If you find yourself reading this, perhaps you have lost a loved one. Perhaps you are mindful of lost relationships, opportunities, and ambitions. Loss – of both people and the things we seek in life – is inevitable for everyone. You may experience:

• Disbelief or confusion

• Sorrow, anger, guilt, and/or resentment

• Loneliness, even around others, and yearning for who/what was lost

• Distressing reminders and memories of the loss

• A “brain fog” of forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating

• Relational conflict with friends and family who don’t understand or feel what you feel

All of these are normal responses. The nature of the loss may even make these experiences more intense and longer in duration than you or others in your life expect; this, too, can be quite normal.

Almost universally with loss, there is a disruption of identity. You may feel your sense of self, expectations for your life, role in the lives of others, and social interests have been completely lost or rewritten. This is the primary focus of grief work. After loss, people are seldom ever exactly who they were before the loss. Therapy allows us to help you discover who you are now and where you are going. We can integrate the loss experience into a “new you” – not any worse or lesser than before, and perhaps better, or maybe simply different.