grief and loss
Grief in the Season of Joy
Everywhere you look, the signs are there: The holidays are here. Turkeys, holly berries, lights, and snowmen are showing up in every store – and on some front lawns – as we roll into the season of joy. At least, it’s supposed to be a season of joy, or so we are told. …
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When love is mingled with grief
Last week, I wrote about Aragorn and his journey from nameless ranger to noble king. Today, I want to revisit the Lord of the Rings from a different angle. Today, we will explore a concept spoken by the Elf Queen Galadriel: love, mingled with grief. In the first first movie of the Lord of…
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When Therapy Sucks, part 2: Emotional Hangover
Awhile back, I wrote an article about why it’s important to stick it out even when therapy sucks. Today, I want to talk a little more about what can make therapy so hard sometimes. Have you ever had a session that felt really special – like, a deep, breakthrough, oh-my-God-it-all-makes-sense-now, felt like something really shifted…
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When Father’s Day is Bittersweet
Today is a day that we honor and celebrate fathers. Fathers are inarguably some of the most influential people in our lives – whether they are in our lives or not. Their presence or lack of presence can have an equally significant impact on us. In the ideal, the role of father carries the…
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Walking on the Moon
It’s a new year. The holidays have ended and most of us are back to work and making our way back to our daily routines. We are surrounded by good intentions, goals, resolutions, and expectations for the new year. Daily life is at once familiar and new. For me, this new year is different. The…
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A Time to Mourn (A Little More)
Last week, I wrote about grief, loss, and mourning to honor hopes that go unfulfilled. Today, I will return to the conversation to speak more deeply to the complicated, ambiguous losses of past and future relationships. In the therapy world, we sometimes talk about something called “complicated grief,”. Or grief that exceeds the usual length,…
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A Time to Mourn
Halloween is over. We’ve taken off our costumes, put away our spiderwebs, and divvied up our candy (what’s left of it anyway). It’s officially autumn, and the leaves in my neighborhood are finally starting to turn and drift to the earth. It is a time of transition, moving us from the heat and humidity of…
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