Surviving Loss, Grief, and Trauma

By Grant Kono, LCSW

No one can tell another person what a traumatic experience should look like, or what that person should or should not be feeling or thinking about what's happened to them. The simple fact is that if you are having strong thoughts and/or feelings about your experience, then you have been traumatized to some extent.

Anticipatory Grief

When someone has a prolonged fatal illness, suffers from seriously progressive memory impairment, or is being kept alive by extreme medical interventions, their friends and family members may begin grieving the loss of their loved one's former self long before the actual death. This pre-death mourning is often referred to as "anticipatory grief."

Mourning the Death of a Spouse

Andrew, age 73, felt like the wind had been knocked out of him when his wife died. He began sleeping all day and staying up at night watching TV. Meals were mostly snacks like cookies and chips. He knew it wasn't healthy, but he didn't know what to do. Across town, Alice woke up in a panic. It had been 5 weeks since Jeff, her husband of 41 years, died. She cared for him during his long illness. How was she going to cope with the loneliness?

Healing After Loss

By Constance Clancy, Ed.D.

To lose something of material value can suddenly leave us stunned and momentarily beside ourselves. But when we lose someone of value, that loss is magnified a thousand-fold...our lives are changed forever, and our sense of who we are becomes immeasurably shaken.

The Therapeutic Benefits of Journaling

Journaling can help individuals detangle their thoughts and feelings, increase focus, know themselves better, build self-esteem, manage stress, solve problems more effectively, let go of the past, and resolve disagreements or conflicts with others. Experts believe that by understanding yourself better, you are better able to make decisions that are in line with your values and goals.

You Can Weather That Storm—Ten Steps To Help You Do Just That

By Claire Arene, MSW, LCSW

Often, crisis becomes tragic or needlessly agonizing because those involved completely give up hope that change can occur or better times are possible. This article discusses ten coping techniques that comprise mental attitudes, thought patterns, and actions that can help steer you down the path of successful rebuilding.

Surviving Significant Loss

A life change that involves significant loss--the death of a loved one, divorce, career crisis, decline in health, or any other irreversible and unwanted situation--evokes a natural emotional and behavioral response called grief. Accepting emotional support from those close to you, as well as from a caring professional therapist, can offer essential help.

When You're Older and Coping With Loss

Throughout your lifetime, you have most likely been the person whom others have looked to for help in times of trouble. Know that it’s okay for you to be at the receiving end of care and attention as you move through the painful process of mourning the loss of a loved one.

Rebuild! Rebuild! Rebuild!

By Claire Arene, MSW, LCSW

Finally, it’s all over. Hopefully, you have your life to yourself and you can look forward to the future ahead of you. However, depending on your particular story of disappointment, divorce, or failure, it may not be that easy or clear-cut.

Dealing With Stress Caused By a Disaster

A major disaster--e.g., flood, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, fire--threatens to not only leave a trail of lives lost, physical injuries, and property destruction in its wake, but can also result in its victims suffering from a severely damaged sense of emotional balance.

Helping a Friend Who's Mourning the Loss of a Loved One

When someone you care about is mourning the loss of a loved one, you want to be there for them but may feel apprehensive and/or clueless about just how to help. While there is no "perfect" thing to say or do to ease the pain of a friend's loss, there are many ways in which you can provide sensitivity and support as they find ways to cope with their grief.

Phantom Limb Pain

By Michelle Gottlieb, Psy.D., MFT

I really like doing EMDR for two reasons: it is highly researched and it works! I recently heard a report about doing EMDR for people with phantom limb pain. And it stopped the pain! I was amazed and so I read the research that had been done on it. It was all the same. In just a few sessions, these people who had suffered pain for years were no longer being bothered.

Sometimes Grief Becomes Complicated, Unresolved or Stuck

Life changes that involve significant loss--such as the death of a loved one, divorce, career crisis, decline in health, or any other irreversible, unwanted situation--can evoke a natural emotional and behavioral response called grief. Learning how to live with a significant loss can be a complicated process that involves hard and often painful emotional work over a period of many months or even years.

Survivor Guilt

By Mitchell Milch, LCSW

Therapy provides a holding environment; an environment of acceptance, interest and concern for the client and his guilt provoking wishes, feelings, fantasies, etc. The therapist nurtures the client’s entitlement to enjoy his life and to stand up against his self-defeating and misery-generating patterns of being. Thus, the survivors of survivor guilt learn to do better than just survive.

Coping With Traumatic Events

There are as many responses to crisis as there are people affected. Most individuals have intense feelings after a traumatic event but soon completely recover from the trauma; others are more vulnerable — especially those who have had previous traumatic experiences — and will need additional help for such conditions as anxiety, PTSD, and depression.