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Complicated Bereavement: Mourning Someone You Never Really Knew

Well, I never really knew you ’til you said goodbye~Vince Gill If you want to know something about bereavement that slides from ‘normal’ to ‘complicated’ in a moment of revelation, due to unimaginable circumstances, you need look no further than… Continue Reading

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Bereavement With Your Name On It: The ‘Unbereaved Bereaved’

In the totally bizarre way in which the world–and bereavement–works, sometimes you’re in the right (or should I say wrong?) place, at the right time, to be a mourner you don’t feel yourself to be, in a role you never wanted… Continue Reading

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Interventions For Mourners–and Why Sometimes Research Can Be A Real Downer

“Do not put your faith in what statistics say until you have carefully considered what they do not say.” ~William W. Watt I’m going to really go out on a limb here. Forthcoming: one of those big assumptions about humankind… Continue Reading

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Loss of a Dream: Layers of Bereavement

“There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations.” ~ Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes Recently, within a span of 5 years, I found myself in the homes of two of the administrators from the local Jewish… Continue Reading

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Pathologizing Grief–Just For Starters: The DSM-5 and My Tripartite Expression of Displeasure, Part II

You cry into your pillow silently at night, reaching across to that empty expanse of the bed where, for 30 years, you’d always felt your partner’s hand reaching, in turn, for yours. Sleep eludes you due to the pain, and… Continue Reading

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Pathologizing Grief–Just For Starters: The DSM-5 and My Tripartite Expression of Displeasure, Getting Started

It’s a little-known fact, even to the seminar graduates, that,  before the powers that be let a mother actually give birth to her child, she and her partner have to attend a weekend seminar (and there are no exceptions here) in some hazy, nebulous… Continue Reading

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‘But a Transition From This Life:’ Bereavement and Belief in the Afterlife

“Death is but a transition from this life to another existence where there is no more pain and anguish. All the bitterness and disagreements will vanish, and the only thing that lives forever is love.” ~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Grief from the… Continue Reading