Dr Irene Renzenbrink (Heineke) 11.6.1949 -13.3.2026

Born in the Netherlands, and migrating to Australia in 1952, Dr. Irene Renzenbrink was a passionate advocate for creative responses to dying and loss. Her career was informed by lifelong learning, including a B.A. Dip Soc Studs (Melbourne 1972), M Soc Admin (Flinders 1997), Advanced Graduate Diploma Art Therapy (Vancouver 2012) and Doctor of Philosophy in Expressive Arts Therapy (European Graduate School Switzerland 2018). After graduating as a social worker, Irene’s early professional experience (Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Royal Children’s Hospital, Royal Women’s Hospital, St Vincent’s Hospital) alerted her to the many unmet needs of dying and bereaved people. Redressing this became her mission. She was at the forefront of the modern hospice movement (Melbourne City Mission, Mercey Hospice Care); from 1983 to 1990 she pioneered a professional bereavement support service for a funeral director; she was heavily involved in developing the National Association for Loss and Grief, and nurtured community-based responses to disasters in the wake of the Queen St and Hoddle St shootings (late 1980s). Keenly aware of widespread ignorance about grief, Irene became a founding member of the Centre for Grief Education (later Grief Australia). Irene brought to the field of dying and bereavement her broad social work perspective on practice, policy and organizational and community change.  For all this work, she was inducted into the Victorian Government Honour Roll of Women in 2001.

Irene experienced the personal costs of deep immersion in this field. She promoted “relentless self-care”, editing Caregiver stress and staff support in illness, dying and bereavement (OUP 2011). While living between Melbourne and Canada, her own self-care included exploring the synergies between grief, social work and art-making. These explorations resulted in her book An expressive arts approach to healing loss and grief (2021).  A natural networker, and gifted public speaker, teacher and writer, Irene shared her knowledge, gaining wide respect for her clear, creative and inspirational presentations.

Seemingly unstoppable, Irene never really ‘retired’. She remained an active member of the prestigious International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement, continued teaching, and recently returned to part-time social work practice with aged care residents and their families. In the words of the tribute from Grief Australia: “The field of grief and bereavement in Australia is measurably better for her life’s work.”

Author

Dr. Lynda Campbell is a former senior lecturer in Social Work at the University of Melbourne.