Welcome!! I am so glad you are here! Assuming you have clicked on that button, you may have some questions about who I am and why I am here.
I am Liz, a registered psychotherapist who specializes in the heavy and fascinating (to me, anyway!) subjects of grief and loss, and trauma. I love what I do, talking to those who have something or many things, that they feel need to come out into the open, to be looked over and then to decide what to do about them.
Life hit me like a truck a number of years ago. Afterwards, I came to realize (over the course of a fair bit of time) that I did not have what I needed to come out of that experience feeling whole, feeling like the real me. At times, I did not even recognize the person I saw in the mirror. Then, without even realizing that I was looking for something, or even what I was looking for, I came across the study of thanatology – the study of grief and bereavement. I knew right away that this was what I had been looking for!! Learning about the effects that grief and loss can have on who we are, deeply and truly, had a profound change on how I looked at life. And I decided to study all I could about what I needed to know.
When we are grieving something or someone, all of life looks different than it had before “that” moment. “That” moment is pivotal in how life will continue. Suddenly, the world is a place that is completely foreign, a place that has never been seen before – a place without what you have lost. And navigating that new place can be scary, especially without someone who can help with questions that come up, what to do about which direction you might go afterwards, someone who simply says “What you are doing is ok.”
Then I learned about how trauma can alter our actual brain chemistry, also changing how we view everything in our life, and then, how many facets of trauma there can be. I was hooked! Sound strange? Maybe. That’s ok. Because grief and trauma are really hard subjects to think about, let alone talk about. Providing a safe place to talk about those hard things, a place where the truly awful stuff can come into the light, is one of the goals of my practice. That safe space allows perspective, to see what happened to you with a completely different perspective – it isn’t you, it is what happened to you!!
How does someone move forward from this kind of awfulness, to know exactly the “right” way to move forward, if moving forward is even in your mind? Perhaps you are simply trying to make it from one day to the next, glad to have done what had to be done each day, because life does not stop when these kinds of things happen. Losing someone or something that is really important changes what life looks like, how we respond to what comes up for us, and even our perceptions of everything around us. This is hard stuff.
When clients come to talk to me about their loss, we will often simply chat about what happened, how important that was for them, how difficult it is to be in a world without it, what life looks like in the moment, and their concerns for the future. Please be assured, there is no one “right” way to grieve whatever you have lost. There are many things that others have done to assist them through this really hard time, and I may have some suggestions about how to make it through to tomorrow. Remember though, your choice is all about what resonates for you.
I would love to sit and chat with you about what you are needing to chat about. I would love to hear all about what you have lost, whether it is a special person, a beloved pet, a hard-won career, and how you are working through this new life. And I would love to hear where you dream of heading in the future, what plans you have for the new you, the you that comes out of difficulty shining brightly!!