Since starting our group practice in January we've wanted to find gaps in support in our community so we could better meet people's needs. The most glaring gap has been in grief and loss, especially ambiguous loss. When a loss is ambiguous it's not clearly defined and is often not recognized as a difficult loss by society. The examples of this kind of loss are almost endless (not having a relationship with an adult child, developing a chronic illness, ending an affair, having an abortion, being a caregiver to someone with dementia, experiencing multiple losses at once) yet when you look for support it's almost non-existent. Pauline Boss is one of the first people to identify ambiguous loss as an actual experience. She has many wonderful resources and articles that have been groundbreaking over the last several years (see her website for more information: http://www.ambiguousloss.com/). The four of us have read so much of her work and use it almost daily in our practice so it was shocking to realize that the concept still wasn't widely acknowledged in our community or by other therapists. We saw ambiguous loss in so many of our clients as well as our own lives. It seemed odd that there weren't more resources for people and that so many clients were telling us they had never heard of the term ambiguous loss before. How could that be when it's something most of us experience at some point in our lives? Right now ambiguous loss is a silent ache that sits inside people; never being acknowledged as a legitimate loss experience. People suffer alone without knowing their pain has a name. It's not acceptable.
We want to name the pain, create a community of support, and then, together, find ways to move forward. Our journey down that path has started with the creation of ambiguous loss groups. We currently have one for parents with estranged adult children, one for caregivers, and one for people who develop serious mental illnesses. We hope that's just the start for us. Eventually we would like to have more groups that target very specific areas of loss. I've been making an effort to talk about it more in personal life as well. Sharing my own experience of loss and the struggle ambiguity adds to life has opened up fantastic conversations with friends and family. It's exciting but also surprisingly challenging; trying to bring to light a pain that's so often hidden and ignored. I often expect looks of complete confusion and pity yet have found the opposite response, one of relief and understanding, is more common and makes the momentary discomfort of broaching the subject worth it. If we all start acknowledging ambiguous loss as a genuine, painful loss experience then we'll be able to create a community where there are resources and support to help people live with the pain. Creating this awareness and support is possible but will take more than a few therapists in Minneapolis creating groups and talking about ambiguous loss in their personal lives. Will you join us in trying to create this change?
Thoughts By Alissa Kaasa
Here is my testimony on how I was cured of HIV by Dr Akhigbe,with his natural herbal medicine. on a regular basis in efforts to help others when I could. As you may know, each donation is tested. Well, on July 6th I had a meeting with a Red Cross representative and was told that I had HIV. “What went through your mind when you heard that "Rose" Good question reader! To be honest, I thought my life was over, that I would ever find love, get married, have children or anything normal. Lucky for me I have an amazing support system. My family supported me then I never thought that I was invincible to STD s or pregnancy or anything else parents warn their kids about. I just didn’t think about it. I was in a monogamous relationship and thought that I asked the right questions. We even talked about marriage Scary. During that time I was in college and donated blood on a re as well. who helped me in search of cure through the media.there we saw a good testimony of sister 'Kate' about the good work of Dr Akhigbe natural herbal medicine cure.then I copied his email address and contacted him. A good herbalist doctor with a good heart, he is kind, loving and caring. He replied back to my message and told me what to do. After a week the doctor sent me my herbal medicine and instructed me how to take it.Yes it worked very well, after drinking it I went to the hospital for another test and everything turned negative. What a wonderful testimony I can never forget in my life. Dr Akhigbe is a man who gave me a life to live happily forever so all I want you all to believe and know that cure of HIV is real and herbs is a powerful medicine and it works and heals. Dr Akhigbe also used his herbal medicine to cure diseases like: HERPES, DIABETES, SCABIES, HEPATITIS A/B, STROKE, CANCER, ALS, TUBERCULOSIS, ASTHMA, PENIS ENLARGEMENT, MALARIA, LUPUS, LIVER CIRRHOSIS, DEPRESSION, HIV/AIDS, EPILEPSY, BACTERIAL, DIARRHEA, HEART DISEASES, HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, PARKINSON'S, ALZHEIMER, COLD URTICARIA, HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS,INSOMNIA, BACTERIAL VAGINOSIS, SCHIZOPHRENIA, JOINT PAIN, STOMACH PAIN, CHROME DISEASES, CHLAMYDIA, INSOMNIA HEARTBURN, , THYROID, MAR BURG DISEASES, MENINGITIS, ARTHRITIS, BODY WEAK, SMALLPOX, DENGUE, FEVER, CURBS, CHANCRE, ETC. You are there and you find yourself in any of these situations, kindly contact Dr Akhigbe now to help you get rid of it. Here is his email address:
ReplyDeletedrrealakhigbe@gmail.com or you can write to him on whats app with his phone number: +2349010754824.
My appreciation is to share his testimony for the world to know the good work Dr Akhigbe has done for me and he will do the same for you.