Grief
Counselling Services in Waterloo Region
“The reality of grief is far different from what others see from the outside. There is pain in this world that you can’t be cheered out of. You don’t need solutions. You don’t need to move on from your grief. You need someone to see your grief, to acknowledge it. You need someone to hold your hands while you stand there in blinking horror, staring at the hole that was your life.”
We have been misled when it comes to grief. It doesn't follow a timeline and there aren't five stages that we have to check off before we're "better." Whether it's the loss of a loved one, a pet, a relationship, or even a job, there is no universal roadmap towards healing.
Grief is an isolating experience because of a culture that dictates we should move past the pain as quickly as possible, find hope in it, and move on as if it never happened. Even the medical model suggests that there is something disordered in grieving for longer than a few weeks after a loss. Simply put - that's not true. The loss of a loved one rocks our world, can challenge our belief system, throws off what we thought our lives would look like, and is an intensely personal process in terms of healing. No one but you gets to determine how you grieve and how you make sense of the loss.
While we can't “get over” the pain, we can certainly learn how to move forward and integrate it into our lives.
Resources
"It's OK that You're Not OK" by Megan Devine
“When You’re Grief ‘Doesn’t Count’”