The Rural We: Claudia Coenen
The creative grief counselor will be leading a discussion at the Morton Memorial Library on how the pandemic has affected us.
“There is collective grief here,” says Claudia Coenen, about the effects of the pandemic. A creative grief counselor and certified thanatologist based in Hudson, she works with people who are processing their grief and helps individuals through life’s most challenging transitions. To do that, she calls on her background and skills as a musician, dancer, and lifelong journaler. Author of "The Creative Toolkit" and "Shattered by Grief," she is working on a third book. Coenen will be leading an interactive discussion on pandemic grief at the Morton Memorial Library in Rhinecliff on June 9 at 6 p.m. She will guide the group in transforming losses through creativity with a focus on COVID. The session is free and open to the public.
I was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Rockland County. I’ve always been in the creative and performing arts; I started dancing when I was three and performing with my family at age 10 in a folk singing group. I continued to dance and choreograph during college and into my 40s, and I always kept journals. After I got married we moved to Westchester, then Dutchess County. I had three children and started a catering business, channeling my creativity through food. My husband was working way too hard, and I realized we needed to make a radical change in our lives. He died on a vacation where I was planning to talk to him about making changes. I was in complete and utter shock. It shattered my world and the sense of who I was.
I plunged myself into what I know: creative expression of all different kinds. As I was processing my grief, I thought, this could help other people. I decided I wanted to go back to school. I got a master’s degree in transpersonal psychology, and two certificates in grief counseling. I am a Fellow in Thanatology, which is an advanced certification in the field of death, dying and bereavement.
I took over a friend’s job at a hospice in New Jersey as a bereavement counselor, and later moved to Hudson. In my practice I see mostly people who are dealing with losses because of a death, but also others who are grieving because of serious transitions in their lives. I’ve been able to put my artistic experiences, travel, and being a mother, wife, friend, and inquisitive person, in service of being able to sit with somebody and listen with compassion to their stories, using creative techniques for coping with grief.
Then we come to COVID-19. When we went into lockdown, a group of thanatologists, funeral directors, counselors and others gathered in Zoom meetings to brainstorm how we could help. The pandemic precipitated huge issues, and we put together a resource document, Covid Paper, because we recognized early on that there is a collective grief here.
During the pandemic I put my practice online, presented workshops, and began talking to people about pandemic grief. In the session at the library, I will give an overview of the concept of grief, how the pandemic has affected us personally and collectively, and invite people to share their own experiences.
How we express ourselves is so important. Most of my sessions are mostly talking. But I believe in the power of creativity, and that anybody can be creative. We are all able to explore our own ways of expression.
