Mary Bryant
Mary Bryant is currently the Manager of a Bereavement Counselling
Service at St Vincent's Hospital Sydney. She has been employed as a
social worker/counsellor/ educator for over thirty years.
Mary
has extensive work experience counselling in loss and grief. She first
worked in palliative care in 2001. She has provided counselling at the
Mater and Neringah Hospital in palliative care and oncology. She was the
Senior Counsellor at Dementia Australia and has ten years' experience
working with young people as a school counsellor. As an educator,
Mary lectured in Social Work at Western Sydney University (1998-2003)
and the Australian Catholic University (2003-2005). Mary lectured
for the Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement and has educated
health professionals in loss, grief and bereavement at a number of
Sydney hospitals including St George, Prince of Wales, and Sutherland.
She has also conducted workshops at St Vincent's, St Josephs and The
Mater and provided training at the Motor Neurone Disease Association,
Settlement Services International and Long Bay Jail. Mary has
lived as a carer and partner to someone who has lived with metastic
cancer for 16 years and quadriplegia for 11 years. She raised six
children through this experience. This has illuminated her working
knowledge of what it is to be a client of the palliative care and health
systems. She hopes to advocate for families who are close to invisible
in their experience.
Mary is passionate about
normalising reactions to grief which are too often misdiagnosed as
anxiety disorders. She believes the human spirit is capable of
extraordinary things when it is supported to be its truest self. Mary joined the ACI End of Life and Palliative Care Network Executive Committee in May 2021
Author's website: Mary Bryant
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