'men’s grief' Tagged Posts

A Writer Deals With Grief

February 15, 2018
Michael Thal
First Person, Grief, Healing

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.

A Different Grief – A Man’s Grief

July 20, 2014
Jo Christner, Psy.D. & Deatra Yatman, LCSW
Grief

Everyone goes through a natural grieving process when a death occurs. We each behave and express feelings according to the way we’ve been taught and as modeled by our society, our culture, our family, our peers and other influences. A belief system is created that affects the way that we perceive life, death and grief.

Although men and women both feel pain and grieve when they suffer a loss, the way they deal with grief is where the differences in their grieving become apparent. The differences we see in “his” and “her” grief responses are due to our different styles of coping with pain and loss.

There are many factors that cause these differences in coping… and most often we were carefully “taught.”

From childhood, we are taught different gender roles. Little girls are taught and encouraged to share feelings, express needs and receive support from others. This support system is acquired over a lifetime.