The Long Grief Journey: How Long-Term Unresolved Grief Can Affect Your Mental Health and What You Can Do About It

It’s hard to put into words how much this book means to me. To finally have it out in the world feels both surreal and normal. How can that be? I think when you’ve worked on something for so long, with so much focus and love and dedication, it feels like a really big out-breath when it becomes physical. Of course it’s here. Where else would it be? I can tell you without a doubt this book is helpful. It helped me writing it (I began the work of writing it about three years after my mom died) and from what I’ve heard from those who have read it so far, it’s helped them, too. It’s not just about grief, it’s about what you do with it, how you work with it and allow it to shape your life in really meaningful ways.

No one owns the topic of grief and no one knows all there is to know about it. It’s a fundamental shared human experience that, once experienced, changes you. For me, it cracked my heart wide open and that both hurts and and continues to inform most of what I do. All who’ve experienced it know about it and have something valuable to share. That’s what I love so much about The Long Grief Journey; it’s filled with the wisdom of those who have experienced grief themselves, of scholars who study it so they can help those who are suffering, and of therapists who are in the field and walking with those who are aching. Writing this book opened new doors in my own mind and heart as I look towards my future. Our world is hurting so much, and if this books helps anyone, in any way, we’ve done our job.

Article: The Wisdom of Regret

Published in The Assisi Institute Journal, vol. 2, n. 1, 2016.

to purchase a copy of this journal, contact The Assisi Institute.

“Regret, as both a psychological and emotional human experience, has been of great interest to me since adolescence. Considering the implications of regret on a life, in particular during moments of choice, I have come to understand the phenomenon as a gift of wisdom rather than a curse, a problem of neurosis or guilt, or as something to be avoided. Studying the ancient myth of Inanna as the centerpiece, I have also attempted to weave into this paper examples from literature, psychological text and current research to demonstrate the dangers inherent in turning away from this archetypal gift, and the benefits of allowing Regret’s wisdom to make a mark on a life, guiding us at future crossroads of choice.”