My Story
Claire Laurenson B.A. WISC (Women’s Studies)
Grief Practitioner & Educator, Speaker, Writer, Healer & Artist
I began my personal work with trauma, loss, and grief in 1985 and started working with others in 1997. All in all, a thirty-five-year journey so far! Along the way I have learnt a lot, gained a lot and grown a lot.
During my ‘grief career’, I have worked in support and education across:
- sudden infant death
- adult bereavement
- parenting
- cancer
- chronic illness.
I have:
- coordinated 24hr phone services
- developed grief resources & programmes
- facilitated support groups
- delivered presentations, workshops, programmes and training.
I have worked with:
- the bereaved
- emergency responders
- health professionals
- tertiary institutions
- community groups & organisations
- businesses
- the public.
In 2010, I established Grief Relief so I could continue to support families after the death of a child, to educate and increase people’s understanding about grief and to honour my first-born son Jeremy, whose death in 1985 was formative to this work.
Creativity is a powerful tool for healing loss and trauma. I encourage its use through memory-making activities to acknowledge and honour relationships with loved ones and maintain connection, See Grief Relief’s Facebook posts on memory-making, creative workshops available and Memories Matter, a Skylight resource I developed.
I also provide healing through Reiki, a Japanese form of energy healing. I am a Level Two Reiki Practitioner and have been since 1995. My interest in alternative forms of healing began in the early 1980’s and I continue to explore different modalities and develop my capabilities. I work in an increasingly intuitive way.
Creative self-expression is an integral part of who I am with numerous outlets for this during my life. Writing is a more recent one as I find ‘my voice’ and the confidence to express it.
I am curious about people, life and death and have explored different spiritual paths both in practice and through study. I have come to my own understanding of God which continues to evolve as I do. I believe I’m doing the work I came here to do.
While I am located in the Hutt Valley and travel around the Wellington region, I welcome work further afield be it to present on loss and grief, facilitate groups, workshops or something else.
Remote support is always available by Phone, Skype or Zoom.
You can contact me via email, visit me on Linkedin for more information.