Loss by Suicide

Suicide is Complicated This past weekend was a deeply heavy weekend for young families. As some of you may know, I serve as a Chaplain for our local fire and police departments and the families that are impacted by a tragedy. I feel there is a deep need to speak to a complicated topic. This […]

Helping Parents with Loss – Looking At Myth 6 – Time Heals all Wounds

Myth 6 – Time Heals all Wounds This might be the single most dramatically inaccurate piece of mis-information that has been imposed on all of us.  Like most false beliefs, this idea has a partial basis in reality.  Recovery from loss  and completion of emotional pain do happen within a framework of time.  However, there […]

Grief and Recovery – Is it Possible? Yes!

Grief and Recovery Is this the first time you have seen these two expressions together? In modern life, moving through intense emotional pain has become such a misunderstood process that most of us have very little idea of how to respond to loss. Have you ever wondered, what does recovery from grief look like? Recovery […]

Helping Parents Helping Children with Loss – Looking At Myth 5 – Keep Busy

Myth 5 – Keep Busy Let’s return to the mom from our first story –  Monkey see Monkey do. This time it relates to her five-year-old daughter.  This brings us to another loss- related myth.  Well-meaning family and friends had advised the mom to keep busy.  Mom had become a beehive of activity.  She scheduled […]

Helping Parents Helping Children with Loss – Why do people Grieve Alone

Why do people Grieve Alone People grieve alone because they are afraid of being judged or criticized for having the feelings they are having. Remember our first myth: Don’t feel bad.  this admonition suggests that we are somehow defective if we feel bad at all or if the feeling continues for more than a moment.  […]

Helping Parents Helping Children with Loss – Grieve Alone – A Closer Look

Grieve Alone – A Closer Look Since the book, “When Children Grieve” is about the well-being of children, let’s start with infants to see if the idea of grieving alone seems true for them.  When infants are in discomfort of any kind, what is the very first thing they do?  They cry out for help.  […]