On Writing the Self in Bereavement: Taboos, Courage, and Identity Development in Loss

Reinekke Lengelle, PhD
Associate Professor Interdisciplinary Studies
Athabasca University, Canada 
Researcher The Hague University, The Netherlands 

Poet, playwright, and professor Reinekke Lengelle will discuss the “Writing the Self” approach in which she uses creative, expressive, and reflective writing to promote identity development and post-traumatic growth. Her work as a researcher and professor led to the co-development of “career writing,” a narrative approach to career learning which she will introduce, inspiring those attending to consider how pain and vocational drive are inextricably linked. Her experience of losing her spouse to cancer in November 2018 culminated in the book Writing the Self in Bereavement: A Story of Love, Spousal Loss, and Resilience (Routledge) that won the 2022 Outstanding Qualitative Book Award from the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.

Palliative Care Grand Rounds, co-sponsored by the Center for Bioethics & Health Law