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Jon Reid: Becoming a Grief Counselor

Posted on June 22, 2016 - by Jessica Tyner Mehta

Dr. Heidi Horsley talks with Dr. Jon Reid, a Professor of Psychology and Counseling at Southeastern Oklahoma State during the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) conference. He’s a certified fellow in thanatology from ADEC and shares his experience about becoming a grief counselor. There were a few key events that inspired Dr. Reid to pursue this career path. As an adult, he lost his father and realized he didn’t know what to do or what to expect. Feeling totally unprepared, he realized this situation and topic is one that’s uncomfortable yet common for many people. Dr. Reid attended […]

Isabel Stenzel Byrnes: Facing Mortality

Posted on June 21, 2016 - by Gloria Horsley

During the 2015 Association for Death Education and Counseling conference, Dr. Gloria Horsley connects with Isabel Stenzel Byrnes about finding hope and balance while living with an illness. Born with cystic fibrosis, Byrnes wasn’t given many years to live—but she has proven doctors wrong again and again. She attended CF-related camps as a child and then retreats as an adult. She cites her peers as giving her the support she needed to fight the disease. However, every year she loses friends to this illness and has seen how she will eventually die of CF. It puts her in touch with […]

Shep Jeffreys: Helping Grieving People When Tears are Not Enough

Posted on June 21, 2016 - by Dr. Gloria and Dr. Heidi Horsley

Open to Hope Foundation’s Dr. Gloria Horsley interviews Shep Jeffreys for the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) organization. What happens when tears aren’t enough to help you grief? Jeffreys is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University. He’s also a psychologist and grief counselor with a private practice. He’s also the author of Helping Grieving People – When Tears Are Not Enough, which just released its second edition. Helping grieving people usually comes with “normal” customary things, but that doesn’t always work for everyone. Many times tears can greatly help a griever—as can friends, church groups, […]

Jenny Wheeler: Reassuring Grieving Teens

Posted on June 20, 2016 - by Dr. Gloria and Dr. Heidi Horsley

Author Jenny Wheeler talks about losing her dad when she was a teenager. She wrote Weird is Normal When Teenagers Grieve to help other teenagers struggling with their own losses. She encourages teens and anyone who’s experienced a loss to connect with the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), which hosts an annual conference. Wheeler was a speaker at the 2011 event and has found that connecting with others, especially when you’re a teen, can be a great tool for healing. Empathy is something everyone needs, but as a teen it can be tough to reach out. She lost […]

A Young Father’s Murder

Posted on June 17, 2016 - by Jill Smoot

I met Randall when he was just six years old, the youngest of three siblings, one brother Mickey, and older sister Nancy, who was to become a lifelong friend. But at thirteen, we rarely thought of the future. It was fun to go to her house. Since I was an only child, I thought her little brothers were funny and cute. But time moved incredibly fast, and the little kid Randall grew up, married, and was now a young father himself. Nancy and I also had established homes of our own, and we remained close friends. As I reflect back […]

Father’s Day: A Duel Between Happiness and Sadness

Posted on June 17, 2016 - by Bart Sumner

The first Father’s Day I remember was when I was 8 or 9, and my dad and I were on an “Indian Guides” camping weekend with our “Tribe.” “Indian Guides” was a father and son organization run by the YMCA, and that weekend lots of fathers and their boys went camping in cabins, roughing it, and bonding. The Sunday morning that weekend was Father’s Day, and I had, with the help of my mother, hidden a pair of socks, wrapped neatly in my bag, so I could surprise my dad with a present when he woke up. Turns out, I […]

Fathers of Faith

Posted on June 15, 2016 - by Dr. Jane R. Westerfield

The hymn, Faith of Our Fathers, inspires the worshipper to be true to our forefathers’ Christian faith and to lead others to Christ through the example we set in our own lives. As Father’s Day approaches, it is with gratitude to God that I remember those whom we have “loved and lost awhile” as well as those who are still blessing our lives here on earth. I’d like to share three brief profiles of Fathers of Faith, men who have blessed my life. Bishop Frank Lewis Robertson My father was a United Methodist minister serving churches throughout South Georgia. He […]

Grief Tips for Those Who Lost Loved Ones in Orlando

Posted on June 13, 2016 - by John Rampton

The loss this weekend in Orlando is devastating to anyone that has heard about this senseless mass murder. However, for those that were directly impacted because they lost a child, friend, or loved one, the sense of loss is beyond words. It’s difficult to even know where to start in this type of grieving process, especially since there was no way to say goodbye to the person you lost, which so often helps with some type of closure. While all types of loss are hard to cope with, it becomes more complicated when an act of murder is involved. In […]

Why Does it Hurt So Much?

Posted on June 13, 2016 - by Nina Impala

Grieving people usually don’t ask directly: Why does it hurt so much? But I see that it hurts; I hurt like that. It hurts because you loved. You were connected to another human being heart to heart. It hurts. Death hurts a lot when we love like this. This hurt causes an incredible amount of suffering that hopefully this article may help you with. Recently, watching the suffering of a mother losing her child, a sister losing her brother, and a father losing his son, I was moved to think deeply about human suffering. I prayed about it; in my […]

Tragedy in Orlando, Collective Grief and Aftershocks of Loss

Posted on June 13, 2016 - by Marty Tousley

If the tragic events in Orlando yesterday were heavy for you and served as a painful reminder of the personal loss or losses you’ve endured, you are not alone in the sorrow you’re experiencing today. Once again our entire nation finds itself immersed in collective grief. For many Americans the feelings of grief associated with this horrific event seem just as raw as they did when the terrorist attacks happened on September 11, 2001. A newscast or film clip from Orlando can catch us by surprise, acting as a trigger, and it’s as if we’re confronted not only with traumatic […]