Bald Statements/Good Grief

Yesterday I saw a fantastic exhibition of sculptures at Central URC in Sheffield (sorry, it's over now) by Jean Parker, a woman whose response to breast cancer and the treatment which made all her hair fall out was, during a seven-day silent retreat, to model small clay heads symbolising eight of the emotional/spiritual stages through which this experience had led her, from denial to peace. Later she worked these up into small bronze statues and reworked the themes in a more abstract way in alabaster. The results were placed around the church sanctuary alongside a DVD giving her reflections on her work.
As the publicity for this event had promised, the stages of Jean's grieving also resonate with people who have not experienced breast cancer but know other forms of bereavement and loss. I could imagine the DVD in itself being a very powerful focus for a group discussion or for worship - the whole set-up had been used that way for the local Week of Prayer for Christian Unity service the week before.
Interestingly, I heard that not everyone was happy for a church to be used in this way. I could imagine one of the sculptures in particular, on the theme of anger, arousing negative reactions. As Jean says on the DVD, being angry, especially being an angry woman, is not at all encouraged in society. People don't know what to do with you. Far easier to be depressed, for then you can be comforted. Yet without processing all these stages, how can we be healed?