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More than memory: embracing connection beyond death
This post is the essence of a presentation I provided for the lovely people at the St. Albert Bereavement Fellowship, on Tuesday 8th September, 2026. Image: Andrea C Taylor - Unsplash Continuing Bonds A continuing bond is defined as the presence of an ongoing inner relationship with the deceased person by the bereaved individual. Stroebe & Schut, 2005 The Continuing Bonds theory of grief proposes that a healthy, adaptive response to the loss of a loved one does not require “l
libbykostromin
Sep 96 min read
Hope, Faith and Basic Trust – Part 1.
I’ve been thinking a lot about hope, lately. Specifically, the question of whether hope is necessary, helpful, or even remotely in the...
libbykostromin
Jul 3, 20254 min read
The Myth of Grief 'Recovery'
Yes - I am aware of the “grief recovery method”. This post is not a critique of that program but rather an exploration of the idea that...
libbykostromin
Mar 30, 20253 min read
The Subtle Art of Noticing
One of the questions I often find myself asking clients is: What are you noticing?. This might be in real time, after we’ve dropped into...
libbykostromin
Jun 25, 20243 min read
Growing Around Grief
This post is the essence of an interactive session I provided for the lovely people at the St. Albert Bereavement Fellowship, on Tuesday 9th April, 2024. In 1996, a Dr. Lois Tonkin – a grief counsellor, educator and writer from New Zealand, who died in 2019 – published an article in which she told the story of being in a workshop with a mother whose child had died some years before. The woman had made a series of drawings to show the difference between how she’d imagined her
libbykostromin
Apr 13, 20244 min read
Marvellous Men at Work
Earlier this year, via Tami Simons’ Sounds True podcast, I was introduced to Edmonton-born Connor Beaton, the founder of ManTalks; an...
libbykostromin
Nov 22, 20232 min read
Adapting to our Changing Home
I recently learned a new word: solastalgia. Coined by Glenn Albrecht, an Australian philosopher, solastalgia is a combination of sōlācium...
libbykostromin
Jun 22, 20233 min read
The Sense in Absence
It is early in the new year of 2023 and I am spending three days, mid-week, at the ‘peaceful, paradise barn’ in rural Alberta. I first...
libbykostromin
Jan 20, 20233 min read