For Grievers and Their Supporters
Disclaimer:
Below are topics of interest for those who are experiencing grief, for those with Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD), formerly known as Complicated Grief, as well as for those who support them. These articles are written by Gera McGuire, MA, NCC, LMHC, trained at the Center for Prolonged Grief at Columbia University and are for informational purposes only, not a substitute for therapy.
These articles are not meant to pathologize individuals, but to honor the sacred and often difficult spaces between us.
If you believe that you or someone you care about has Prolonged Grief Disorder, or asking, "Why do I feel stuck in my grief?" please email me to schedule an appointment for individual counseling or family therapy. You are not alone.
The Basics
Of
Prolonged Grief Disorder
What Is PGD?
Although similar, PGD and depression are different and require different treatments. You can also have both. And what about PTSD? And anxiety? And...
Will I Ever
See The Sun Again?
Can you recover from Prolonged Grief? Healing after traumatic loss.
Traveling
Through
Grief
Can't go over it. Can't go under it. We've gotta go through it. There's no way to avoid the experience of grief.
Grief Changes
You will never stop loving your late loved ones, but you will not always carry your grief the same way.
Navigating Loss and Grief
Widowed
With
Children
By the time they turn 18, one in three children will lose a parent. How to support your children through their grief.
Setting Boundaries During Grief
It's important to communicate to others what you need (or don't) and how they can support you during your rollercoaster of grief.
Grief's False Spring
Don't put your coat away just yet. There's a grief frost that you didn't see coming.
Self Care
The only person who is going to be with you for the rest of your life needs nurturing and support - that's you. Don't be stingy on self care during grief. It's not selfish. It's imperative.
Navigating Loss and Grief
Relational Dyssynchrony
Everyone has their own unique grief experience. Learn how to support and respect one another during your tandem journeys.
When the Casseroles Stop
Grief support after the first month. Managing loneliness and PGD symptoms after the new normal begins.
Stuckness
Common themes emerge in PGD work regarding why people get stuck in their grief. Here's a tool to help take a look at the sticky things.
Inconsolable
Sometimes, we don't want a silver lining or a path forward. We just want someone to sit in the dust with us.
Layers To Loss: Secondary Losses
Adjusting to life after a loved one has died is multifacted. In addition to grieving the loss of the individual, there are other other secondary losses and assumptive challenges that a survivor experiences.
Loss Of The Future
Losing one's future life is a secondary loss. A new normal also means a new future.
Survivor's Guilt
"If I had only..." and "Why wasn't it me who died?" Such thoughts can create shame and guilt.
Post Loss
Identity
Forever altered, grief changes us fundamentally. Rediscovery and discovery of self.
Ripples Of Grief
Grief Shakes
The Tree
Estrangements and disconnections after loss... Which apples stay on the tree and which ones fall?
Ambiguous Loss
There is a type of frozen grief that comes when a loved one is physically present but psychologically gone.
All The Things Unsaid
We spend our lives carrying around the rough drafts of conversations we never got to finish, searching for a period that death placed far too soon.
You're The Best Thing About Me
The qualities of those we love continue to shape the people we are becoming.
Prolonged Grief Management
Topics of interest for those living with grief, traumatic loss, or PGD
Guilt about Joy
Survivors of suicide often struggle with joy and happiness when these emotions reemerge after loss.
Oscilation
Healthy grieving is the ability to ride the waves between the pain of loss and the necessities of life.
Grief Rituals
Carry loved ones forward by honoring them through the connection and comfort of rituals.
Away Away
Time away to refocus and gain some clarity can be helpful along your journey to rest, reflect and reset.
Prolonged Grief Management For High Achievers
Topics of interest for those who identify as high achievers who have traumatic loss or Prolonged Grief Disorder
Providing specialized PGD therapy for tech professionals and high-achievers in the Seattle area, Montana and Washington State.
Grief and the
High Achiever
There's a kind of grief that doesn't look like collapse - navigating loss while maintaining performance.
Emotional Masking
Necessary but at a cost, how keeping your grief behind a mask works (and doesn't) for high achievers.
Shattered Assumptions
After trauamtic loss, the world as we believed it was no longer exists. Exploring the challenge of shattered assumptions among high achievers.
Post Traumatic Growth and Prolonged Grief
How Attachment Styles
Impact Loss
During grief, we examine how we attach to people. Exploring your attachment needs and patterns during the grief journey can be life altering.
The Paradox Of
Grief And Growth
Growth after traumatic loss does not eliminate grief. Survivors experience the struggle as they continue to adapt. This is normal.
Relational Growth
Post traumatic growth in PGD leads to a more profound and authentic way of relating to others, changing us into people who can love more deeply than we ever thought possible.
Making Meaning
Finding a way to reconstruct a sense of purpose and identity after loss. Learning through the lives of Michael J. Fox and Gary Sinese.
For the People Supporting
Those With
Prolonged Grief Disorder
Supporting Those With PGD
Discover ways you can be supportive and present for those struggling with Prolonged Grief Disorder.
Holding Space
How to provide a non-judgmental presence where the person feels safe to express their most intense, repetitive, or stuck emotions without being rushed to get better.
The Silent Vigil
Solidarity in Prolonged Grief can be found in the healing act of the silent vigil.
I Want My Sister Back
Grieving the version of your loved one that vanished after their loss.
Gera McGuire, MA, NCC, LMHC, is a specialized mental health counselor serving the Maple Valley and Enumclaw Plateau communities, as well as clients throughout Washington and Montana via telehealth. With advanced clinical training from the Center for Prolonged Grief at Columbia University, she provides evidence-based support for those navigating anxiety, relationship challenges, and the complexities of 'stuck' grief after a loss.