The Future I Imagined Grieving the Life That Didn't Happen

Workshop Overview

Not all grief follows a death.

Sometimes we grieve a future we expected to have. A relationship. A family. A career. A healthy body. A sense of identity. A dream that once felt certain.

These losses can be profound, yet they may go unseen because there has been no funeral, no public ritual and sometimes no shared language for what has been lost.

This workshop explores the grief that can arise when life takes a different path from the one we imagined.

Together, we will explore:

• The grief of an imagined future
• Infertility and involuntary childlessness
• Relationship breakdown and divorce
• Estrangement and fractured family relationships
• Illness, injury and disability
• Career disruption and loss of professional identity
• Friendship loss and changing social connections
• Loss of identity, purpose or belonging
• Ambiguous and non-death loss
• Why unrecognised grief can feel particularly isolating
• Finding ways to acknowledge and make meaning of losses others may not see

Who is this workshop for?
Adults of all ages, community members, counsellors, volunteers, support workers and anyone who has experienced — or supports someone experiencing — a life that unfolded differently than expected.