The ‘healing power’ of conversation

Posted on July 24th, 2018

When it comes to the difficult subjects of death or illness, it can be hard to know the best way to support someone and talking about these matters can be really challenging, even with loved ones. Concern about what is the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ thing to say can lead people to avoid the conversation completely but a lack of communication and interaction may have an isolating effect.

Dr Gillian Sandstrom from the Department of Psychology at the University of Essex is preparing to undertake a study to discover what prevents people from speaking freely during difficult times, and to explore the positive impact of overcoming these types of communication barriers.  Dr Sandstrom recently attended the Death Café Freedom Funeral’s hosts and is speaking with people that have been recently bereaved and those diagnosed with terminal illnesses to gain insight into what specific factors cause interaction to break down.

The study hopes to figure out ways for people to address the ‘elephant in the room’ more freely without fear of saying the wrong thing and ultimately, ease the impact loneliness can have on our physical and mental health.

The study is welcomed by the team at Freedom Funerals who strongly believe in opening up communication channels and the positives delivered by speaking freely about dying and death.  This provides the driving force behind our Death Café events, which offers people a chance to open up about their experiences of illness, death, bereavement and more – informally over a cup of tea.

We look forward to reading the findings of the research which we hope will help to combat loneliness and isolation in those facing difficult situations.  For more information into the study, click here for the University of Essex website and details.

If you’d like to speak to a member of the Freedom Funerals team for advice, support or details of our next event please don’t hesitate to get in touch online, or call on 01206 862963.