Grief and Loss

GRIEF

Grief is dis-regulating and after the loss we may be in a process to redefine ourselves and how we engage with the world. We oscillate between experiencing the pain of grief and taking time off from the pain to adjust to non-grief related life demands and changes. Grief is expressed physically, emotionally, socially and behaviorally.

types of losses

Throughout our lives we experience different types of losses. While some are death related, many are be not death related losses such as being laid off from one’s job, relocating, or experiencing loss of a relationship. Some types of of losses we experience are:

• Loss of a family member (child, parent, sibling)

• Loss of a friend

• Pet loss

• Non-death related loss (divorce, separation, job, social support, health)

• Traumatic loss

• Anticipatory grief

• Living with a terminal illness

• Caring for a loved one with terminal illness

• Experiencing complicated grief reactions (i.e. chronic, delayed, excessing/disabling, or masked grief reactions)

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.” Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning