Speaking · workshops · guest lectures · podcasts
Vera Decena speaks about the grieving body — what loss does to appetite, sleep, immunity and energy, and what grievers and the people who support them can do about it. Warm, evidence-based, and illustrated.
Vancouver & Lower Mainland in person · across Canada online · replies within 48 hours
"Grief is not a disease — but it has physiological effects."
Why organisers book Vera
The chapter most grief programs skip
Bereavement support talks about feelings and meaning; it rarely talks about appetite, sleep, immunity and energy. Vera brings the physiology — in plain language, without pathologising grief.
Science and lived experience in one voice
A B.Sc. in Food, Nutrition & Health from UBC and a decade in community nutrition — and a young widow who knows exactly why knowing about health didn't make it easier.
Rooms leave with something to try tonight
Steady fuel on a plate. In for three, out for seven. The gentlest possible list. Every talk is built to be used on a hard day, not admired.
Illustrated, not slide-dumped
Her decks are hand-built paper-cut illustrations (the same style as this site) — memorable, warm, and accessible to tired brains.
Trauma-informed and culturally rooted
Trauma-loss facilitator trained (BC Bereavement Helpline); Filipino-Canadian; experienced with family forums, peer communities and newcomer groups.
Built to convert into care
Each session ends with a clear next step for participants — a quiz, a handout, a conversation with their doctor — so the learning doesn't end when the room empties.
Signature talks & workshops
Each can be shaped to your audience, length and format. All of them include handouts and a next step for participants.
KEYNOTE · WEBINAR · 60–90 MIN
How grief affects the body and reshapes our relationship to food and energy
Why the brain and body feel disconnected, why eating feels so different now, what cravings are asking for, and how to nourish yourself through it. Four questions, one afternoon, something to try tonight.
FOR: Bereavement groups, hospices, helplines, workplaces
WORKSHOP · 2–3 H · INTERACTIVE
How grief changes your body's energy
The battery, the five pillars, allostatic overload and what gets cut first — then refilling across the five domains and finding a new kind of steady. Participants map their own energy and leave with a plan B.
FOR: Family forums, peer-support programs, retreats
GUEST LECTURE · 50–80 MIN
How grief impacts our physical body, our communities and our public health systems
From cardiovascular risk in the first thirty days to social prescribing and the public-health model of bereavement support — the evidence, the gaps, and where a health lens belongs in grief care.
FOR: Universities, health-science faculties, professional programs
COMMUNITY COOKING WORKSHOP · 2 H
Filipino food for health and happiness
Kumain ka na ba? A hands-on workshop on everyday Filipino dishes — sinigang, arroz caldo, champorado — as steady fuel and as connection. Food as the first co-regulator.
FOR: Neighbourhood houses, cultural organisations, community kitchens
TRAINING · HALF-DAY TO MULTI-SESSION
A tiered training for volunteers, first responders, healthcare providers and grief professionals
What the first eighteen months do to a body, how to ask 'what have you been eating lately?', when to refer, and how to build body-literate bereavement support into an existing program.
FOR: Hospices, health authorities, EAPs, first-responder and volunteer programs
Formats
Keynote · talk · webinar · 2–3 h workshop · half-day training · guest lecture · panel · podcast
Audiences
Grievers · volunteers · first responders · healthcare providers · grief professionals · students · workplaces & EAPs · cultural and community organisations
Fees
Scaled to format and organisation. Community and non-profit rates available; a limited number of pro-bono community sessions each year.
Where Vera has spoken
August 2025 · WEBINAR
BC Bereavement Helpline
The Grieving Body: How Grief Affects the Body and Reshapes Our Relationship to Food and Energy
Provincial webinar series (Aug 12, 2025) for Canada's only free, grief-specific helpline — the second session in BCBH's summer series.
Event page
November 2025 · WORKSHOP
Filipino BC
Oh My Gulay! Filipino Food for Health and Happiness
In-person community workshop at Collingwood Neighbourhood House (Nov 16, 2025), part of the community's care response after the Lapu-Lapu Day tragedy. Kumain ka na ba?
Event page
December 2025 · PANEL
South Vancouver Neighbourhood House
Empowering Women for Careers in STEM
Panelist on pathways into science careers for women — from food science to a practice built on it.
Organisation
March 2026 · PODCAST
Hospice Peterborough · What Now? podcast
When Grief Changes How We Eat, Rest, and Live (S4 E13)
46 minutes with co-hosts Red and Julie on what happens in the body when we experience loss. Published Mar 25, 2026.
Listen
March 2026 · WORKSHOP
Kitsilano Neighbourhood House
Oh My Gulay! Filipino Food for Health & Happiness — hands-on sinigang
Co-facilitated cooking workshop (Mar 30, 2026) with Matthew Asuncion.
Event pageApril 2026 · GUEST LECTURE
University of British Columbia · ASTU 400H
A Systems Approach: How Grief Impacts Our Physical Body, Our Communities, and Our Public Health Systems
Guest lecture in the student-directed seminar Understanding Loss and Grief: An Interdisciplinary Approach (Faculty of Arts, Winter 2026).
Organisation
April 2026 · GUEST LECTURE
University of the Fraser Valley · PSYC 491EE
Grief and Bereavement — the body's part of the story
Guest lecture for the senior Psychology seminar Grief and Bereavement.
OrganisationApril 2026 · WEBINAR
Widowed Friends
Connecting the Dots: Grief, Energy, and Your Relationship with Food
Members' webinar for Canada's national peer community of widows and widowers.
Organisation
May 2026 · PODCAST
Grief Dreams Podcast · Dr. Joshua Black
Nutrition and Grief (E243)
52 minutes on bodily changes in grief, nutrition's role, and Vera's own grief dreams. Published May 7, 2026.
Listen
September 2026 · FACILITATOR
Threads of Life · Western Family Forum
Two workshops: The Grieving Body: How Grief Affects the Body and Our Relationship to Food · Why Is Grief So Exhausting? (How Grief Changes Your Body's Energy)
Saskatoon, Sept 26–27, 2026 — for families across Western Canada affected by workplace fatality, injury or occupational disease.
Event pageOrganisation marks are used for identification only and remain the property of their owners.
Book Vera
Send the organisation, the date, who's in the audience, the format you're imagining, and what you'd love people to leave with. You'll hear back within 48 hours with options, a fee, and a short outline.
Good conversations fuel good days.
