Dates and Details

XXXX Grieving after the loss of a loved one? It can feel overwhelming, chaotic, and isolating. You might be faced with difficult tasks, and feel lost or stuck.

Traditional grief support methods, like therapy or support groups, while valuable for many, might not feel like the right fit, leaving you feeling unseen, unheard, or like you’re grieving “wrong”.

[Your Challenge] what you may be experiencing:

XXXXXXCurating Grief is a way to make sense and make meaning out of the chaos you experience after a major loss. We use the lens of curating, the evocative power of meaningful objects, and the metaphor of creating an exhibition about the person you lost – combined with the transformative tools of coaching.

At its heart, Curating Grief is about seeing and choosing what to keep after a loved one dies. This applies not just to physical belongings, but also to intangible things like memories, stories, meanings, and emotions. Using the curating lens helps you to see things in different ways.

You don’t need to be an artist, professional curator, or even consider yourself creative to use this approach. You also don’t need to have physical belongings of the person you lost. Your “gallery” or exhibition space can be tangible, like a shelf, a book, or a photo wall, or it can be an intangible space like an imaginary place in your mind and heart.

[Transformation] what you may be experiencing:

XXXXXXCurating Grief is a way to make sense and make meaning out of the chaos you experience after a major loss. We use the lens of curating, the evocative power of meaningful objects, and the metaphor of creating an exhibition about the person you lost – combined with the transformative tools of coaching.

At its heart, Curating Grief is about seeing and choosing what to keep after a loved one dies. This applies not just to physical belongings, but also to intangible things like memories, stories, meanings, and emotions. Using the curating lens helps you to see things in different ways.

You don’t need to be an artist, professional curator, or even consider yourself creative to use this approach. You also don’t need to have physical belongings of the person you lost. Your “gallery” or exhibition space can be tangible, like a shelf, a book, or a photo wall, or it can be an intangible space like an imaginary place in your mind and heart.

Curating Grief can help you:

• Make sense and meaning out of chaos.

• Navigate the field of emotional landmines.

• Feel witnessed and supported in a way that works for you.

• Do the hard things, without sacrificing your health, sanity, career, and relationships.

[Testimonials] 

XXXXXXCurating Grief is a way to make sense and make meaning out of the chaos you experience after a major loss. We use the lens of curating, the evocative power of meaningful objects, and the metaphor of creating an exhibition about the person you lost – combined with the transformative tools of coaching.

At its heart, Curating Grief is about seeing and choosing what to keep after a loved one dies. This applies not just to physical belongings, but also to intangible things like memories, stories, meanings, and emotions. Using the curating lens helps you to see things in different ways.

You don’t need to be an artist, professional curator, or even consider yourself creative to use this approach. You also don’t need to have physical belongings of the person you lost. Your “gallery” or exhibition space can be tangible, like a shelf, a book, or a photo wall, or it can be an intangible space like an imaginary place in your mind and heart.

Prefer video? In this 3min clip, I share why curating is so helpful for grief:

More Than Just Stuff

“Why is this so hard?” If you’ve wondered this, or judged yourself harshly for still having the room, the house, the boxes, you’re not alone. It IS hard. Here’s a possible reason why:

Introducing the 3Cs: Your Creative Grieving Process

The Curating Grief framework can be understood through three fundamental questions and actions, the 3Cs: Collect, Curate, Create.

COLLECT: This is about remembering your person in all their facets — the good and the bad, all the stories, moments, memories, and emotions that come up when you think of them. It’s like unpacking everything.

The guiding question: How do I remember my person?

CURATE: In this step, you become the intentional curator of your memories and experiences. You choose, filter, and spotlight what you want to keep and how you want to remember your person. It’s about making choices with intention.

The guiding question: How do I want to remember my person?

CREATE: This is about bringing that intention into reality and deciding how you want your person to be remembered, whether just by you or also by others. This creation can take many forms — an actual exhibition, a book, an altar, a digital space, or simply the narrative you carry forward.

The guiding question: How do I want my person to be remembered?

This 3Cs process is also a form of self-coaching. It helps you explore your grief and decide how you want to continue your connection and relationship with your loved ones. Coaching changed my life, and can be so helpful for many grieving people, as part of a spectrum of care.

What Curating Grief Offers

Curating Grief is not a linear process, nor is it prescriptive. It offers possibilities and invites you to go at your own pace, with self-compassion. It’s OK if you don’t know what you’re doing; grieving is a learning process!

I designed this approach to help grievers like you feel lighter and better equipped to move forward with your own fullest lives.

I’ve Been Where You Are

Hi! I’m Charlene. Like many grievers, I felt overwhelmed and lost after my mother died suddenly, especially when faced with the task of going through her belongings. Everything felt precious. Trying to navigate this while also dealing with intense grief was incredibly difficult.

It’s a common problem — maybe you’ve experienced something similar, feeling overwhelmed by the practical and emotional aftermath after a major loss!

Though I’d had decades of therapy and benefitted from it, I found that traditional talk therapy and grief support groups didn’t feel right. I began to see the potential of using the lens of curating as an uncommon solution. From a mix of inspiration and desperation, I asked myself:

“If I were to curate an exhibition about my mother, which 100 objects would I choose?”

It was a useful question — and a beautiful question. It helped me clear out my mom’s house and lead to the start of The Grief Gallery, my creative platform for exhibitions about grief and loss, featuring the belongings and meaningful objects.

In this 2min video, I share the origin of that powerful question:

Curating + Grief Coaching = Transformation

When I decided to help other grieving people, I reflected on how transformative that lens of curating had been. My passion for curating merged with my personal experience of loss, my coaching skills and contemporary grief theory, leading to the development of the Curating Grief framework.

It’s not just for physical stuff. Curating Grief is helpful whether you’re dealing with boxes and belongings, or you’re holding only memories and stories.  

How the Curating Grief framework can help:

As grievers, we can have a wide range of experiences and challenges. Some of our losses are sudden, others prolonged and loaded with anticipatory grief. You might have the same problem I had (too much stuff to sort through); other grieving people feel additional pain from not having any belongings from their loved ones. Some of us had a good relationship with our person; for some of us, the relationship might have been very complicated.

Here are some common challenges I address with my clients:

Let’s Make Space for Grief

Curating Grief is a creative process that makes space for grief in a world that often doesn’t give us any.  When we’re ready, it can help us transform pain into something beautiful. It allowed me to process my loss in a way that felt authentic and empowering.

I’ve since shared this approach with thousands of grievers and wellness professionals through my work as a grief coach, speaker, and curator of The Grief Gallery.

Want Help With Grief?

If you’re looking for a different path through grief, one that honors your unique experience and empowers you to choose how you move forward, you are welcome here. Your loss matters. Your grief matters. Curating Grief can provide the tools and perspective to help you navigate this challenging time and redesign your life after loss.

Take the next step: 

SPEAKING

Book me to be a grief speaker for your community or event.