Getting Personal About Grief
Getting Personal About Grief

Follow along on my personal journey through time and grief as I share what it was like for me preparing to speak at the 2021 Links Grief Summit and writing Project Proactive’s parent’s guide on helping children grieve.

My hands trembled and my heart started beating quicker as the minutes grew closer. I wasn’t trembling because I was afraid to speak at the Links Grief Summit. I don't have a fear of public speaking. Although the number of participants was way over the 250 mark, I felt at ease. After all, I was speaking virtually, seated comfortably in my cozy office.

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Grief and LossEsther GoldsteinComment
Learning to Live with the Invisible Presence of Grief Through Expressive Arts
Learning to Live with the Invisible Presence of Grief Through Expressive Arts

Creative arts therapy can be deeply moving in the healing of grief, because it helps us create a place to hold our pain, external from ourselves, an object created with the sole purpose of expressing love and loss. People of all ages are able to explore their feelings, reconcile emotional conflicts, foster self-awareness, manage behavior, develop social skills, improve reality orientation, reduce anxiety, heal trauma, increase self-esteem, and find new ways to express what words cannot.

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Grief and Loss, Creative Arts TherapyGuest UserArt Therapy, Creative Arts, Expressive Arts, Grieve through art, Grief processComment
7 Mindset Shifts to Help You Ride the Waves of Grief
7 Mindset Shifts to Help You Ride the Waves of Grief

If you’ve been touched by death, my heart feels for yours. The loss of a loved one, a parent or siblings is devastating. Many people are impacted by grief when they lose friends, colleagues and pets. Everyone is affected differently by different losses and grieves differently in response to their losses. Those griefs can bring new griefs as you move through phases of life and new experiences without your loved one. Each lifecycle event or milestone can trigger latent emotional tidal waves. Grief is an ongoing journey with no end. It’s about learning to accept and live with this new reality.

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Depression, Grief and LossEsther GoldsteinComment
Permission To Grieve
Permission To Grieve

Grief is hard, but living trapped in unacknowledged grief is worse. Jackie is a Medical Resident in her final year who is struggling with ambiguous grief. Nobody has died, but she has been suffering on her recent shift in Obstetrics & Gynecology. If you’ve been struggling with anxiety or chronic stress you might relate to Jackie, and perhaps you will realize, that it could be related to your unmet need to grieve lost hope. Please be gentle with yourself. Give yourself the psychoeducation, time and space you need to heal and process your grief.

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Grief and Loss, Depression, Somatic ExperiencingRebecca Shapirogrief counseling, grief and loss, overcoming grief, ambiguous grief Comments
Delayed Grief: It’s Never too Late to Process
Delayed Grief: It’s Never too Late to Process

Did you know that it’s very normal to experience delayed grief? Feelings of loss can bubble up inside us years after we thought we we were done grieving. Many of us experience it and have no idea that our current pain is linked to unprocessed grief. For most people, the grief process is a lifelong journey, one that doesn’t end at a prescribed time or milestone. Waves of painful emotions can kick up decades later, causing worry and confusion, when you have never learned that grief is a normal part of life.

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Grief and Loss, DepressionEsther Goldsteindelayed grief, ambiguous grief, adult grief, processing griefComment