eCREATIVE
&
D
by Barbara Mitchell
ecatur, GA resident Tamara Beachum has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology
with a concentration in Psychology. She worked in the Human Resources field
for more than twenty years with much of that time spent coaching employees
on everything from career goals to job loss to the death of a loved one. In
2012, she became a Certified Creative Grief Support Practitioner and today, in addition to
managing her own practice in the metropolitan Atlanta area, she teaches hospice workers,
pastors, grief coaches, and others through the Creative Grief Studio.
Tamara is no stranger to grief. In a 36-month period she lost her father to cancer, was laid
off from a job she loved, and her husband was diagnosed with cancer. “I weighed less than
my 15-year-old. My hair fell out. A simple conversation with my husband involved the
external dialog and a running internal scream of “How am I going to live without this
man?!”
Swiss-American psychiatrist, Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross first introduced the five stages of
dying - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance - in her 1969 groundbreaking
book, On Death and Dying. It was assumed that this also applied to grief but today more
current research shows that our reaction to loss does not happen in the same way for
survivors as it does for the dying. We also have a natural resilience not examined in this
theory. Tamara Beachum talked with eCREATIVE about her steps in a journey that today
helps others find resilience and meaning after the death of their life partners and other
losses.