grief

Grief is the natural response to loss—of a person, a relationship, an identity, a dream, or a version of the self. While grief is commonly associated with death, trauma work recognizes a much wider range of losses: the absence of the childhood you needed, the parent who could never show up, the years lost to a toxic relationship, or the version of you that had to disappear to survive.

Grief is not a linear process. It moves in waves and revisits us at unexpected moments. Unprocessed grief can calcify into depression, chronic anger, numbness, or physical symptoms. Healing means letting grief move through the body rather than around it—naming what was lost, honoring its significance, and allowing new meaning to emerge on the other side of sorrow.