Grief Work & Suicide by Amy Wright Glenn & Camille Hawkins

On Sun Aug 23 and Sun Aug 30 from 6:30-9:00 pm, Amy Wright Glenn will be joining Utah-based therapist, Camille Hawkins, LCSW, to present “Grief Work and Suicide,” a five-hour training for all who want to further study, understand, and reflect upon supporting families who are affected by suicide. Light lunch is included and 5 CEU credits (2 suicide and 3 ethics) are approved through NASW Utah

Grief Work & Suicide
*Sliding Scale Tuition $150-$250*

This course is open to all and crafted to offer support, compassion, and a safe space for a deeper understanding of suicide. Our study is organized around the following key themes:

• Companioning as an approach to supporting survivors of suicide loss
• Strengthening the network of support around those who are experiencing suicidality
• Drawing upon healing rituals in the wake of suicide loss
• Confronting shame and silence around the topic of suicide
• How to assist, support, and talk with families that have endured bereavement following suicide (before, during, and after the loss)
• Understanding the biological, psychological, and cultural factors that help explain suicide
• Exploration of measures to address prevention of additional suicides and/or attempts of the bereaved, cluster suicides, understanding
• substance use during grief, and murder-suicides
• Trauma of suicide to frontline workers
• Self-care practices for front line therapist and mental health crisis workers
• Understanding the healing power of writing (memoir and fiction) as we make sense of suicide
• Ethics related to suicide care, prevention, and self-care

For hospital chaplains, often the most difficult encounters are in response to deaths by suicide or attempted deaths by suicide. This is was true for Amy Wright Glenn, author of Holding Space. In her work as a hospital chaplain, Amy supported survivors of suicide loss as well as those who had attempted to die by suicide. The experience of holding space in these difficult and heartbreaking times was life altering.

According to the CDC, suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for people ages 10-34 in the United States. Overall, it is the 11th most common cause of death across age demographics. When we consider these statistics, the sorrow can be staggering.

How can be better understanding suicide? What are best practices to support those devastated by suicide loss? How can we hold our fears about the rising rates of suicide with compassion and courage? What can we do to support suicide prevention?

Join us so we can bring compassionate presence to a deeper understanding of grief work & suicide.

All are welcome.

If you are considering suicide or self harm, please seek support now.
Learn more about the International Association for Suicide Prevention.

Suggested supplementary reading:

Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide by Kay Redfield Jamison and The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan.

About the Facilitators:

Amy Wright Glenn (she/her) earned her MA from Teachers College, Columbia University. She taught for eleven years in The Religion and Philosophy Department at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey earning the Dunbar Abston Jr. Chair for Teaching Excellence. Amy is a Kripalu Yoga teacher, birth and death doula (DONA and INELDA trained), hospital chaplain, and Birthing Mama® Prenatal Yoga and Wellness Instructor.

In 2015, Amy founded the Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death, known for its innovative course design and teacher training programs. In addition to directing the Institute, Amy serves as co-director of Middle School at The Odyssey School in Asheville, North Carolina. She teaches yoga at The Riveter, volunteers with the Big Brother, Big Sister program through United Way, and is active in her local Unitarian Universalist faith community.

Amy is the author of Birth, Breath, and Death: Meditations on Motherhood, Chaplaincy, and Life as a Doula and Holding Space: On Loving, Dying, and Letting Go. She recently contributed a chapter entitled "Grief Work for Teachers: Three Practices in Holding Space for Sorrow" in a 2023 anthology Reframing Self Care published through the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education (CSEE). Her work has been featured in numerous online publications.

Camille Hawkins (she/her) is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice specializing in grief, trauma, and women's issues. She began her career on the OB floor where she supported families in times of miscarriage, stillbirth, placing for adoption, and infant death. After a personal struggle with infertility and miscarriage, Camille founded the Utah Infertility Resource Center, a nonprofit organization which provides emotional support and education to thousands of families wishing and struggling to grow. In addition to supporting clients through professional counseling, Camille has spent years volunteering for local grief support organizations such as The Sharing Place and Share Parents of Utah. She is actively involved in research, advocacy endeavors, and serves on a number of community boards. In 2023, Camille launched The Wellness Farm Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit held on 2.5 acres in Bluffdale, Utah with the mission to provide support for grief and trauma and to build resiliency in the community. When Camille isn't caring for the farm, she enjoys spending time with her husband and three living children who joined their family through open adoption and open egg donation. She became a teacher for The Institute in honor of her daughter, Everly, who came from a surprise pregnancy after nine years of infertility, and died in utero at 31 weeks gestation. Learn more here.

*Sliding Scale Tuition Guidelines* We know there are many factors that affect individual financial situations (generational wealth, family support, cost of living, access to education, health, employment status, caring for vulnerable family members, etc.), and therefore we created a sliding-scale tuition model in order to 1) reach a wide-range of individuals in a variety of financial situations and 2) cover the costs of the workshop . Based on your access to financial resources, please choose an amount that is reflective of your financial situation.  

Please reach out to camille@chaptersandseasons.com if you have any questions.