My personal experience of my mother’s death at the age of 12, in addition to my year at the Duke Cancer Center in Durham, along with my current work, have all included grief and loss. Drawing on all these experiences, I know that loss is inevitable, and grief follows. Many past and current clients have shared with me that I’m the first person, including their family, that they have shared their grief.
I know the vulnerability and trust it requires to share your grief with someone else and I always share with my clients how proud I am of them when they do, as sharing and feeling your grief can be difficult and does get easier the more often you do it.
In addition to being vulnerable myself and sharing my grief with clients, (something most of my clients share with me a therapist has never been vulnerable with them before) I never push them or take them deeper than what they are ready for as it’s about them and their process, and everyone feels, works through and sits with this differently.
