Blogs

by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D. Few events in life bring about such warm and wonderful feelings of anticipation as the announcement of a pregnancy. As soon as you and your family learned you were expecting, you naturally began to have hopes and dreams for the future. These hopes and dreams take on a life of…

by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D. “To the outside world we all grow old.  But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were.  We know each other’s hearts. We share private family jokes.  We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.” —Clara…

by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D. “Whatever you do, you need courage.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson   Loss brings uninvited pain into our lives. In opening to the presence of the pain of your loss, in acknowledging the inevitability of the pain, in being willing to gently embrace the pain, you demonstrate the courage to honor the…

by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D. “We are all mirrors unto one another. Look into me and you will find something of yourself as I will of you.” — Walter Rinder   Love is a sacred partnership of communion with another human being. You take each other in, and even when you are apart, you are…

by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D. Someone You Love Has Died You are now faced with the difficult, but important, need to mourn. Mourning is the open expression of your thoughts and feelings regarding the death and the person who has died. It is an essential part of healing. You are beginning a journey that is…

by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D.   “I don’t have to go in search of the pain of grief—it finds me. It’s when I deny or insulate myself from the pain of the loss that I shut down. Ironically, it is in being open to the pain that I move through it to renewed living.” —Alan…

by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D.   A paradox is a seemingly self-contradictory statement or situation that is in fact often true. The paradox of mourning we will consider together in this article might, at first glance, seem self-contradictory, but as I will reveal, it is actually a forgotten Truth with a capital T. It’s a…

by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D. Few events in life are as painful as the death of your spouse. You may be uncertain you will survive this overwhelming loss. At times, you may be uncertain you even have the energy or desire to try to heal. You are beginning a journey that is often frightening, overwhelming…

by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D. Allow Yourself to Mourn Your child has died. You are now faced with the difficult, but important, need to mourn. Mourning is the open expression of your thoughts and feelings regarding the death of your child. It is an essential part of healing. With the death of your child, your…

by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D. Your mother or father has died. Whether you had a good, bad or indifferent relationship with the parent who died, your feelings for him or her were probably quite strong. At bottom, most of us love our parents deeply. And they love us with the most unconditional love that imperfect…