Category: Blog

Tip One: For anyone dealing with the death of a loved one, the holidays can be a time of sadness, dread, or pain. It can be difficult to cope, especially when you see the sights and sounds of holiday happiness all around you. One of the best things you can do is give yourself permission to…

By: Rachel Gaffin, Full Circle Intern When I was seventeen, one of my best friends died in a car crash. Two years older than me, Julia was someone I always looked up to; we bonded in a French class and quickly discovered a shared love for Chipotle, a really good belly laugh, and long conversations…

By: Allyson England Drake, M.Ed, CT Dia de los Muertos, also known as “Day of the Dead” is a holiday that is celebrated all over the world on November 1st and 2nd each year. This Mexican holiday is full of traditions and ways to honor our deceased loved ones. Dia de los Muertos celebrates both…

By: Jenny Bliley, LCSW, Bliley’s Funeral Home, Guest Blogger “Sometimes love is for a moment, Sometimes love is for a lifetime, Sometimes a moment is a lifetime.” Over thirty years ago, Bliley Funeral Home created a memorial service called Interment of Angels for families who experience a miscarriage or stillborn loss. The service was originally…

By: Shannon O’Neill, Guest Blogger In the last year and a half, I have lost two of the most important people in my life — my husband and my mother.  Not long after my husband Daryl died in October 2020, I started an open letter to him. It’s titled “Happy Anniversary,” because I started it…

By: Rachel Machacek, LCSW When talking about self care in grief, yoga and meditation are excellent (and research-backed) strategies for grounding and stabilizing, especially when grief feels like a high speed roller coaster, whipping us around with no end of the ride in sight. It’s a whole body-mind-spirit experience that often takes us out of…

By: Stacia Macklin, LCSW Many of us, both grievers and helpers, are familiar with traditional grief models that focus on “stages” and “tasks” or “closure” and “acceptance”. These suggest there is a linear progression in the grief journey and that there is a final phase or destination. However, there is another grief model to consider. In 1996,…

By: Shannon Weisleder, Guest Blogger “Because of you, I will always have a friend.” Ten years ago, I lost my only brother Matthew to suicide. He was 41 years old. It is a terrible thing to lose a sibling and most traumatic when it is to suicide. You feel as though part of your identity which has…

By: Allyson England Drake, M.Ed, CT Kenneth Doka created the term disenfranchised grief as “a loss that is not or cannot be openly acknowledged, socially sanctioned, or publicly mourned.” It is known as “hidden grief or sorrow.” Many times, those who are grieving a loss that is termed disenfranchised, they feel like they cannot openly…