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Kathleen Gilbert and Gloria Horsley: How Family Members Grieve Differently

Posted on April 9, 2016 - by Gloria Horsley

Dr. Gloria Horsley of the Open to Hope Foundation interviews Kathleen Gilbert, an associate professor at Indiana University. How do different family members grieve? According to Gilbert, there’s differential grieving. After a loss, people think their grief doesn’t match their loss. Who you are going into the grief is different than who you are now. There are many contributions, such as developmental stages. Just because a child looks like they should know what’s going on doesn’t mean they do. Children may need to be told time and time again what happened—which is aggravating for a grieving parent. Another example are […]

Lisa Dinhofer: Delivering a Death Notification

Posted on April 8, 2016 - by Heidi Horsley

Certified thanatologist Lisa Dinhofer talks about the best way to deliver a death notification during an Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) conference. As a death educator, she specializes in very traumatic loss. After years of training, she’s learned a lot about the impact of death notifications. Do it in person whenever possible. Avoid the phone, and always have a partner with you if you can. Look the person in the eye—you’re telling them very important information. If you can’t look them in the eye, they can’t trust you. They’ll want to know the details leading up to the […]

Acceptance or Letting Go?

Posted on April 7, 2016 - by Nina Impala

I pick Acceptance. It makes me cringe if I am in a conversation with someone who is grieving or missing a loved one in any way shape or form and I hear the words, it’s time to let go or you need to let go. I am sure their intentions come from a loving place. There is a time to let go of some things in our lives and grief is not one of them. It is good to let go of people who treat your poorly, it is good to let go of bad habits and it is good […]

Tonia Tanner: Roberta’s House is a Place of Hope and Healing

Posted on April 6, 2016 - by Heidi Horsley

Dr. Heidi Horsley talks with Tonia Tanner from . Her first encounter with the organization was a personal one in 2010 when her father passed away. Her family attended the center to help with the grieving process. It was a space where she found hope when she felt entirely lost. She wasn’t sure how to move forward and felt alone. When she became part of the program, she received endless support. It was a place that taught her what grief was, and that it was okay to grieve. There were days when the sadness was palpable, and going to Roberta’s […]

Tesia Henderson: Foster Care, Hope and Resiliency

Posted on April 4, 2016 - by Heidi Horsley

Representing The Foster Club at the National Alliance for Grieving Children conference is Tesia Henderson, who talks with Dr. Heidi Horsley about foster care, hope, and resiliency in youth. A lot of youth in foster care have been traumatized and are grieving. It may be the loss of a parent or the loss of a family member, and it’s not always grief from death. Being removed from your home and family can cause death-like grieving, especially in younger children who may not understand the reasons for this massive change. Henderson attended the conference to find out what the Club can […]

Spousal Loss: What Legacy of Loss Are You Passing on to Others?

Posted on March 28, 2016 - by Vicki Panagotacos, PhD FT

The loss of your life partner is especially complex to manage because the two of you functioned as a couple for so long. As a result, you are not only dealing with the loss of your partner, but also the loss of your sense of self that was constructed through your interactions. The question becomes: if you are no longer someone’s spouse or partner, then who are you? Psychotherapist Michael Miller refers to the process of relocating your single identity as intimate terrorism. Your relationship has been blown apart, and you are left to sift through the debris and extract […]

Easter After Our Daughter’s Death

Posted on March 27, 2016 - by Lo Anne Mayer

“Come home, Mom,” my daughter screamed over the transatlantic phone. “Cyndi is dead, and we’ve been trying to reach you.” All the money I had placed into the red lobster phone in Glastonbury, England, suddenly was swallowed up. The phone went dead. I looked at the woman behind me, waiting for her turn to make a call, and whispered, “She said that our daughter is dead. That’s impossible. I must have heard it wrong.” Jane and I had only met in the writing retreat three days earlier, but the force of my words pierced her heart. She poured all her […]

Ron Villano: Finding ‘Zing’ in Your Life After the Loss of a Child

Posted on March 24, 2016 - by Ron Villano

Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley welcome Ron Villano to a webinar about finding your “zing” after you’ve lost a child. Villano is a licensed psychotherapist, bereavement coach, national speaker, and author. Villano lost his son, Michael, and knows exactly how it feels to lose a child. His first tip is to give yourself permission to do something new, even if it’s “just for now.” Remember that when you choose to change your thoughts, you’re also choosing to change your life and that’s immensely powerful. All of the power is within you. “An avalanche of change begins with just one drop […]

Webinar: How to Manage the Easter Holiday

Posted on March 23, 2016 - by Gloria Horsley

Holidays can be a challenging time for those who have lost a loved one, and with Easter right around the corner, Dr. Gloria Horsley with the Open to Hope Foundation and Alan Pederson with Compassionate Friends have released a special webinar on handling this particular event. This webinar will also feature guest Kay Warren, founder of the Saddleback Church and an expert in grief and loss. Warren is a bible teacher, bestselling author, and a tireless advocate for those living with mental illnesses and/or HIV/AIDS, as well as vulnerable children. Warren is a mother to three children, one of whom, […]

Amy Florian: Finding Hope After the Loss of a Spouse

Posted on March 23, 2016 - by Dr. Gloria and Dr. Heidi Horsley

The founder and CEO of Corgenius, Amy Florian, shares her thoughts on losing a spouse and finding hope in the aftermath. As a bereavement consultant, she pursued her career based on her own experience. Her husband, John, was killed in an accident when they were in their 20s. She was shocked that the world kept moving forward when she had her world torn apart. “I felt that John deserved five minutes of silence,” she recalls. There needed to be more recognition beyond family and friends. She took it upon herself to memorialize John. “I was determined to remember,” she says. […]