Griefsong - The Music and Bereavement Resources of Paul Alexander

Workshops

A Day of Hope and Healing: This Journey Called Grief
Help Is On The Way: Nurturing the Caregiver Workshop
The Therapeutic and Healing Power of Music Workshop
Reconnecting To Your Power
Wrap Myself In A Rainbow Workshop
Maintaining the Connection Workshop: A Tribute to Life and the Legacy

A Day of Hope and Healing: This Journey Called Grief - with Paul Alexander, CSW-R

Grief, bereavement and loss can bring us into uncharted territory. In this workshop the major themes of grief will be explored as well as coping methods for facing the soulwork grief presents.This day will provide an opportunity to explore ways to integrate and acknowledge the bereavement process. In addition to the exploration of grief and understanding the seven key factors impacting on the bereaved you will be guided through rituals of healing and connection and become more mindful of how to help oneself as well as others.

Workshop objectives:

to provide a workable model for coping with the issues and challenges of grief and loss.
to highlight the key areas of the bereavement process.
to impart ways to find a balance in grief work.
to discover ways to get through the roadblocks of moving up the grief mountain.
to teach creative expression as a tool for grief release and growth..
to provide “do-able actions” for moving through grief and mourning.
to underscore specific challenges a griever faces.
to increase awareness of the power of emotions in grief.
to encourage the connection to love as a healing force.
to foster opportunities for the griever to speak one’s truth.
to support and nurture goal setting within the context of a new normal.
to explore the phases, tasks and trigger points of moving forward following a loss.
to understand the importance of “being witness” to the unfolding of the griever’s story.
to explore the spiritual questions in ones' search for meaning.

^ Top of page ^

HELP IS ON THE WAY: Nurturing the Caregiver Workshop

Whether you’re in the role as helping professional or maneuvering your own losses, sometimes we just need to stop the spinning and take care of our own hearts! This workshop with Paul Alexander will highlight his favorite ways of of nurturing ourselves as well as caring for our spirits.Of course there will be music and singing with some helpful songs for memorials and rituals. There will be time to meditate, renavigate and search for our own truth within. There will be inspirational nuggets and guidance that will help us maneuver the rough spots in the road and open us up to moments of insight and joy and of course some suggestions and survival techniques to assist in facing the challenges of caring for others as well as ourselves. Now is the moment for you!

Objectives:

to discover and/or rediscover our purpose and intention in out works and our lives.
to better understand the quadrants of care and our place in the system of providing healing places and spaces for our clients.
to learn, utilize and integrate practical and useful tools for stress release, immediate focus and burnout indicators.
to explore healing, spiritual and sound techniques for replenishment of mind, body and spirit.
to learn the basics of self hypnosis and guided imagery for reconnecting to your personal power and higher wisdom.
to discover who you are in this wondeful world.

^ Top of page ^

The Therapeutic and Healing Power of Music Workshop with Paul Alexander

The use of music facilitates and promotes opportunities for grief expression and mourning throughout the bereavement process. Music can directly and indirectly access and acknowledge feelings, thoughts and the spiritual vastness one may experience following a loss. It can also serve as a rich vehicle of connection and meaning. It facilitates self expression, provides meaning and structure to rituals of healing and holy moments . The use of sound, song, changs and instruments are also powerful healing tools providing balance and healing energies. Using paul's music and other therapeutic healing techniques of sound you will find this a rich experience that supports the grief process in a memorable way.

Objectives:

to highlight the curative and supportive benefits of music.
to share music as it relates to the tasks of grieving and provides a context for exploring the psychological, emotional and spiritual work involved.
to provide an experience of music as it promotes acknowledgement of the grief process, quesitons and challenges.
to demonstrate music that supports the beneficial value of rituals in memorials, funerals and aftercare of the bereaved.
to explore the personal dimensions of music’s healing power in facilitating connnection to the deceased.
to experience toning and chanting and alternative healing sounds.
to share music as an adjunct to guided imagery and mediation .
to highlight music that can be used in support group settings.

^ Top of page ^

Reconnecting To Your Power with Paul Alexander

This popular and must have workshop is like turning on a light switch in a dark room. Using techniques that have accompanied his work for the past twenty years , Paul will guide you on a self healing program of enpowerment and self enrichment. Time and time again workshop participants are supported in their personal vision quests of hope and healing. “This is just what I needed”, a chaplain recently shared after a healing workshop of reconnection.

Objectives:

to teach and explore specific ways to reconnect to one’s personal power and inner truth utilizing points of power manifestation and definition.
focusing on sound, music, breath and REIKI wisdom Paul will guide you with a Healing Meditation he has specially formatted in his work with the bereaved and caregivers.
to explore signs of hope and renewal in our prayer work and reflection .
to discover ways to open to unexplainable and surprising moments of JOY!
to encourage and reclaim our right for owning our purpose and intention.
to reconnect to love as a healing force in our lives and in serving others.
to learn the key points of using self hypnosis, guided imagery and healing reconnection to the
source.

^ Top of page ^

Wrap Myself In A Rainbow Workshop with Paul Alexander

Inspired by the 1993 TCF Convention, Paul wrote a song and Grief Guide and Journal correlating the use of color and the seven key issues in grief . This workshop, which is often used as a format for support groups will provide a practical, creative and healing format for exploring the issues and challenges of grief and loss. Using the colors of the chakras as a guide, the purpose of the work will be to balance and reconnect to power points during times of refocusing and realignment necessary following a loss but also at many turning points in life. The usability by the bereaved and caring professionals overlap in this comprehensive experience .Not only will the 7 key issues of the grief navigation system be utilized but also the specially designed healing script Paul has shared with thousands for reconnection to their inner circle of wisdom. A powerful workshop for reconnection and realignment and self discovery.

Objectives:

to provide a workable and usable model for facing and integrating the issues and challenges of grief and loss.
to highlight and explore the 7 key areas of grief work with emphasis on rebalancing and realignment of the core self.
to explore creative and emotional expression within the 7 key areas of grief work.
to learn meditative and healing sounds of music and color that correlate with the grief process.
to understand the 5 key areas of working with self hypnosis and guided imagery as utilized in Paul Alexander’s healing script and meditation Wrap Myself in A Rainbow.
to encourage the connection to love as a healing and spiritual power point.
to increase and foster ways to explore the emotional truth for the griever.

^ Top of page ^

Maintaining the Connection Workshop: A Tribute to Life and the Legacy with Paul Alexander

The work of grief is not to forget and get over it but rather to come to a place where life can have meaning and where new energy can flow in a fulfilling way. We do not sever our connection with those who have passed over but search for ways to honor, remember, revisit and bring the gift of the life and interaction to the here and now in life affirming ways.This workshop celebrates and honors the essence and connection to those who have touched our lives and using creative tools as well as spirit based music and meditation honor the beauty and depth of the relationship in the here and now.

Objectives:

to explore the task of maintaining a connection to the deceased as part of the grief work .
to highlight how “moving on” incorporates a relationship to the deceased with opportunites for healing past hurts or failures.
to teach and model therapeutic value of honoring, and remembering the life and legacy.
to explore meditative and spiritual practices that access a deeper connection with our loved ones.
to further enpower and give direction to our lives.

^ Top of page ^

PAUL ALEXANDER'S BIO

Who Is Paul?

Paul Alexander is a singer, songwriter, psychotherapist, author, actor and performing artist who has shared his music and message of hope throughout the United States and Canada.

His recordings are resource tools being utilized by Church Groups, Funeral Homes, Hospices, and Hospitals as well as bereavement support groups and individual caregivers. Paul's contemporary style combined with his compassionate lyrics and compelling vocal delivery touch the heart and soul of the listener and provide healing and upliftment.

Paul's music has been inspired and enriched through his work as a Psychotherapist and Hospice Social Worker. For over ten years Paul’s bereavement work was in a hospice for terminally ill children journeying with the children and their families through the dying and the grief process. His grief work further moved into a private practice and strongly influenced his musical expression. His unique integration of his artistry and sensitive awareness to the hurting heart is what brings meaning to Paul Alexanders' voice and music.

Among his many original compositions there is one song that serves as a beacon in his creative life. Light A Candle has been widely used for candlelightings throughout the world and along with numerous originals such as Ray of Hope, Who Am I Now, When All is Said, Pennies from Heaven have inspired and comforted hearts searching for meaning following their loss. Facing the Holidays Following a Loss (VHS &DVD) has provided a model for coping with grief through the holidays and his interest in meditation has inspired Healing Meditation CD’s as well a Grief Guide and Workbook frequently used for bereavement support groups.

Paul's Concert and Workshop Presentations have been featured at:

National and local hospice groups
National and regional Catholic chaplains
National and regional conferences for The Compassionate Friends
National and local bereaved parents of America
Funeral homes and NFDA
ADEC (Associate for Death Education and Counseling)
National Catholic Ministry to the Bereaved
Bereavement Magazines Homecoming Conference
Hospice Foundation of America - Teleconference
World Gathering on Bereavement

Paul is blessed to have sung in St. Patricks Cathedral for Cardinal O’Connor’s youth Masses for 7 years and was complimented as being the “best leader of song” he had ever heard. In the secular world Paul has performed as actor/singer in many cabaret productions including A Celebration of John Denver: Heart to Heart which resulted in his very special tribute CD.

Musical theatre credits include Godspell, Company, Cabaret and has studied acting with Alec Baldwin, Michael Nader and Bill Esper Studios. He has appeared with Cokie Roberts as guest singer and artist in the award winning Children Mourning presentation by Hospice Foundation of America. His recent musical theatre talents have brought him to work with Ms. Julie Andrews in the New York debut of The Boyfriend. He was thrilled to record Gone Too Soon with its composer Larry Grossman musical, composer of many Broadway shows.

His newest Christmas CD and upcoming Songs of the 40's widen his musical appeal as he shares his gift of song and compassion in numerous venues. Whether in his music of healing for the bereaved or in his church ministry or in his contemporary and theatre work, Mr. Alexander brings a soulfulness and richness of expression to every word he sings.

His griefsong.com collection is carried by bereavement resource centers including Centering Corporation, Compassion Books, Bereavement Publishing, New Leaf Resources, Grief Inc, and Grief Support Services.