Burying a child is not something that most people think about — until they must do it. I’ve done it twice, and I must say, I really do not know how I survived it. It has been more than 10 years, and I still do not truly comprehend the impact
Tag: Grief and Loss
“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” — Anatole France ***** On Jan. 22, following a three-week whirlwind diagnosis and decline, my husband and I said goodbye to our 6.5-year-old goldendoodle, Lily. Her disease had rendered this Frisbee-catching superstar unable to
During the time that Kerin Groves spent by her dying client’s hospital bed, she could tell that he felt conflicted. “I sensed he kept hanging on because his adult children were unable to cope with him dying,” she recalls. “The son kept urging him to fight and get better, even
For many years, mental health practitioners labored under the assumption that grief was a relatively short-lived process that people navigated in an orderly and predictable fashion until they reached “closure” — the point at which the bereaved would move on and put the person they had been grieving in the
This past summer, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, announced that they are expecting a baby. This celebrity baby news grabbed headlines for a different reason than most, however. The couple’s announcement included a candid acknowledgment that they had been trying to have a baby for
The first time I met Cynthia (not her real name) was in my office. She was in her late 20s and came to me because of a fear of driving. Initially, I believed her case would require cognitive behavioral work, and having received advanced training in rational emotive behavior therapy,
Experiencing loss is an inevitable part of life, and counselors are trained to help others overcome these emotionally difficult events. But what do counselors do to process their own personal grief — and how can they ensure that their grieving does not impede on the therapeutic process of clients? Eric
Tony Colombrito has been a trained American Red Cross disaster mental health volunteer for the past two years, but it wasn’t until the Dec. 14 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that he finally deployed. He spent nearly a week with residents of the town and
“The tipping point,” a concept presented by Malcolm Gladwell in a book by the same name in 2000, occurs when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips and spreads like wildfire. I believe helping women process the grief they experience after an abortion choice is an idea
When the lives of six educators and 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7 were cut short in a mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., school Dec. 14, the entire country found itself reeling. The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School is the second deadliest school shooting in