Grief Support: The Writing Edition

Join us to hear grief professionals, thought leaders, and creatives cover different ways we can find support while we're grieving.
Writing out your thoughts and feelings during grief can be incredibly therapeutic. It can help you process what's going on inside without having to find someone to speak to, especially if support from friends and family has faded.
In this event, we'll speak with Michelle Williams and Naila Francis about the value of writing through grief, whether you're doing a daily journaling practice or a one-off story.
We'll collectively answer questions like...
- How can writing help us process our grief?
- What kinds of writing prompts could we use daily, weekly, or whenever we need to get something out on paper?
- What's the benefit of writing in private versus speaking to friends or family?
- If you're not a professional writer, how can you get started with writing about your grief?
Naila Francis (she/her)is a writer, grief coach, death midwife and ordained interfaith minister. Naila holds space and offers rituals for people at many of life's sacred thresholds. From birth and marriage to death and other transitions, she brings a compassionate presence and open heart to all she does. For many years she worked as a journalist before finding her way to the work of companioning others through grief and dying after suffering several personal losses in her own life, including the death of her father.
Michelle Williams (she/her) Michelle Williams is the co-founder and managing director of Being Here, Human. She holds a master’s degree in social work and has many years of experience, both personally and professionally, supporting bereaved individuals and those at the end of life. She has been involved with grassroots organizations supporting communities who are living with housing instability, food insecurity, addictions, and inadequate access to mental health resources. She has professional experience in the child welfare system witnessing firsthand, the harm of systemic racism and oppressive practices on marginalized families. Michelle is a woman of mixed ethnicity who identifies as Black. She believes that one’s grief and loss experiences are greatly impacted by marginalization and the intersections of identity.