Your Grief

Griefspotting Losses For a Post-COVID Era

Friday, September 25, 2020

As we have gone from days to weeks to months dealing with the Covid epidemic, I have become increasingly concerned that our unresolved issues around grief and loss are mounting.  It occurs to me that it is not too early to address some of the issues that will plague us in the future by identifying them and intervening where we can in preparation for a postcovid world. I like to call this intervention Griefspotting. What, you may ask, is Griefspotting? Doesn’t it have something to do with Trainspotting and Heroin tracks?  Not in my world. When I was a kid, […]

Children & Teens

Embracing the Highs and Lows

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

In facilitating small groups with sometimes noncommunicative teens, my wise colleague suggested beginning the session by asking each participant to share a high and a low.  A high could include something going well, an accomplishment, an anticipated upcoming event, or anything positive, while a low could be something worrisome, circumstances that didn’t work out as planned, a disappointment, a traumatic event, etc. This activity works every single time like magic to get teens to open up!  Sometimes, just discussing highs and lows could take a whole session and the participants always verbalized feeling better, supported, and connected, even when no […]

Open to Hope

Bereavement Struggles During COVID-19

Friday, May 22, 2020

As we know, we are experiencing life and death during unprecedented times. That means that all the things we did do to address bereavement and loss aren’t possible right now. The result is that we feel disappointed and lost. And, we might still in disbelief that our loss even happened. Today, on our Facebook Live discussion, Heidi and I are joined by Dr. Gale Larson. He is a Professor of Counseling Psychology at Santa Clara University as well as noted author and speaker. Gale shares many insights into the bereavement struggles that many of us may experience now. He also […]