Case study:
Shapes of Grief
Liz Gleeson

Providing resources on loss and grief to individuals and professionals.

Problem

Grief is an inevitable part of all of our lives, and it can take many forms such as bereavement, loss of a relationship, retirement, or acquired injury or disability. The most evident form of grief is bereavement, and in Ireland up to 30,000 people die every year, leaving 300,000 people bereaved. Many individuals will not need professional support after a loss, but for those that do, adequate grief counselling is hard to come by due to a lack of grief training standards for mental health professionals in Ireland. Liz is a qualified grief counsellor and psychotherapist who noticed this gap and is taking action.

Solution

Shapes of Grief is starting an important conversation in Ireland around grief and loss.  They provide comprehensive grief education and resources to individuals, mental health professionals and healthcare workers worldwide. Their online grief training programme has over 40 hours of learning for mental health and medical professionals to educate them in the areas of grief with content from experts. Their podcast series tells the personal stories of those who have been bereaved and experienced grief to raise awareness around the types of loss and how people have overcome them.

SEI Journey 

Impact Programme 2021-2022

Impact

Shapes of Grief officially launched their full offering in 2021 has had great recognition for their work so far, with Liz being named in the Euclid Top 100 women in Social Enterprise. The podcast has been listened to more than 100,000 times reaching a wide audience across the world. The online education programme has over 200 users signed up to professionally develop in the area of grief.

Posted 20.07/22

Liz Gleeson is the founder of Shapes of Grief