Transforming Grief with Alexandra Kennedy

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Along with grief, the death of a loved one often brings old resentments, regrets and unexpressed love, which can block our emotional growth and negatively impact our relationships. Alexandra Kennedy shows us how, by using imagination and imagery, we can re-create an inner relationship with our loved ones who have passed away: "If we can access our imagination, we can begin to open to that mystery and allow for things to happen that we don't understand with our rational mind." Because our culture is not comfortable with death and its aftermath, we often try to suppress our grief, and yet, as Kennedy points out: "Grief is a process that is trying to heal us." The best news is, no matter how long it's been since you lost someone, "it's never too late to heal, it's never too late to resolve the unfinished business." (hosted by Michael Toms)

Bio

Alexandra Kennedy is a psychotherapist and lectures at universities, professional organizations and major conferences. Weaving together inspiring case histories, practical advice, and experiential exercises, she provides a unique perspective to grieving through her work with the imagination. She also offers lectures, workshops and seminars on facing loss as an opening to the sacred, the loss of a parent, healing relationships beyond loss, dreams as messengers of the night, women’s spirituality, mid-life renewal, the power of the imagination, the empty nest, and related issues.

She’s the author of:

• Losing a Parent: Passage to a New Way of Living (HarperSanFrancisco 1991)
• Your Loved One Lives on within You (Berkley Books 1997)
• The Infinite Thread: Healing Relationships beyond Loss (Beyond Words 2001)
• Offerings at the Edge (iUniverse 2007)
• How Did I Miss All This Before? (iUniverse 2010)
• Honoring Grief: Creating a Space to Let Yourself Heal (coauthor Stephen Levine) (New Harbinger Press 2014)
• The Infinite Thread: Healing Relationships Beyond Loss (foreword by John O’Donohue) (Atria Books/Beyond Words 2001)

To learn more about the work of Alexandra Kennedy go to www.alexandrakennedy.com.

Topics Explored in This Dialogue

• How to keep your living relationships thriving and still allow yourself to grieve
• How to go about "contacting" loved ones who have passed away
• How to help your partner or friend with their grief
• How to help children deal with death
• Why it's never too late to heal wounds
• How dreams work in the grieving process
• What are the special gifts our pets give us when they die
• How your spiritual connection and/or practices can help you grieve

Host: Michael Toms      Interview Date: 5/8/1997      Program Number: 2629

Music Included

From Album: Songs of Healing
Artist: On Wings of Song and Robert Gass
1992 Spring Hill Music #SHM-1016

From Album: Earth Songs: Narada Collection Series
Artist: various
1993 Narada Productions #ND-63913