Grief, loss & life transitions
Managing different life transitions
Grief, loss and life transitions encompass deep psychological distress that follows a major disruption to a person's established life structure. This includes bereavement, relationship breakups, divorce, redundancy, career changes, serious injury, relocation or transitioning into retirement. It is the painful, destabilising process of adapting to a reality that no longer matches your internal model of the world.
Loss is a universal human experience but this doesn't make it easy to navigate. Major life transitions can be highly stressful and studies on career, education and family transitions estimates that up to 70% of people experience periods of acute emotional distress, disorientation and vulnerability when their familiar world shifts suddenly.
Conflicting emotions and rollercoaster experience
People tell us they experience emotional numbness, unexpected waves of crying, intense anger or resentment, guilt, physical exhaustion, brain fog and a real difficulty focusing on daily tasks or imagine a fulfilling future. A major transition can take away your social support network, financial security and disrupt your daily routines.
The loss of someone dear to us can leave us disconnected from our meaning and world. A neurotypical and neurodiverse brain design can also alter on how you make sense of your life experiences and emotions.
Making sense of life experiences and learning to live alongside
From a Human Givens perspective, one of the reasons that grief, loss and transition is so difficult is because it instantly shuts down the primary channels through which a person was meeting their emotional needs—such as their need for emotional intimacy, meaning, security, attention or community. The pain of grief is the brain struggling to find a way forward when its familiar map has been taken away.
We respect and honour your natural need to grieve and process your feelings without rushing you. We believe that people learn to live alongside their grief and loss, rather than making it go away.
At the same time, we want to support you in a gradual process of making sense of your experiences and in rebalancing, at a pace that is comfortable for you. This may be in helping you identify and use your resources, strengths and supportive relationships. We guide you step-by-step to rebuild your daily routines and find ways to meet your emotional and physical needs, allowing you to build a new life structure that honours your past whilst looking forward.
What clients say
I visited the therapist for support around the loss of my Dad, for grief and trauma associated with his passing. I feel incredibly fortunate that I was able to meet regularly with the therapist who had an amazing way of creating a safe environment to completely unload and process a very vulnerable version of myself.
Kate
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