A Changing Way of Life: Ambiguous Loss and Farming

A Changing Way of Life: Ambiguous Loss and Farming

Wednesday, April 23
3:00 – 4:00 p.m. EDT

Building resilience is a proven strategy when facing adversity, but what if that adversity isn’t as cut-and-dry as something like a death, a sale, or a financial change? For many farm families, they are experiencing something that is hard to explain to others. It’s hard to explain to even themselves. Join us for this webinar as we examine farming through the lens of ambiguous loss. Building on the work of Dr. Pauline Boss, we will introduce the theory of ambiguous loss and its applications to agriculture and share resilience strategies to keep families moving forward, even in the face of the unknown and uncontrollable.

Participants will

• learn about the stressors facing rural families and how ambiguous loss can help to frame and understand those stressors
• identify strategies to help families move through ambiguous loss
• learn about the University of Minnesota Extension ambiguous loss in farming programs

Our Presenter:

Emily Krekelberg is an Extension educator for farm safety and health with University of Minnesota Extension. She has spent her career working with farm families on a wide variety of topics, ranging from dairy production systems to mental health. Her personal experience growing up on her family’s dairy farm—and the challenges they faced—informs the work she does today. Emily’s firsthand experience with the many adversities of farming includes the sale of her family’s dairy herd, the destruction of a year’s corn crop due to hail, and two immediate family members losing limbs in agricultural accidents. These experiences have shaped the way Emily approaches her work with farmers and their families, weaving together the science of production agriculture with the art of building resilience.