Central to the my approach when I’m working with people who are grieving is the idea that grief is healthy and normal and each of my clients are naturally resilient, resourceful and creative. Their grief reactions are not brokenness or illness or something to “recover” from – they’re a part of the experience of love…
Understanding And Transforming Grief & Shame After Divorce, Death or Re-Marriage
This morning I enjoyed chatting with Barbara Goldberg from The Evil Stepmother Speaks about the role of grief and it’s impact on family relationships after divorce, death and re-marriage. Barbara works with stepmothers who often find it very difficult to join a family, because of the way that grief over the loss of the original family…
A Griever’s Guide To Freeing Yourself From Double-binds
“A double bind is an emotionally distressing dilemma in communication in which an individual (or group) receives two or more conflicting messages, in which one message negates the other. This creates a situation in which a successful response to one message results in a failed response to the other (and vice versa), so that the person will be…
Ubuntu: Creating A Wholehearted Life After Loss
Last month I had the privilege of speaking to over 300 brilliant coaches at the Martha Beck Coaches’ Summit in Phoenix. My presentation slot was just 8 minutes long, so with all that I’ve learned in my past 10 years since qualifying as a Social Worker, and especially in the past 2 years through my…
A Treasure-Trove of Resources For Wholehearted Living After Loss
What Exactly Is Wholehearted Living After Loss? Shelly Immel of The Big Life Project interviewed me a few weeks ago about wholehearted living after loss. I use that phrase a lot around here, but after this interview I realized that I’ve shared about it in bits and pieces throughout all my articles and there isn’t…
Relax, You Don’t Have To Do “Grief Work”
In the modern Western world we’re so obsessed with working and achieving that we’ve even tried to push the experience of loss and grief into our culture of working and achieving. I’m sure you’ve heard people talk about needing to do “grief work.” Grief work is often usually interpreted as thinking and talking about your…
