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Katie and Marc Markell: Using Fiction to Help Grieving Children

Posted on October 23, 2015 - by Dr. Gloria and Dr. Heidi Horsley

The authors of The Children Who Lived, Katie and Marc Markell, join the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) to talk about grieving children and how adults can help. As siblings, their father died in 1963. Their mother raised a total of five children alone, and at the time there was little support for grieving adults (not to mention grieving children). In their town, they were known as the children whose father died. Both Katie and Marc became psychologists. Later, they also both became fans of J.K. Rowling. Using fictional characters like Harry Potter, the Markells help children […]

Stillbirth: A Quiet Death

Posted on October 22, 2015 - by Jill Smoot

When a child you carry in your womb for nearly six months stops moving; when a small tiny life ceases to have breath; when all that you were looking forward to is extinguished; life changes in those moments. A quiet death has taken place. At first not even noticed. Without any warning, an umbilical cord has wrapped itself around this wee infant in the silent world of the unborn. This was to be our fifth child. We were the parents of three sons. We had, only months earlier adopted our first daughter from Korea. Anna was almost one when […]

Phyllis Silverman: Raising Grieving Children

Posted on October 22, 2015 - by Dr. Gloria and Dr. Heidi Horsley

The Open to Hope show features Dr. Phyllis Silverman, a bereavement expert who specializes in working with grieving children. While speaking at the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) organization, Dr. Silverman shares nine lessons she’s learned over several years of working in the industry. Currently associated with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Silverman has been an expert in the grief field for over 40 years. Currently, she’s studying what happens in families with dependent children when a sibling dies. First, know that death is a part of life—your own and others. Years ago, Dr. Silverman […]

John Fox: Poetry as Grief Therapy

Posted on October 16, 2015 - by Dr. Gloria and Dr. Heidi Horsley

Poetry is a fantastic avenue for art therapy. Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley welcome John Fox, a poet and certified poetry therapist. He’s the author of Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-making and Finding What You Didn’t Lose. He’s also the president of The Institute for Poetic Medicine, a non-profit which was created in 2005 to offer poetry/healing projects around the country to the bereaved. “Some people have already been drawn to poetry and write it, while others feel they’re not capable of it or it’s not really something that appeals to them,” he says. His goal? Meet with […]

What We Expect of Men

Posted on October 12, 2015 - by Bob Baugher

As a bi-coastal radio show, Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley interview experts around the world. This episode features Dr. Bob Baugher, a psychology instructor at Highline Community College in Des Moines, Washington. He teaches courses in death education and psychology. He’s also a popular national speaker, and has written several articles and seven books on grief and bereavement. His most current project is a video, “Men & Their Grief; 20 Years Later,” where he follows men on their grief journey over a two decade period. People are more alike than they are different, says Dr. Baugher, and that’s true when […]

Cathy Babao Guballa: When Children Get Ill

Posted on October 11, 2015 - by Heidi Horsley

The founder of Migi’s Corner, Cathy Babao Guballa, speaks with Dr. Heidi Horsley during an Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) conference. As a writer and grief educator, Guballa created Migi’s Corner as a space in pediatric charity wards throughout the Philippines. It was founded in 1998 after Guballa’s four-year-old son, Migi, died from complications during an open heart surgery. Children who are confined to hospitals in the Philippines have a very different experience compared to American children. There’s no such thing as a “children’s ward” actually designed to comfort and entertain children. That’s changed a bit since then, […]

Amy Florian: Healing After Loss

Posted on October 10, 2015 - by Gloria Horsley

Dr. Gloria Horsley talks with Amy Florian during an Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) conference about how to heal after losing a loved one. Florian is the founder and CEO of Corgenius, which was named after “cor” (Latin for “heart”) and “genius” for brain. Connecting hearts to the brains and businesses is her calling. She speaks with businesses, healthcare organizations, and faith-based organizations. We need people to come into our organizations because although we all have hearts, they get hidden. We live in denial, and remove death from our daily lives. We use hospitals as an excuse to […]

Apl.de.ap: Death by Suicide

Posted on October 9, 2015 - by Dr. Gloria and Dr. Heidi Horsley

Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley interview The Black Eyed Peas’ Apl.de.ap, who shares his song “I Cry” on the Open to Hope radio show. The story behind this song is one that few people know—the suicide of his brother and how it impacted his entire family. He’s an original member of The Black Eyed Peas, growing with the group as they moved from a small hip hop community to a global phenomenon. Selling 7.5 million albums worldwide, the winner of three Grammy’s and nominated for four more, he says he’s fortunate to be able to write and share music that’s […]

Reinvesting in Living After the Loss of a Loved One

Posted on October 8, 2015 - by Howard Winokuer

How can you get back to living after you lose someone you love? That was the topic of discussion between Dr. Gloria Horsley and Dr. Howard Winokuer during an Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) conference. As the president of ADEC, Winokuer has dedicated his life to helping the bereaved in their healing process. In the early stages, it can be common to feel like you can’t go on. There’s a thin line between grief and depression. However, it’s a mark of grief when the bereaved begin to seek out meaning in life after a loss. Getting there is […]

In the Forest: Unsettled by a Stillbirth

Posted on October 8, 2015 - by Larry Patten

Serena asked me to help bury her child. This question occurred a couple of years after we met. I wonder now if Serena’s request, accompanied by her intense gaze, had been within her heart when she first worshiped at the rural church I then served. Her stillborn child, named Eve, was carried to near the due date. After her birth, Serena and her husband Jake shoveled a hole in the dark forest behind their cabin and lowered their child into the earth. There wasn’t any ritual, or prayers. According to Serena, they trudged back to the cabin, returned to their […]