Thomas William Attig Ph. D
Fairfield, California

This year we are honoured to recoginize the work of Dr Thomas Attig, by presenting him with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his disguished
contribiton to death education and grief counselling. Below is his bio, and information on his Keynote and workshop at this year's conference.

Thomas Attig is the author of The Heart of Grief: Death and the Search for Lasting Love and How We Grieve: Relearning the World, both with Oxford. He has written numerous articles and reviews on grief and loss, care of the dying, suicide intervention, death education, expert witnessing in wrongful death cases, the ethics of interactions with the dying, and the nature of applied philosophy. For details on these

Tom is also a well known speaker, having offered conference programs across the United States and Canada, and in England, Australia, Israel, and Germany as well as innumerable talks and workshops for nurses, physicians, funeral directors, clinical psychologists, social service providers, gerontologists, hospice workers, bereavement coordinators, clergy, educators, civic organizations and the general public.

Tom was born and raised in the Midwest. He received his bachelor's degree in philosophy from Northwestern University in 1967 and his MA (1969) and Ph.D. (1973), again in philosophy, from Washington University in St. Louis. He taught philosophy at Bowling Green State University for nearly twenty-five years , serving as Department Chair for eleven years and leading efforts to establish the first Ph.D. in Applied Philosophy in the world in 1987. Tom left as Professor Emeritus in Philosophy in 1995 to become an independent applied philosopher. A Past President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, he also served as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement.

Catching Your Breath in Grief
Keynote Address
Thomas Attig
12:30 - 2:00pm, Saturday, July 26th, 2008

Abstract:

In this presentation, I will tell a story that reflects what I have learned in over thirty years of reflection about the meanings of life, death, loss, and grieving.

The story begins as one about the breath of life itself: the mystery of its coming and going, the grace that gives it, its animating power, the life support it provides, how we take it for granted, and the good reasons why traditions identify it with soul and spirit.

It continues as a story about how the loss of someone we love takes our breath away: the brokenness and sorrow (grief reaction) that come over us; the crises of ego, soul, and spirit that leave us gasping for breath; the realization of how much we have taken for granted; and assurance that, though its smooth flow is disrupted, the breath of life itself continues unbroken.

And it concludes as a story about how, through active engagement with what has happened to us (grieving response), we catch our breath by: adopting sorrow-friendly practices that enable us to breathe into our suffering and learn vital lessons from it, drawing upon hope and the resilience of soul and spirit, learning to carry sorrow, relearning the worlds of our experience, and learning to love in separation.

Objectives: †Those who attend this session will be able to -

1 – Distinguish soulful and spiritual dimensions of the breath of life.

2 – Describe how the bereaved gasp for breath in grief reaction.

3 – Describe how the bereaved catch their breath through grieving response.

Places in the Heart: Grief and Lasting Love
Workshop
Thomas Attig
9:30am - 12:30pm, Saturday, July 26th, 2008

Abstract:

When we grieve, we move from loving in presence to loving in separation. Nothing is more difficult in grieving. Nothing is more important if we are to thrive again in lives profoundly changed by loss. It is the central challenge in reweaving the web of connections in our daily lives and redirecting our life stories. Those we love leave us their legacies. We give them places in our hearts, both where we miss them and close to the vital centers of our lives. There will always be a place in our hearts where we miss them. As we learn to love them in separation, we open our hearts in other places to what we still have of them. We hold them in our memories, practical lives, souls, and spirits. As we learn to hold them in these other places, we find consolation that tempers the pain of separation. Participants will be invited to reflect on the value and usefulness of this understanding of grieving as centrally a transition to lasting love.

Objectives: Participants will -

1 – Understand how grieving involves making a transition from loving
in presence to loving in separation

2 – Understand sources of the pain of missing those who have died,
including soul pain and spiritual pain

3 – Understand the varieties of legacy left to us by those who die and
ways of holding and using those legacies

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