Susan Reynolds

Susan W. Reynolds developed her innovative system by combining interior redesign principles with grief recovery methods. Susan is a member of the Association of Design Education and a Certified Physical Therapist. Her training in wellness and ergonomics has given her sensitive insights into the needs of people in grief. She is a consultant to hospices on how interior design can help clients feel comfortable and safe. She speaks at bereavement groups to teach her methods to people who have suffered loss. She helps those in grief visualize how small changes in their surroundings can result in big changes in attitude. After her husband died of cancer after a difficult two-year battle, Susan participated in traditional grief groups. She found that a practical approach worked best for her. She uses her blog, "Room for Change", to present her ideas about the role of ergonomics in grief recovery. The book version of her system reflects input from bereavement coordinators and other specialists in the field of death and dying. Her company, Revival Redesign helps people refresh and enliven their personal space using items they already own and love.

Articles:

Lightness within Darker Days: Creating Routines

It’s that time of year again when weather changes, light changes, and layers come out to keep us warm. It’s that time of year again when traditions and aromas of childhood and warmth fill the stores and environments we occupy. Maybe this time, the past traditions and changes don’t fit our outlook of life woven with loss or grief. Our pockets may be laden with heavy loss. Another change? What can we do for ourselves as autumn shifts from the sunny days of summer to the shadowing and hibernating days of fall and winter? In loss, one often has “ […]

Grief Down Under: Australians React to Malaysia Airlines Crash with Compassion

I arrived in Belgium on 9-11-01, a visitor in a foreign country during a tragically tumultuous time of loss and confusion. Last week, I awoke in Australia to another civilian disaster — the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines plane — with the same ingredients linking global grief and sorrow. Outcries once again echoed across borders. The television reports in Australia were somber and as factual as possible. I was overwhelmed by the lack of “finger pointing” and their grieving words. This is a country of adventurers and mavericks. Traveling is in the genes of the Aussies, encouraged by the […]

Unravelling of Life … My Sweater

The sweater clothed me It sheltered me daily It covered my wounds It kept me safe It was comfortable The occasional yarns that dangled or sprout forth Were quickly yanked away or shorn down No need for them. What I had clothed me One day Father Jim hugged me A priest on a airplane ride I was always afraid of priests His Mr. Rogers sweater was pilled and heavily laden with miscolored shreds from travels bumping up against rough surfaces, forests of stray colors and threads lay pocketed My gleaming bracelet within the hug caught his […]

Second-Place Bereavement: When Grief Workers Need Help

How can workers within end-of-life settings support themselves in dealing with their own matters of bereavement? Is it possible for them to enlist help of others or are their needs held in second place? What can you do to help? Burnout can arise both with paid and unpaid workers in this field. They can find themselves facing and tackling their personal family bereaved situations outside of work. Bereavement is loss, not just death. “ Loosing” a patient upon patient can bring one to a tipping point. Connection and disconnection is continually happening in the workplace for them. Now add changing […]

Excising Grief: Breast Cancer Sparks Insights

This note today is about grief. How long do you hold onto it? How might it affect your personal health? How can you keep tabs on it in relation to other things in your life? February is a big month for me. No, not the anniversary of the death of my spouse or father or other relative. No, it is not the fact that I am single again this Valentine’s day. This month, I have choices to make that appeared from nowhere. I have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Not me! my head and heart echoed. But yes. Six months ago, […]

Good Grief or Good Re-Grief?

I had not readied myself for the upwelling of feelings. I had commanded the appointments, followed through with scheduling and now was returning for a follow-up medical procedure to the initial follow-up medical procedure. I have attended to many of these similar procedures when my late husband’s diagnosis lingered and continued until his analogous stem cell replacement failed. I had complained about the wait in the waiting rooms, mumbled under my breath about “cool” receptionists and old magazines and people waiting for your name to be called like a number in line at the deli. This time I was alone […]

Room For Change: Reassembling Your Life

As time “slips” by in my healing from loss of spouse and I find my way to enter again into life, there seems to be more and more sliding from slide to side. I’m trying to find my footing on a path unexplored. It was easy being a mother, wife and co-creator of a family life. Two daughters, two cats, one dog and two parents under one roof. Consensus was not always the order of the day but we worked as a team, dreamed as a team and lived together for 23 years. When my husband died, the girls and […]

Room For Change: Changing Walls within Loss

Walls are dividers. Walls are providers. Walls are low. Walls are high. Walls are protectors. Walls are prisons. Walls with cracks fall down and can be rebuilt or replaced with something else. Moving through many changes after loss (the major one being the death of my spouse), I have moved my literal walls. In fact, I have moved three times within the last 6 years. I have constructed walls from blue prints; I have adorned and painted them. I have purchased a new home only to sell it 2 years later and rent after 30 years of owning my own […]

Room For Change After a Spouse-Loss

As time “slips” by in my healing from loss of spouse, and I find my way to enter again into life, there seems to be more and more sliding from side to side. I’m trying to find my footing on a path unexplored. It was easy being a mother, wife and co creator of a family life. Two daughters, two cats, one dog and two parents under one roof. Consensus was not always possible, but we worked as a team, dreamed as a team and lived together for 23 years. When my husband died, the girls and I felt unstable […]

Returning Home After Seven Years of Widowhood

Like the prodigal son, we go to far-flung places when we are grieving. We may splurge on time alone or insist on being with others continuously. We may splurge on items we never owned before or insist on keeping every item from the past. We may splurge on thoughts of the past and insist on keeping things the way they used to be. I am returning home. After almost 7 years of widowhood, moving 3 times and challenging myself to meet new opportunities and others, I have moved again to Atlanta. No, Atlanta is not a place I ever laid […]

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