After your husband, wife or partner dies, you embark on a journey to a foreign land. Exploring this territory is the process of grieving. To support you on your journey, HOPE group therapists offer suggestions to help you grieve, including ideas for healing, keeping the memory of your loved one alive and honoring them. One way to begin healing is by simply talking or writing to your loved one. Telling stories about them and reliving cherished events are wonderful ways to keep them alive in your heart. Honoring them can involve creating rituals such as lighting a candle for them at a holiday dinner or playing their favorite music at family get-togethers.
Grief Support Groups Serving West Los Angeles, Encino and Agoura Hills
Grief Support Groups Serving West Los Angeles, Encino and Agoura Hills
The Arts
Book Review
Grief is such a complex subject and process that there are countless valid and valuable perspectives on it. Many people have explored these perspectives and gone on to write books that offer comfort and healing to people who are grieving.
There is so much pain and sorrow in our world and lives. Finding some thread of hope and inspiration often seems unreachable. It’s so important that we reach out to each other and create that thread… see each other through. From the beginning of time, hurting souls would sit around fires, tell stories and create connection and hope. We’ve strayed from those rituals and too often feel alone. We need those stories, those parables and metaphors to hold onto, a touchstone to hope.
So, we offer you a “touchstone” to hold onto… the story of The King’s Diamond, an old Jewish folk story. This version is included in the Introduction of Living Through Mourning: Finding Comfort and Hope When a Loved One Has Died, by Harriet Sarnoff Schiff. May it bring you a sense of connection to all of us and your deceased loved one.
Susie knew that if she skipped out on the annual tradition of a large family get-together, her grief would grow and attending the following year would be that much harder. Susie is a member of a spousal loss support group and she shared that it was difficult leaving her house recently to attend a friend’s celebration. However, Susie mustered up all of…
Last month, members of the HOPE community were invited to 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. The film was especially relevant to the HOPE community because the filmmaker found inspiration to create the film following the death of her husband, renowned actor Leonard Nimoy.
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.”
We all have a strong inherent desire to belong, to connect to others. It feels good to be a part of a group, to feel accepted by others, to feel validated. For many of us, the death of a loved one can make you feel alone, isolated, different. When you lose a significant other, you may also lose your group, your unit, your sense of belonging. Rediscovering community can provide a tremendous sense of relief.
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.
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…
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…