Living with Loss with Katrin Den Elzen

Join author, grief counsellor, and researcher, Dr Katrin Den Elzen in the lead up to National Palliative Care Week for an author talk about her experience of grief and healing as detailed in her latest book Locked In – Daring to Break Free.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of National Palliative Care Week, Australia's largest annual discussion about 'matters of life and death'. The conversations aim to open conversations, raise awareness, and advocate for better access to and acceptance of palliative care, and improved quality of life at end of life!

About the Book Locked In – Daring to Break Free

Katrin Den Elzen had a charmed life. She was happily married with two joyful children and a home in her dream city, Perth. Her world was shattered overnight when her husband Mark suddenly became locked in his body, fully paralysed and unable to speak.

In her courageous, compassionate, and unflinching memoir, Katrin recounts her battle for Mark's survival within the confines of a rigid hospital system that sees only a brain cyst and not a human being. When widowhood falls into her unwilling lap, she embarks on a quest to heal her trauma so that her two children can grow up happy, not defined by their loss. Katrin's inner struggle unfolds as she comes to terms not only with his death, but with multiple injustices within medical and legal institutions, from the realization of Mark's misdiagnosis to a medical negligence trial, and her struggle to emerge from these experiences without bitterness.

Katrin's journey of recovery evolves through love for her children, friendship, and a deep search for meaning. She becomes a spokesperson for palliative care, and immerses herself in postgraduate studies, discovering bereavement and trauma literature, neuroscientific insights, and the healing power of writing.

Locked In - Daring to Break Free is an exquisitely expressed, inspiring portrait of love, loss and finding peace in the face of profound suffering. This is a story of resilience, recovery and remaking.

"In limbic language that at times verges on the poetic without ever risking affectation, Katrin Den Elzen has written a masterpiece. She lays bare the incredible fragility of the human condition and the equally impressive capacity for resilience in the face of unutterable loss. Captivating, gripping and moving in turn. I couldn’t put it down. …

Having worked as therapist alongside countless clients struggling with shattering losses of their own, I am hard pressed to think of one who would not have benefitted from reading this memoir slowly, savouring its emotional truths as I did …

It is a book for every heart that has been broken open by grief, and for every friend or professional who commits to stand and eventually walk beside a mourner …  "

~Excerpts from the foreword by Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD, Director of the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition and author of 35 books on grief. 

"In Locked In – Daring to Break Free, Katrin takes readers on an extraordinary journey through her experience of grief and self-discovery following a traumatic illness that left her young husband “locked in”—a state where he was fully conscious but unable to communicate or move. This memoir does more than tell a story of trauma and grief; it offers insights into the nature of suffering and healing that resonate universally, touching readers deeply.  Katrin’s writing is vivid and evocative, drawing readers into her world with unflinching honesty and lyricism. Her gift for narrative allows her to express the intensity of her ordeal with grace and clarity, offering readers a perspective rarely encountered."

~Will Yeoman, CEO of Writing WA.

About the author:

Katrin holds a Doctorate and a Master’s in Creative Writing. She published her memoir Locked In – Daring to Break Free in June 2024. In addition to her creative writing, she has published two books as lead editor: Writing for Wellbeing: Theory, Research and Practice and Living with Loss: From Grief to Wellbeing.

Writing her memoir prompted Katrin to specialise in Writing for Wellbeing as facilitator, author and researcher. She also works as a grief counsellor and is a Research Associate with Curtin University. Further, she teaches Writing for Wellbeing to graduate counselling students in the expressive arts at Murdoch University.