The Art of Grieving

Sheila K. Collins is no stranger to grief. After the loss of two of her children, Sheila felt disconnected from the support she needed, living in a society that makes us feel like we can't speak openly or honestly about the one thing we will all become acquainted with: grief.

The Art of Grieving challenges conventional attitudes towards grieving. Part memoir, part grief handbook and guide, Sheila draws on a lifetime of experience as a dancer, social work professor, and therapist to illustrate the value of grieving and how the arts can become grief's collaborator. This book provides guidance and resources on how to use the arts of storytelling, music, dance, and visual arts to make grieving itself a life-long art. When we utilize the arts to honor our losses and celebrate together, as our ancestors once did, we are provided a path to insight that allows us to continuously learn from our grief rather than fear it.

Collins has given us a wise, well-researched guide to grieving's winding path, revealing how communal artmaking provides catharsis and connection when loss inevitably strikes. This book is a gift."

Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE POWER OF REGRET

In The Art of Grieving, Sheila K. Collins shares compelling personal and professional stories of how engaging in artistic activities such as music, poetry, dance, storytelling, and visual arts can help us process grief. With deep compassion, Collins helps us understand how -- through creative expression and honoring loved ones - we can heal, enter into a transformative space, and find the courage to embrace life anew after mourning.

Susan Magsamen, with Ivy Ross, Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us

I highly recommend The Art of Grieving. Get it. Read it. I promise it will help you and those you love navigate grief every day of your lives. Sheila writes from the soul of a dancer, social worker, and grief advocate profoundly intimate with death and loss. Sheila keys us into ways grief can work its magic when we use the arts to help process our lives. I'm sending The Art of Grieving to family and friends.

Cynthia Winton-Henry, Cofounder of InterPlay, author of The Art of Ensoulment: How to Create From Body and Soul.

The Art of Grieving is a priceless gift to the human family. Dr.Collins' articulation of grief as a spiral is a revolutionary concept that she and I both recognized independently and a major step forward from stage theories of grief. Reading her book is like having a series of enlightening and comforting conversations with a wise, knowledgeable, and experienced companion. I highly recommend and wholeheartedly endorse her book for anyone who has ever experienced loss of any kind and for those who may experience loss in the future.

Grace Terry, MSW, Grief Coach, author, The Spiral Pathway of Grief.

Sheila K Collins, PhD knows grief, having lost a son to AIDS and a daughter to breast cancer, experiences she chronicled in her award-winning memoir, Warrior Mother: Fierce Love, Unbearable Loss and the Rituals that Heal, published by She Writes Press in 2013. Her 40-year career as a therapist, professor of social worker, and author has followed her experience as a professional dancer. Applying wisdom gleaned from that career, she has guided thousands of people through the tough challenges life handed them-inspiring them to turn grief into a gift. She's delighted audiences worldwide with demonstrations of how art-based expressions, such as dance, storytelling, song, and music, can help anyone turn life's toughest challenges into growth. Her 2016 TEDx talk, When Death Threatens Someone We Love, offers a poignant perspective for anyone accompanying a loved one through life-threatening illness and death. Her first book, released in 2018 for a second edition and co-authored with Christine Gautreaux, Stillpoint: A Self-Care Playbook for Caregivers to Find Ease and Time to Breathe and Reclaim Joy has become a popular online course for professional and family caregivers. Sheila currently directs the Wing & A Prayer Pittsburgh Players, an InterPlay-based performance troupe that helps individuals and organizations tell their stories in transforming ways. Sheila and her partner of 45 years, international consultant, and leadership coach Richard Citrin, live in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. For keynote speaking and consultations reach Sheila through her website / Brad Wolfe is the founder and executive director of Reimagine, an organization that brings diverse communities together to channel life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth. With a belief that by facing death we begin to live more fully, Reimagine End of Life festivals and events have quickly become the largest end-of-life convening organization in the United States. Reimagine was recently named a "World Changing Idea" by Fast Company Magazine.

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