Don Elium, MA MFT 925 256-8282 Walnut Creek, California
Services Available In Northern and Southern California
Feeling Lighter:
Resolving The Grief In Loss & Traumatic Change
You can't stop the waves of emotional loss, but you can learn to surf.
The Emotional Waves and Nunbness From Divorce, Death, Being Fired, Ended Friendship, Health Crisis, and Disappointments bring the unexpected disorientation of the mind, emotions, body and spirit trying to adjust to this deep and difficult change.
The most off-limits topic for conversation is not death nor feelings, but grief: the mind, body and spirit trying to adjust to difficult change. When grief is active and progressive, you will be begin to feel lighter even through the process can be difficult. This lighter feeling may not happen all at once, but it is a sign that your brain and nervous system is beginning to allow and accept the loss that you have experienced. To get through to a lighter and a more hopeful present, it can be most helpful to diffuse the the myths of what grief isn’t, in order to willingly participate in the process of the naturally healing process of grief.
Common myths keep many of us stuck in the muck.
No, time does not heal grief. It just hides deeper in your unconscious.
No, it won't just naturally get better. It will be triggered in movie scenes, other people’s losses, and in unexpected related circumstances.
No, you don't have to wait for a period of time before you start to face it. Grieving can start before the change even happens.
No, you can't not rid the pain replacing the loss with something else. A new partner or a new puppy will be seen not for who and what they are but in the shadow of your unaddressed loss.
No, there are no predictable stages as everyone is unique and must face their own situation. Each person has their own steps to take to befriend their own inner world that wants to move forward but is sometimes stuck in the past.
What many don't know is there are specific actions that must happen for the pain of a broken heart from loss to be relieved and to feel again. This counseling focuses directly on the losses of your life that cause you the greatest pain, including the most recent, and helps you to finish the unfinished that goes around and around in your head and heart, so you can move on in your present life.
Don Elium, MA MFT
The length of therapy always depends upon what you want to accomplish. This therapy is designed to create as much progress as possible in each session.
This grief counseling is based in-part on the action steps of The Grief Recovery Handbook by John James & Russell Friedman. Don Elium, MA MFT is a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist® from the Grief Recovery Institute®.
In-office sessions available.
If you live in the state of California, TeleVideo Counseling Sessions are available while on vacation, traveling on business or if you simply live outside the San Francisco Bay Area where coming to the office is not possible. The TeleVideo Counseling Sessions is through a secure internet connection, on any device, and HIPPA compliant.
Click Here for The Four Steps To The Grief-Trauma Recovery Method with Don Elium, MA MFT
Don Elium, MA MFT Grief Counseling is based in part of the principles of The Grief Recovery Method and Grief Repair and Reattachment Therapy and where requested, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Technique and IFS - Internal Family Systems.
