Losing a loved one can be an overwhelming experience. Yet, some find themselves in a bewildering state of numbness at first—a disconcerting absence of feeling when one expects sorrow to overflow. If you’ve found yourself in this space, seemingly untouched by waves of grief, know that you’re not alone. This…
bereavement
Anticipatory grief is the feeling of foreboding, overwhelm, and sadness that we might feel before experiencing a significant loss. Although our worries about the future may never come to fruition, that doesn’t mean that our emotions aren’t real. Anticipatory grief symptoms can be difficult to manage, though, especially when they’re…
The bargaining stage of grief is a process in which an individual who has suffered a loss might seek to regain control of their inner narrative, as they slowly process what has happened to them or someone they care about. Bargaining involves psychological negotiating with oneself, other people, or even…
Grief is a normal human response to the pain of losing someone. It can be brutal, anguished, disorienting, maddening, enraging, and lonely. But ultimately, people do emerge from grief. They may feel forever changed; however, they do find meaning in their lives again. Those difficult feelings eventually make way for…
Child therapists know that children grieve differently from adults, and they also understand how a child’s unique grieving process might be overlooked in the midst of significant loss. Children who experience the death of someone close to them are often surrounded by adult suffering. They might not want to burden…
Losing a loved one is always difficult, but there is a more severe form of grief—called complicated grief—which makes it hard for an individual to ever move forward with life. Complicated grief is marked by debilitating feelings that don’t resolve or improve with time; instead, they can haunt an individual…