One Year Ago... Last September (2020), I wrote a blog post about the losses we were experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When I drafted that article, I didn't expect to write a similar reminder just one year later. Yet, here we are…amid an ever-raging pandemic...feeling tremendous grief and mourning the cumulative losses we have acquired over the past 18 months. My dear readers, our hearts are weary. Our spirits are fatigued. Our grief feels heavy. Loss has become a com

Have you ever wondered why grief feels so hard…why our heart literally aches after the death of someone we love? Many years ago, when psychologists and social scientists first tried to understand how humans cope with loss, they hypothesized that we should completely detach ourselves from the person who died to heal our grief. Thankfully, theorists now agree that avoidance and denial are not effective (or healthy) ways to process grief. Humans are created for connection, and o

When we’re grieving the loss of a loved one, the holiday season can be difficult to navigate. The holidays are laden with nostalgia, prompting us to reflect on memories of holidays past. While many recollections of our loved ones are positive or joyful, we may also be grieving a complicated relationship where the resulting memories are harder to process. The felt absence of our loved ones can be palpable during this time of year. And, our resulting grief reactions are likely

I spent last weekend with new friends who know, all too well, what it’s like to live in the “in-between” spaces of life. Have you ever been there? In the “in-between?” Most of us are frequent visitors to this place, whether we realize it or not. The “in-between” reveals itself in different situations for each of us, but it can often be found near… Diagnosis Separation Divorce Death Illness Pandemic Loss Troubling Circumstances It reflects the spaces in our lives where we cour

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance ("DABDA") Has anyone ever told you that grief should follow these predictable and orderly stages? If yes, I'm pretty sure this post is going to shake a few things up for you! In the paraphrased words of Dr. Maya Angelou, "...when you know better, do better." Let's take a couple of minutes to challenge one of the biggest misconceptions about grief, so we can better help ourselves and our friends through experiences of loss. I h

Today is World Mental Health Day (10/10), and it's no secret the pandemic has taken a toll on us in many ways, including our mental health. It's hard to put into words exactly what we feel because we live in a culture where we rarely talk about our feelings, let alone FEEL them. Our society struggles with witnessing and supporting the authentic expression of raw emotions, and these are not in short supply amid the pandemic. My dear readers, we are all living in one of the lar