Open to Hope Articles
Do you want to read stories of others who have been where you are? Are you looking for bereavement help, and advice? Look no further. We offer over 3,000 articles written by our Open to Hope authors.
SORT BY RELATIONSHIP
The Feelings of Grief
April 11, 2012
RAGE: This is an emotion we may feel when grieving but be reluctant to admit. When someone we love dies, we feel the raw wound of their absence. The raw emotions that cut like a knife. The raw gut wrenching pain. ANGER: The force of our anger may surprise us. We may be unable to contain it. We feel the anger that this could happen to us, to them. We may feel anger that it wasn’t us instead of them, at the unfairness of life. GRIEF: The paradox of grief is it is a kaleidoscope of feelings and feeling nothing at all. Grief exists in […]
Have You Suffered an Ambiguous Loss?
April 8, 2012
I had never heard of ambiguous loss until my daughter, a licensed family therapist, told me about it. The term was coined by Pauline Boss, PhD, of the University of Minnesota. It came from her research and the clinical studies she has been conducting since 1974. What is ambiguous loss? Basically, it is loss without closure. There is no body or death certificate. You may be experiencing this loss now if a parent has Alzheimer’s, a sibling has chronic mental illness, a runaway child has never been fund, or a military spouse is missing in Afghanistan. According to Pauline Boss, […]
Stumbling Blocks or Stepping Stones
April 4, 2012
When someone we love deeply dies, many of us feel as though we have lost our way and very unsure of where the path is, let alone what path we are on. Many of us planned on stopping and getting off anywhere but here. When we are headed towards heartbreak, any direction can seem better than the one we are on. Somehow though here we are and there is no turn around or turning back. We are on a one-way road that we never chose. The date our journeys started, the length of time it took, may have been moments, […]
As Career Shifts, Counselor Remembers What Really Matters
April 3, 2012
I have been an addictions counselor for 27 years, and have worked in the same place for that entire time. I will be retiring from my full-time job on July 12th of this year. I haven’t officially filed the paperwork yet, but that will be a formality. I am prepared to close this chapter of my life and not look back. I will miss many of the staff that I have met over the years, and the day-to-day contacts with the patients. I am retiring mainly because I don’t share the work system’s values and priorities anymore, and I can’t […]
Grief and the Strengths Perspective
March 30, 2012
As I draw nearer to retirement from state service, the memories about the colleagues whose association I have valued and the patients who have crossed my path during the past 27 years have increased in frequency. I have also begun to reflect on the damage that well-meaning human service professionals can do to clients who are in the early stages of trauma simply through the interventions that they use. Since my daughter Jeannine’s death on 3/1/03 at the age of 18, I have become more sensitive to the interventions used with grieving clients that may unintentionally undermine as oppose to […]
Poem: Hands
March 26, 2012
I wrote this poem for Alice Wisler’s online writing workshop, “Writing the Heartache”. We were to take something that was our child’s and write a poem about it. I chose a hand print of my precious daughter, Nina’. She was two years old. Nina died at the hands of a drunk driver when she was 15 1/2 years old. Hands Little handprints in a frame, Flashback of memories days long gone, yet still so fresh in my mind as if only yesterday. Tiny hand of my baby girl, Fingers curled around my own, Only a reflex to some, But not in […]
Basia Mosinski, LCAT, ATR-BC, MFA; Step-child Loss
March 22, 2012
Basia Mosinski, is an Art Psychotherapist in Private Practice in NYC. Basia attributes her career choice in Art Therapy to the traumatic death of her 10 yr old stepson. She made a video about the accident which helped provide focus when it felt like her life was falling apart, and it did. She is the Chair of the Technology Committee of the American Art Therapy Association. She has written about media arts in art therapy and healing trauma. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/2012/07/Bosia-Mosinski_01.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
‘Brotherhood’ of Fathers Who Have Lost Children
March 17, 2012
I had a unique experience last week while I was at work that took me a little off guard. To give you some background leading up to this experience, it started the Friday before New Year’s weekend and I was on the phone with someone (Mark) I had never spoken to before and we were talking about the possibility of his firm doing some sub-consultant work for a project I was managing. I am the type of person who is genuinely interested in other people. I think everyone has a story to tell which I find intriguing. Therefore, as with […]
