At Lighting The Way, I’m passionate about helping the people of Colorado Springs better understand their grief and use their grief journey to make themselves stronger. Grief is something we will all experience, making it even more crucial to learn productive methods to process our grief. I passionately believe in the Grief Recovery Method, and it’s the method at the forefront of all of my programs with my clients.
Many people believe that grief is an emotion solely experienced when losing a loved one. In reality, there are many types of losses people can grieve. It’s important to remember everyone has unique experiences and all losses are valid. In order to help you better understand the scope of losses and people’s grief journeys, I’ve compiled a list of five types of losses that may surprise you. Hopefully, with a better understanding of the wide variety of losses, you’ll perceive grief in a new, thorough way and will be better equipped to not only process your own grief, but also support someone during their grief journey.
Different Types Of Losses
It surprises many people to learn that there are actually over 40 types of losses that can result in grief. There is a wide misconception that grief is an emotion which only affects people who have experienced the death of a loved one. While this is one of the most common types of losses, it’s important to be aware of the other types of losses that can immensely impact people and be a part of their grief journey.
- Loss of Fertility
- As a woman, finding out you’re unable to have children can be extremely difficult to deal with. Whether you’re not able to become pregnant for an unknown medical reason or you’ve reached menopause and cannot have children naturally anymore, it can be extremely difficult to accept that you are unable to naturally expand your family.
- Pet Loss
- Pets are such important parts of our lives that when we lose them, it can be shocking and almost seem impossible to accept. Whether your elderly dog passed away or you had to surrender your pet because you could no longer properly care for him, losing a pet is a serious loss many people experience.
- End of Addiction
- Becoming sober and closing a chapter of your life can feel permanent and scary. Because addiction is a deadly disease and becoming sober is such an honorable thing to do, it’s difficult for a lot of people to understand why one may grieve their addiction. When an addict becomes clean, they are saying goodbye to a version of themselves that they will no longer be. Not only does becoming sober bring on a plethora of physical and mental side effects, but it also creates an opportunity for someone to grieve the person they once were.
- Career Change
- Whether you move to a new company or decide to retire, changing your career can be an extremely scary transition. After all, your job has set the tone for your daily routine for a long time, and then it all changes in the blink of an eye.
- Loss of Precious Belongings
- Losing personal belongings that carry a lot of meaning, such as mementos or scrapbooks, is an extremely unfortunate and difficult situation. This can happen for a variety of reasons. Maybe you lost the majority of your belongings in a fire; maybe your belongings were damaged while sitting in a storage unit; maybe you unfortunately just misplaced them. No matter how you lost your belongings, it’s completely valid to grieve something you no longer have that meant so much to you.
Navigate Loss With Lighting The Way
While experiencing the death of a close friend or family member is a common type of loss that results in grief, it’s important to know that it’s not the only type of loss people can grieve. By having a better understanding of the wide range of losses that people experience, you’ll be better equipped to support someone through their grief journey and empathize with them. If you’re interested in learning more about different types of losses, or would like to schedule a session with me, please contact me. I created Lighting the Way because I’m passionate about helping people find the light within grief, and I look forward to helping you during your grief journey.