ 11-1pm (EST)
location: Zoom
Registration Required. Certificate of Completion provided upon request to professionals who attend presentation live.
About the Presenter:
Ted Bowman is an educator, author and consultant who specializes in change and transition, whether it occurs in families, an organization, or the community. His emphasis is on aiding people in utilizing their strengths and the resources of others in facing change and transition. Ted specializes in grief and loss, resiliency promotion, and honest hope and as a bibliotherapist draws on stories in fiction, poetry, memoir, song lyrics, etc. to prompt words and stories of loss and well-being.
Former teacher, author, trainer, consultant and speaker, he is also the father and stepfather of four children, and a grandfather of five “grand” children, four alive, one dead but alive in memory and love. His wife, Marge, died in July 2020. Their rich marriage of 41 years reminds of the gift of their love, even as he also grieves her death.