In the confusing landscape of childhood sexual abuse, it is often easier to block the experience than continue to try to make sense of what is happening. Patricia Eagle did not uncover the memories of her fathers abuse until ...
A childhood of abuse left Lisa Braver Moss with doubts about her worth, fears and a driving need to succeed in school and get free of her family. As time went on, she understood more about that experience and began to make so...
When Karen Stefano was attacked on her way home at 19 years old, those moments led to fear; of footsteps behind her and of the dark. Only later would she understand that she carried the imprint of her attack with her. When he...
What helps us to choose courage and resilience over resignation? What helps us to pick ourselves up when we're knocked down? Living with a child who was diagnosed with a mental illness at a very young age, then facing her own...
Religions like Jehovah's Witness promise their followers certainty and safety. Leaders demand obedience to proscribed standards of behavior, beliefs and practices. But what happens when a follower begins to doubt? For Amber S...
LGBTQ+ people face discrimination, marginalization and oppression often from a very early age. Gay men, in particular, have also lived with the trauma of the AIDS epidemic. Those in the oldest generation, who experienced a cr...
When hospice is the best possible choice, families are often lost in a sea of confusion, not even sure what hospice is. At the same time, reading long descriptions of the services and goals is sometimes beyond them. After yea...
Poetry is a language perfectly suited for grief, resonating with deep experience without needing to be too literal. we hear our own experience captured and are comforted in companionship with this resonance. But can poetry al...
As medicine advances, it is harder and harder to accept the moment when it is time to face death and make the most of our remaining time. Dr. Jessica Zitter is a fierce advocate for asking the tough questions. Is doing everyt...
Part of loving someone deeply is a hidden promise to take care of them if need be. But nothing prepared Donna Figurski for her husband's sudden disability and her headlong launch into life as a caregiver. As she adjusted to a...
Joanne Steen had what she considered a perfect life. She had a satisfying career and a good marriage to a Naval officer. Then her world turned upside down when her husband was killed while on duty. Evolving over time, her los...
An illness when he was only 13 planted the idea in Dr. Bradley Nelson's mind that he would some day be a healer. Although he almost gave that up for a career in business and computer science, his calling made itself undeniabl...
D.J. Chang learned early in her life to explore the big questions. When her childhood caregiver died she began to hear from him with both questions and answers. Through all her struggles and challenges she felt his guidance a...
When Tembi Locke spent a college semester in Italy, it changed the course of her life. Meeting Saro, the man she would love and marry, filled her with joy and also challenged them both to bridge the gap between his Sicilian f...
How did attorney Julie Potiker evolve from her career in law to writing a book about mindfulness? She discovered, through a brush with death and the ADHD of her kids along with countless other events of living, that she could...
Gabrielle Jimenez never imagined she would find a calling as a hospice nurse. But when she got a job supporting a woman who was declining, she loved it. Struggling to finish the course work to become a nurse, her own soft lan...
Decades of work with people as they are dying taught Dr. Charles Garfield valuable lessons about giving and receiving peace when a loved one is at the end. As the founder of Shanti Project, a compassionate end of life organiz...
Being very accomplished in other areas doesn't prepare you for caregiving. Kathleen Flora found that out when her mother began struggling with dementia. Despite her strong commitment to caring for her mother, she had lots to ...
With the death of a spouse, the future dies too. If you're a planner like Lori LoCicero there are many smaller losses along with the big loss. When Lori's husband died, she became unmoored, as if her tether to earth was broke...
Raised with a keen awareness that everything is impermanent, that all life ends, Sunita Puri was challenged to find a way to come to terms with medicine's inability to accept these truths. Her perspective was at odds with the...
There is a crisis for young people in our country when it comes to equal access to mental health services. Some of the most traumatized and therefore anxious and depressed young people have little or no access to the services...
After any trauma in our lives, there is the possibility that we will, over time, choose to grow from it. One profound way this happens is in our spiritual outlook or belief. Having cancer as a young person, Anthony Maranise e...
Annie Mattingley endured what many of us, especially parents, fear most. Her daughter died of an overdose. Nothing could have prepared her for the communication she received from her just weeks after that death. It felt real,...
When Norah Casey's husband died after a short illness, she found her way quickly to what she'd learned as a business woman. Taking action gave her a focus and a contrast to her grief and her child's grief. Saying yes to oppor...