Healing Chickadee
The Healing Chickadee is an activity to support grieving children by learning communication and coping skills with the help of Dee Dee the Chickadee and her friends, the Tweethearts. After ordering the plush Healing Chickadee (for $24.95) you will find a secret code to explore the soulful forest and grief glen, where children can learn communication and coping skills after the death of their person. The feathered friends share stories of loss in addition to activities, songs and videos to support the grieving process.
The Healing Chickadee was created by two sisters,Terry Murphy and Deb Clarke know what it means to be children in grief. The sudden death of their sixteen year old brother introduced them to an early experience of tragedy and loss. In their acknowledgement of the lingering effects of their pain, they have collaborated to create The Healing Chickadee. While it has been decades since that tragedy, their realization that grief has no timetable was the impetus for them to find a way to help children seek comfort when they have suffered a loss. The sisters began to think of things that would have been helpful to them and their family as they struggled to find solace and to heal the wound of loss.
Drawing on this experience, they created The Healing Chickadee and her Tweet-Hearts. The birds convey messages of comfort for a child in mourning. The content, approved by Dr. Suzanne Clerkin, a psychologist who conducted studies on the neuroscience of grief, is not a substitute for therapy. Rather, the bird characters, the activities, and the songs and stories are designed to enhance a child’s social-emotional skills and provide families with a catalyst for conversations about a topic that all too often seems off limits.
