The children of survivors are important to the Holocaust story. The children are the future of the past. For a time, it seemed that no one would be left to create a future. That history has been so carefully, lovingly chronicled. It must be preserved. If it is preserved and told, the possibility exists that there will be no more war. That is always the hope of the survivors.
This is …
Children of war: inherited bereavement
Jewish history has all too often been written in tears …
I am fascinated by people and groups with the capacity to recover,
Who, having suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Are not defeated by them but fight back,
Strengthened and renewed.
– Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, PhD,To Heal a Fractured World
In some situations, the whole idea of complete recovery from bereavement makes no sense. Bereavement can be fully expected to last a lifetime. …
The Holocaust: Bereavement takes a different course
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said,
People will forget what you did,
But people will never forget how you made them feel.
-Maya Angelou
We are often asked, “How can you do that?” How can you stand to do that work? Such a dreary subject. Grim but supposedly necessary. Don’t you get depressed with all the talk of dying? Facing death and its consequences every day must be the prime route …
Public misperception of the grief counselor
We never know how high we are
Till we are called to rise.
-Emily Dickinson
It could be suggested that the “good death” is falsely named in the field of thanatology and in the popular press. It implies an ideal state, one which of course we cannot have. Never agonize over ideals when the problem is as urgent as death. Perhaps it should be renamed “the good-enough death,” one that is …
There is a cure beyond saving a life or the curing of an illness
Sometimes, it really does take one to know one. Not every counselor can work well with every patient. It is hard to understand how people can presume to know bereavement and grief when they have lost no one of significance in their lives. Surely everyone has experienced loss at some time. However, the death of a tame woods animal is usually, qualitatively, very different from the death …
The wounded healer is sometimes the best choice of therapist
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