Grief is such an isolating journey. Your inner you, that voice inside that is private, is struggling to find a place that feels familiar, someplace safe, someplace connected and someplace understood. It feels like everything in the world has changed since your loved one has died. Nothing is the same, cut adrift from the safe and loving harbor that once was. Everyone…
Grief Support Groups Serving West Los Angeles, Encino and Agoura Hills
Grief Support Groups Serving West Los Angeles, Encino and Agoura Hills
Character – Etched In Your Soul Have you ever wondered how — or if — grief has changed you? It seems like a simple question. At least that’s what I thought when the therapist leading our support group asked us: “How has grief changed you?” Then I realized that what seemed simple, wasn’t. Because my first thought was, “I haven’t changed.” And almost…
Michael L. Thal, an accomplished freelancer, is the author of The Koolura Series, Goodbye Tchaikovsky, and The Abduction of Joshua Bloom. He has written and published over 80 articles for magazines and newspapers including Highlights for Children, The Los Angeles Times and San Diego Family Magazine. You can learn more about him at his website or contact him at michaelthal@sbcglobal.net
Michael lives in Encino, CA. He’s the proud father of two adult daughters, Channie (who is also a HOPE therapist) and Koren, and the grandfather of Arielle, Shaye and Jordan.
Grief is part of us, for we’ve all experienced the loss of a loved one. I first experienced this emotion when my grandmother died when I was 10. Later in life my beloved uncle passed away, then my father and a decade later, my mom. I dealt with those losses and moved on, though memories of their lives are still a profound influence on me today. The most difficult loss, however, was the passing of my wife, Jila, who died three years ago from stage four-colon cancer.
Channie Amato is a HOPE therapist, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and Art Therapist, providing individual, group and family play & art therapy.
Grieving the death of a loved one is one of life’s most difficult challenges. Words may be difficult to speak, but the pain and the emotions are shouting inside. According to J. William Worden, there are 4 tasks of grieving.
- To accept the reality of the loss
- To process the pain
- To adjust to your world without your loved one
- Find a connection with your loved one while you create a newly redefined life.
In Hebrew, the number 18 is “chai,” which means “Life.” So it is only appropriate that today – January 18, 2018 – is the official launch of HOPE Connection’s “A Celebration of Life” Bowl-a-thon. This event is being sponsored by our longtime supporter, Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary, and will take place at Pinz Bowl, 12655 Ventura Blvd., Studio City 91604, on…
Evelyn Pechter is a HOPE therapist and Licensed Psychologist. Dr. Pechter has private practice offices in West Los Angeles and Woodland Hills, where she specializes in adult life changes including grief/loss.
“Wherever you are right now on your journey — whether your loved one died two weeks ago, two years ago, or even 20 years ago, it helps to understand the process from beginning to the not-so-clear end. As Glenda the Good Witch of the North told Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz before she set out for Emerald City, “It’s always best to start at the beginning.” So it is with most things; so it is with grief.”
— Ashley Davis Bush: Transcending Loss
It is best to start at the beginning, but what often happens is that people want to avoid the painful aspects of grief; it’s too terrifying. So, they rush right ahead, telling others — and themselves — that “Everything’s just fine. I’m okay. I’m adjusting just fine.” They attempt to skip to the end before they’ve gone through the process.
When a loved one is no longer with us, we often miss being held and holding someone. That sense of purpose to take care of someone, to take a walk with, to prepare a meal for is gone. Sometimes having a pet gives us that sense of purpose. So often pets love us unconditionally. We can talk to them and they never argue.…
Do you know someone who is grieving a loved one? You can help that person by introducing them to HOPE Connection. Let them know there is a community ready to support them, a community led by trained therapists and whose members know exactly what they are going through because they have been there. A second way to help is by donating to…
The holidays are too often a painful reminder of your changed life and the death of your loved one. They may force you to realize how much your life has changed. Holidays certainly may not feel festive — they may feel more like a spotlight painfully illuminating your sense of emptiness, aloneness and broken heart. How can you move from hiding or…
I exhale. The breath born but a moment ago recedes into the past as I await the next breath to begin. Because every breath is a gateway between past and future, breathing is an ever-present metaphor for the temporal world in which we live. Nature’s patterns proceed in rhythms. Requiring belief in life’s continuity in stark counter-point to the reality of our…