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Bereaved Mother Conducting Research on Child-Loss, Seeking Participants

Posted on September 12, 2013 - by admin

Judy Hefren is a doctoral candidate at Florida State University, College of Social Work, whose only son died in 2007 at the age of 17. She is conducting research in hopes of gaining a better understanding of how and to what extent the significance that parents place on the belongings of their child who has died impacts the grief process. Her hope is that this research may in some way help parents make these difficult decisions about belongings following the death of a child. If you are comfortable in doing so, Judy would appreciate it if you would consider completing […]

Writing Your Book about Grief: Helpful Tips for Beginning Writers

Posted on September 12, 2013 - by Harriet Hodgson

I’ve been a freelance writer for 36+ years, focusing on health and wellness books. My latest book focuses on the steps I took to recover from multiple losses. Four family members died in 2007 and, thanks to grief work and introspection, I created a new life. So many people asked me how I managed to do this that I listed my recovery steps on paper. These steps became a talk and the talk became a book. My current publisher was interested in this grief resource, and I sent the manuscript to the executive director. The company has a collaborative agreement […]

How Do I Go On After Losing a Loved One?

Posted on September 10, 2013 - by Nicky C Jones

The other day, I received this question from one of my followers. She recently lost her husband and asked me, “How do I go on after losing a loved one?” When I read this question, I got a little bit tearful as I remember this feeling oh so well. This is a soul layer question and one I think will resonate with many of you. The quick answer that I usually give when people ask me how I went on is, “I did it because I had to. I didn’t have a choice.” The truth is, there is not one perfect answer; […]

Affirming Our Grief Experiences

Posted on September 9, 2013 - by David Roberts

A Balancing Act I was employed as a counselor for 27 years in the chemical dependency field, and several of my treatment approaches were based on a cognitive model of therapy. When any therapist deals with cognition as it relates to chemical dependency, they are usually addressing automatic negative thoughts that have contributed to continued relapse and otherwise destructive behavior. One of the suggested cognitive approaches to counteract negative thinking is the use of affirmations. Affirmations are positive self– statements that are consciously introduced into a person’s stream of consciousness. The belief is that if an individual uses affirmations consistently, that […]

Giving Love, Accepting Help: Keys to Grieving

Posted on September 9, 2013 - by Michael Nunley

I have a sister and a father, but I no longer need to buy them birthday cards. I don’t have their numbers in my address book and I don’t worry about running out of minutes on my cell phone plan when I tell them about my latest home improvement project. I still talk to them from time to time, but not when anyone else might be listening. I still love them and tell funny stories to other people about them and share memories with other family members, but mostly, I just miss them. I used to think the amount of […]

Multiple Losses: ‘Plowing Through the Pain’

Posted on September 8, 2013 - by Marsha Maring

Easter Sunday 2005 was expected to be like all other traditional Easters…church in the morning followed by the family gathering at my parents. We had anticipated this holiday to be extra special because our mother had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and not knowing the severity, we treasured each moment. Unfortunately the day did not unfold as planned. Tragically, the day started with an early morning phone call to my sister giving the news that her 23 year old daughter had been in a terrible car accident. This being the second catastrophic news to our family, we were almost […]

Man Who Lost Parents As a Child Speaks Through Art

Posted on September 6, 2013 - by Katherine Relf-Canas

If you have spent any time in La Jolla, California over the last decades, you might have seen Chris Canole in one of his many incarnations. This year, for the entire month of August, a series of drawn portraits and illustrations by this local polymath was on display as a one-man show at the Pannikin cafe. A playful conceptualization on the term retrospective, the artist used the show to look back on his life and inward as well. We all have key people for whom we are grateful, but Canole emphasizes that it’s doubly true for him. His parents died […]

Twenty Years After Child-Loss, a Mother Remembers

Posted on September 5, 2013 - by Fran Dorf

On October 22, 1990, I became the mother of two children. I will always be the mother of two children. Our daughter, Rachel, was already nine, but we’d been unable to conceive a second child after my husband’s shocking bout of cancer two years into our marriage, and so after several miscarriages and years on the artificial insemination rollercoaster, we’d arranged to adopt. It was a boy. He was a month early. We were thrilled. Bob and I flew to the birth mother’s southern city, made our way to the hospital, and stood at the nursery window. The 4-pound incubated […]

Re-Gaining Strength – and Letting Yourself Feel Good About it

Posted on September 3, 2013 - by Michael Nunley

It happens. One day you look up and realize that you haven’t set too many places at the table for over a month. One day you find yourself smiling at a photo instead of wanting to turn it face down on the mantle. One day you’ll know that it’s OK to leave room for them in your heart, even when they don’t need room in the backseat. Don’t let yourself feel guilty about making progress. Learning to live with loss is not the same as minimizing the life of your loved one. Finding joy in your present and future is […]

Can Grief Hide and Come Back Later?

Posted on September 2, 2013 - by Nicky C Jones

Can grief hide and come back later? I was recently asked this question by one of my followers. And, while I was thinking about my answer, a photo showed up in my life to confirm what I was already thinking. “Life is a spiral. Not a Circle.” We live in a culture that doesn’t always honour the grieving process and usually much sooner than is good for us we are thrown back into work and our other roles. We are forced to develop coping mechanisms so we can get through the day in a socially acceptable way, i.e,. not crying […]