Grief Education

Grief is part of the process of healing for those who have experienced a death or a personal or family loss (job, relationship, tragedy); it is also something we deal with when recognizing worry and anxiety within ourselves and our experience of the world around us. I was told my children had emotional and behavioral issues strong enough that they needed to be removed from traditional brick-and-mortar public schools for a while. What was not recognized, and what I needed to point out to school counselors to receive proper help, is that their dad died when they were barely 5 and 3 years old. Since their issues in school were recognized in the 2nd grade, there was a reluctance to make the correlation. Luckily, I found two therapists who listened to me when I suggested the connection. The counseling took a turn from trying to manage behavior to recognizing the grief/abandonment and anxiety around the worry that mom would also disappear. There is a little more to it than that, but that experience has sent me on a journey to not only recognize the life that we are missing and the worries that we all have for various reasons but also to recognize that loss is not only in the death of a loved one. Loss is also change. It is a constant readjustment in our world, and so many of us don’t recognize or have the ability to find the support that is necessary for our healing. We live in a society that colors loss, death, and anxiety as something we need to get a grip on, and that is not always the case. Recognizing the meaning in our own lives, even within the loss and change, is a way to honor the life of a loved one no longer with us and ourselves in a change that takes us away from what we are accustomed to.

We grieve because we have loved. We have a connection to someone, something, or a way of life that is no longer possible. There is no right or wrong way to move through any grief. No one death or situation is more important than the other. That is all from the perspective and the life of the person grieving. Grieving brings up unresolved trauma, pain, and anxiety. Grieving may also be a breath of fresh air and a release. Each person and every situation is different.

The links below are for more information. You will also find a link to my scheduling page to schedule an individual or private session. Private sessions honor your uniqueness, your situation, and your healing. Please check back occasionally as new resources are added and more services for individual and group healing and coaching times are added.