Grief Therapy

Anticipatory grief, when a loved one is dying

Dealing with Anticipatory Grief Dear Dr. Neimeyer, My question is about anticipatory grief, the distress that family members can feel when a loved one is receiving end-of-life care. I work in a palliative care unit of a large hospital, and we often have families who are overwhelmed with the reality of the patient’s impending death, […]

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Does Continuing Bonds Therapy Really Work?

Dear Dr. Neimeyer, A good deal of my practice with grieving clients is influenced by your work and that of your colleagues like Dennis Klass on the idea of continuing bonds–the concept that bereaved people really are striving to maintain their attachment to deceased loved ones who have died rather than “let go,” “withdraw energy

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Labor Day: Grief Therapy in the Emergency Room

Dear Dr. Neimeyer, I know from you writings and my own experience as a social worker in other settings that people contending with a traumatic loss benefit from having a safe space to slowly and fully tell the story of their loved one’s death, and reflect on its meaning for their lives. This can be

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Grief Therapy in the Emergency Room

Dear Dr. Neimeyer, I know from you writings and my own experience as a social worker in other settings that people contending with a traumatic loss benefit from having a safe space to slowly and fully tell the story of their loved one’s death, and reflect on its meaning for their lives. This can be

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What is the Meaning of Life? Goodbye to 2020

What is the Meaning of Life? We felt that this would be a good time to re-post this Dr. Neimeyer classic as we finish out one of the worst years in American History. Our hearts go out to the the families of those lost to the Pandemic and other illnesses for which people were deterred

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Tragic Death of a Loved One–finding meaning – copy

Dear Dr. Neimeyer, I have read and heard you speak about the need to revisit and retell the story of the tragic death of a loved one in order to find meaning in the event.  What stands out in your comments is obvious, but should be underlined, in my view:   the profound Truth about the need

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Question from a Hospice Social Worker…Dear Dr. Neimeyer:

I am a  hospice social worker with a large bereavement center that offers community support services for grieving people of all kinds, not only surviving family members after a loved one dies in our home care or residential facility.  But recently we’ve been stretched thin in our outreach and response services, and are trying to

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A woman who lost her adult son to sudden death

Dear Dr. Neimeyer, I am currently working with a woman who lost her adult son to sudden death when he was residing in a foreign country 5 years ago. Since then she has been absorbed in a deep and isolating grief, though she has two other adult children and a husband who remain quite concerned

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An Oncology Unit Nurse Asks…

“An Oncology Unit Nurse Asks…” is a repeat of an earlier Dr. Neimeyer column in honor of Labor Day. When we think of “Labor Day” we often overlook those in the healthcare industry. Here’s why we shouldn’t: “In 2000, there were 7 million more workers in manufacturing than in health care. At the beginning of

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PTSD and Grief: An Ask Dr. Neimeyer Guest Column

Dear Dr. Neimeyer, I was heartbroken and overwhelmed reading the question to you from the woman with PTSD who was in the horrifying and traumatic accident that killed her two little girls and injured her husband and daughter.  I want to let you know of a treatment for PTSD performed by Dr. Lipov in Chicago called the Stellate

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