Come join us for a transformational workshop series that explores the grief associated with caring and provides lived experience wisdom.
Introduction:
Welcome to The Grief Box for Carers Workshop series. This is a six-part series, delivered one session per week over six weeks. The intention of this training is to empower carers through processing grief, gaining an understanding of self and others and exploring the emotions that sit around the carer journey. This is a transformational, experiential learning and conversational-styled workshop that is a combination of lived experience wisdom, grief literacy and emotional intelligence theory. It is intended that most of the learning will happen through group discussions and personal reflection.
This program has been proudly supported by MIFWA and Carers WA.
Scholarships are available for carers who are able to participate in all six sessions. To apply for a scholarship, please register using the Scholarships Supported by Carers WA fee ticket. Once you register, you will be contacted to discuss your participation as a scholarship recipient, as places are limited.
Session 1: Losing Me, Finding Me
3 June 2025, 9:30am-12:30pm
Every carer experiences the costs associated with providing care to another human being, especially where there is a significant time and resource investment and where the functionality of the person being cared for is impaired, changing the relationship dynamics. It is easy to lose your sense of identity outside of the identity of carer.
This session creates an awareness of ambiguous loss and the associated grief, as well as, awareness of how that grief may be attended to and why it is important that we don’t ignore it. It also will create an awareness of the identity of carer and how this can overlay our unique identity.
Session 2: Losing Them, Finding Them
10 June 2025, 9:30am-12:30pm
Many carers struggle with the change in relationship dynamics following the incapacitation or reduced capacity of the person for whom they are caring. Where previously a partner may have played a very practical role in the relationship, they may now not be able to complete practical tasks. This causes an ambiguous loss in the relationship and there is a grief associated. Further, wellness can fluctuate. Where lack of function may be extreme at one time, it may be less extreme at another. How does the carer manage these dynamic changes in power in the relationship? This session will explore the dynamics of relationships, ambiguous loss due to changes in capacity and separating the person from the illness or physical, psychological or emotional limitation. It will help the carer to expand their awareness of others and increase their emotional intelligence.
Session 3: Discovering My Voice
17 June 2025, 9:30am-12:30pm
Carers are often overwhelmed by a complex health system and navigating legal responsibilities. Asking questions, responding to requests for information, advocating for consideration in systems that are complex and difficult, can be stressful and seem overwhelming.
This session seeks to create an understanding of how to use your voice to be heard in a system that is sometimes deaf. Strategies for presenting your case objectively, enlisting the support of others and navigating systems successfully will be covered. It will also create an awareness of how being emotionally intelligent can transform interactions with others and help you get what you need in a respectful way.
Many carers struggle with the change in relationship dynamics following the incapacitation or reduced capacity of the person for whom they are caring. Where previously a partner may have played a very practical role in the relationship, they may now not be able to complete practical tasks. This causes an ambiguous loss in the relationship and there is a grief associated. Further, wellness can fluctuate. Where lack of function may be extreme at one time, it may be less extreme at another. How does the carer manage these dynamic changes in power in the relationship? This session will explore the dynamics of relationships, ambiguous loss due to changes in capacity and separating the person from the illness or physical, psychological or emotional limitation. It will help the carer to expand their awareness of others and increase their emotional intelligence.
Session 4: Eagles, Stress & Resilience
24 June 2025, 9:30am-12:30pm
Carers are often stigmatised and marginalised because of their decision to provide unpaid care to the person they are supporting. This can cause feelings of isolation and disconnection from community. They can feel like they are walking on eggshells, with their sense of security threatened, causing hyper-vigilance and negative emotions.
This session will explore how we engage our resilience so that we can respond to negativity in our relationships with others and we reframe these negativities to rise above them. An uplifting and inspirational session that will spark new thinking.
Session 5: Finding Peace in the Process
1 July 2025, 9:30am-12:30pm
Carers are often navigating tricky emotionally charged situations and may struggle with the dynamics of strained relationships because of the difficulties associated with the caring role. It can be difficult to hold onto peace when your environment is
outside of your control. Or on the other side of the coin, the boredom of not being able to engage in what would be your normal life routines because of your caring responsibilities can also be stressful.
In this session we explore the challenges and rewards of the caring role and how we can be at peace with the process by using the tools of mindfulness, boundaries, and self-management. We will also create a comfort list to support self-soothing and stress reduction.
Session 6: Visioning My Way Forward
8 July 2025, 9:30am-12:30pm
As you connect with self and start to take care of your own needs as a carer, the capacity to hold hope for the future rises. Often carers are so busy coping with the grind of their caring responsibilities that they lose sight that they matter and deserve a future with the opportunity for joy and fulfilment.
This session will explore values, dreams and visions for the future, developing a vision board of what the future could possibly look for in order for a pathway to be created towards it. comfort list to support self-soothing and stress reduction.
Session length:
3 hours, with generous food/drink/networking break at an appropriate time in the session to be determined by the facilitator in consultation with the group.
Mode of delivery:
Face-to-face
Venue:
105 Banksia Street (on Tuart College Campus opposite Hector St, near the rose gardens) Tuart Hill, WA 6060
Cost:
- $340.00 Early Bird Registration Fee
- $351.00 Concession Rate
- $390.00 General Admission
- $0.00 Carers WA Scholarships (Conditions Apply)
About the Facilitator:
Hayley Solich is a carer with experience delivering carer engagement training into 15 public mental health facilities in Western Australia. She is the past Carer Co-Chair of the National Mental Health Consumer & Carer Forum, and a mutli-award winning community engagement specialist and educator.
Hayley is no stranger to grief and loss, having lived through the tragic loss of a parent to road trauma in her early 20s, the same year that her two grandmothers passed away.
She has now also survived the death of a child through miscarriage, her mother-in-law’s death to brain cancer, a friend’s suicide and her father and father-in-law’s passing.
“Not all loss relates to death. I first recognised that I was experiencing ambiguous loss when I sat in a carer’s group and the person next to me started speaking about their feelings in relation to their partner’s incapacitation due to a brain injury. I started to cry because I realised that my loss was the same. My partner was incapacitated due to physical and mental health conditions, and I was also sad that he could no longer do the things he used to do,” says Hayley. “This started a journey of healing for me because when you know what you are feeling and you can put words to it, you are then empowered to address your pain.”
Hayley joined The Grief Centre of Western Australia team in 2021 as a volunteer, chairing the Management Committee, and is now working as the Business & Engagement Lead and as an Educator.
