It can be 20 days or 20 years since your parent(s) has died and still there is a painful nostalgia that accompanies thoughts and reflections on our lives when our parent(s) was alive. Whether you perceived your parent as a loving parent or an unloving parent, this remains true. In one way or another we register the uniqueness of our relationship with…
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Grief Support Groups Serving West Los Angeles, Encino and Agoura Hills
Grief Support Groups Serving West Los Angeles, Encino and Agoura Hills
Grief (Page 5)
What a valid question in the middle of so much pain, loss and change! The answer depends upon your perspective and where you are in your grief. Although there are similar phases/stages of grief, YOU go through your grief process in your own unique way. Most of the time, you don’t have a hint of what that means until you are forced…
As both a HOPE Connection Therapist and an alumna of HOPE’s support groups, Evelyn has a unique and insightful perspective on grieving, healing and the upcoming holidays, which she shares here. Grief and loneliness brings a feeling of a “hole in my heart’” that cannot easily be bandaged. The connection of loneliness to grief is strong and indeed a profound feeling. It’s…
So you’re feeling too much pain and isolation and decide to join a grief group. Or you simply work up the courage and jump in. Whew! That is not an easy step. No one wants to join this “club.” At first, everyone seems to be more or less in the same boat. It appears that everyone is sad and grieving a huge…
Not long ago I learned that a very good friend’s husband was hit by a bus and left in critical condition only to pass away shortly after. He was a great man with a sweet soul and a gentle nature. He loved his animals, his wife, and kids, and seemed to always have a smile for you when in his presence. When…
“There are moments which mark your life. Moments when you realize nothing will ever be the same and time is divided into two parts, before this, and after this.” — N. Kazan There are indeed events that divide your life into “before and after.” And holidays often make you realize the significance of the event you’ve experienced. If you’re grieving, holidays —…
I am alone and lonely with no one to turn to. Often I am afraid when thinking of my uncertain future… getting old and sick in a hospital or nursing home with no one to hold my hand and comfort me. Could you give me some feedback on this concern. When you get stuck in your fears about the future, you probably…
Grief is a strange landscape: The world is the same, but you are not. You are still you, but the world is not. Everything has collapsed and gone cockeyed and reassembled in ways that only you can see. Even those who have lost the same person have still lost someone different than you have. It’s easy to feel like Alice, dropped down…
Though it has been discussed many times publicly and privately, it bears repeating from time to time just so that people don’t forget. There are some thoughtless and inappropriate comments that people say to the bereaved because they:
A) Don’t know what to say
B) Don’t think about what they’re saying
C) Are uncomfortable with their own vulnerability
D) Just don’t understand. It is just not part of any experience they have ever had; therefore, they are unable to relate.
When the person closest to you dies, it is not only
Grieving is not an event. It’s a journey that has many faces, facets and layers, many losses within loss. Some will take you by surprise. When your spouse dies, it feels like the pain of that loss is the only thing that you can see, feel and… barely manage. It feels like a deep hole inside that will never heal. You try…