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living with

GRIEF

Grief is so many things. And there are so many people, relationships & experiences we must grieve. The pain can feel untouchable, immovable, unrelenting. But grief isn't you. It is the hurt, sadness, anger, heartbreak, confusion and loss that follows love.

 

We don't grieve people, relationships or intense life changes that we didn't care about, that we felt indifferent to. We grieve because we cared, we hoped, we ached, we loved deeply.​

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Grief is natural, necessary and unique to every person. It may seem that hope is lost, we will never come back to our bodies or our selves, there is no possible future, no purpose to be found again. But there is hope. There is a path forward. There is a way to live as the new person you have become since your loss. I will help hold that hope for you, help keep it safe while you move gently through grief, until you can see it and feel it for yourself.  

Wet Autumn Leaves

Bereavement

Losing a loved one, a family member, a cherished person in your life can feel like a squeezing of your chest, a pressure on your body and lungs, a heaviness and sadness that feels like it will never lift. The pain is unique to each person and each loss, but all can feel unbearable.

 

And some painful losses are complicated by the fact that others don't understand or honor them fully, such as a loss by miscarriage, the loss of a beloved pet, the loss of a mentor or idol.

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A death can also bring up complicated and confusing emotions - the guilt we might feel in relief, the anger we might feel because the person we lost had also hurt us.

 

There is no "right" kind of grief, just as there is no "right" way to grieve. There is also no way to skip the necessary task of grieving. We may try to distract, avoid or ignore it, but the pain will only grow.

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Grief won't always hurt like this. By experiencing feelings & emotions safely, sharing stories, moving grief into mourning and finding meaning, we can find ways to live again. And we can find ways to move forward - not move on, but move forward as the new, changed people we are after loss.

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I cannot "fix" grief, but with compassion and empathy I will help you navigate this painful time, find ways to manage the daily challenges of living while grieving and find light on the other side.

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Contact me to learn more.

"Everyday grief"

"Everyday grief" helps name the losses we can feel as we navigate our lives, have new experiences, expected or unexpected transitions, and discover that the path forward includes longing, sadness, hurt or disappointment. With each new change, we also mourn the "might have beens," the "what ifs," the roads not taken.

 

When relationships end, when children reveal themselves to be different than who we parents expected, when the lives we had planned surprise, frustrate, shock or devastate us, we can be filled with grief that is hard to identify, hard to make space for, hard for others to help support us through.

 

But these are not problems to fix - they are the realities of our lives. We must honor and experience this grief in order to find peace and acceptance, so that we may move forward in our lives with intention, positivity and hope.

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If you feel stuck, are struggling to move forward, anxious through transition or aware of pain around an ending (divorce/breakup, retirement, empty nesting, health diagnosis, family change), together we will identify that grief, learn to experience it safely and support you as you move gently through it, into the next phase of life.

 

Let's grieve the ending so you can start a new beginning.

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Contact me to learn more.

Autumn Woods

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