Search Results for: non death

Working With Ambiguous Grief and Non-Death Losses

The Grief of Non-Death Losses

Our society seems pretty comfortable with the following if-then logic. “If there has been a death, then there will be grief.” This logic is easily observed and understood by just about anyone. Take a look at Oxford Dictionaries definition of ‘Grief’: Deep sorrow, especially

The Paradoxical Grief of Anticipated Sudden Death

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about a grief phenomenon that I know is felt by many but doesn't seem to get much airtime. It's something I experienced in three significant losses in my life, something I've heard described by

Grieving the Life You Expected: Nonfinite Grief and Loss

From a very young age, we begin to develop expectations about the world around us. Our brains create rules to help us organize the boatloads of information we encounter each and every day. Some of these are simple, practical rules.

Nonfinite Grief (Grieving The Life You Expected)

Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the What's Your Grief Podcast. This is Eleanor and I'm joined by Litsa. Litsa, how are you? I'm doing all right. My week has been okay. It started off a little rough

The First Birthday After the Death of a Loved One

I've always thought of birthdays as a mark that someone's grown a year older. For me, it's always seemed like birthdays are about age because we celebrate them on the exact day a person was born to recognize they've made

Why do People Think we Move On After Death?

I always wanted an imaginary friend as a child, but my mind wouldn't stretch far enough. I envied kids who genuinely managed to conjure the idea of someone else's presence because I guessed they were never lonely. They always had

5 Ways Funeral Directors Can Help Families When A Death Is Disenfranchised

Disenfranchised grief is a term coined by one of our favorite grief researchers, Ken Doka, about twenty years ago. He defines disenfranchised grief as: “Grief that persons experience when they incur a loss that is not or cannot be openly acknowledged,

Spend a Day Like Your Loved One on Their Deathiversary

The anniversary of my mother's death, or her "deathiversary", is closing in on me. I usually count on the foliage and cool fresh air to tip me off, but the beginning of Fall was so unseasonably warm this year, I