Learning to Cope with Grief and Loss
You can’t stop thinking about that moment – when your entire life changed, when you lost the person you love. Every other moment is marked as “before” or “after.”
Death is like a conversation ended midway through – a “new normal” you never wanted. You would give anything to have another hour, another minute, another second with your loved one.
You are angry, lonely, confused, scared, guilty and hopeless. You wonder if you will ever stop feeling this way.
You worry that others will grow tired of your suffering, so you stay quiet in the pain. The world around you keeps moving, and you feel the expectation to move with it. But you know that you aren’t moving forward, even if it looks that way from the outside. Bereavement devolves into depression or unhealthy ways of coping.
Grief is not something you “move on” or “get better” from. It is something you learn to live with while still feeling hope and joy again.
When patients come to see me for grief counseling, part of my job is to hold the hope for them until they can hold it themselves. Through therapy, I can help you learn to properly grieve your loss in a way that allows you to hold on to your relationship with your loved one without being overwhelmed with difficult emotions. My goal is to help you feel joy, not pain, when you think of them.
As your psychologist, we will work together to:
learn to manage the pain and overwhelming emotions associated with the loss
cope with other secondary losses that came as a result of the death, i.e. loss of identity, loss of income/financial stability, loss of support systems, loss of safety and security
understand how you experience grief and bereavement
learn the difference between healthy grief and depression
rebuild a healthy and fulfilling life that allows for continued emotional connection with others, including the deceased
If you are ready to find some stability in this moment of turmoil, send me a message or call me at 215-764-7916.
