We all remember falling in love. We all remember those wonderful feelings we experienced when we fell in love. And if we experience love again, later in life, we become reacquainted with feeling alive and exuberant, like the teenagers we once were. But falling in love can also be shocking when it happens after the loss of a beloved spouse and no…
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Grief Support Groups Serving West Los Angeles, Encino and Agoura Hills
Grief Support Groups Serving West Los Angeles, Encino and Agoura Hills
Posts by Sue Rowen, M.A., MFT
You’re invited!
Leo Baeck Temple, 1300 N. Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles 90049.
9:30 a.m. Coffee & Pastries. 10:00 a.m. Film Presentation of Eve
Please join us on Wednesday, March 13 at Leo Baeck Temple for a screening of the short film, Eve, followed by a discussion with filmmaker Susan Bay Nimoy and HOPE Connection’s Executive Director, Dr. Jo Christner.
Members of the HOPE community may be especially interested in Eve because the filmmaker, Susan Bay Nimoy, found inspiration to create the film following the death of her husband, renowned actor Leonard Nimoy. “It was a profound loss for me,” says Nimoy, “I sunk into a deep dark hole, and I didn’t want to live. I wanted to die. And I actually kind of did.”
As both a HOPE Connection Therapist and an alumna of HOPE’s support groups, Evelyn has a unique and insightful perspective on grieving, healing and the upcoming holidays, which she shares here. Grief and loneliness brings a feeling of a “hole in my heart’” that cannot easily be bandaged. The connection of loneliness to grief is strong and indeed a profound feeling. It’s…
By Fern Lippert, Licensed Marriage Family Therapist Holidays are normally a time of rejoicing, sharing meals with loved ones, and carrying out the family traditions. Unfortunately, this year for many that has changed. A loved one is no longer there and now holidays can be a time of tremendous sadness. It reminds us of what we no longer have. We often wonder, “How…
Losing a parent is a loss like no other. The loss of a parent and how it impacts our lives can be compared to skipping a stone over water: there are ripples, many of them, and each ripple impacts our lives in a very profound and often discounted way. When we lose a parent we are faced with our own mortality for…
Scream and shout and flail about, it’s all part of feeling the self doubt. Get into bed and stay there all day, every thing will still go on just as they say. Try to hold on to the pain you feel so well, as death’s door must always keep ringing its bell. Look upon the photos, cards, and videos of long, long ago,…
The children tied a blindfold around his head. He was spun around and around, his sense of direction befuddled. He didn’t know which way to turn. Come and play, they call to him. But how? The blindfold obscures all, forcing him to encounter a world infused with uncertainty. So too for me, the loss of my spouse spun my world around leaving…
It has been said we observe life as if walking backwards, a vision of our past in clear focus while our future remains an enigma. Yet, on a path through a forest glen all of our senses are aware. Sunlight warms our skin, sounds and smells emanating from throughout our sphere fill our senses. If we but look we see everything…
Not long ago I learned that a very good friend’s husband was hit by a bus and left in critical condition only to pass away shortly after. He was a great man with a sweet soul and a gentle nature. He loved his animals, his wife, and kids, and seemed to always have a smile for you when in his presence. When…
Grief is a strange landscape: The world is the same, but you are not. You are still you, but the world is not. Everything has collapsed and gone cockeyed and reassembled in ways that only you can see. Even those who have lost the same person have still lost someone different than you have. It’s easy to feel like Alice, dropped down…