You deserve happiness

From my experience, education, and training I recognize the importance of creating your life based on your own value system. It takes courage to live a life being true to yourself instead of living a life defined by the expectations of others. This is a lesson I learned the hard way, through personal experience resulting in the loss of family relationships.

Most likely each of you will experience a type of adversity in your life. Will you allow your experience to make, or break you?

Everybody has a story. No one can understand another person’s pain unless they have walked in their shoes. A part of my life’s journey has been finding the way to tell my story to help others who are going through difficult times.

My life appeared perfect until experiencing the unexpected death of my father and the relational changes among family members that followed. Experiencing the breakup of family is something one never believes will happen to them. I question what good comes from such pain. Through counseling, prayer, and self-awareness, I found the answer, to share my own journey as a means to help others on their journey.

Through our blogs, Dr. Pat Norris and I will write from a personal perspective that allows us to connect directly with you, our readers. There is a “comments” section where you can correspond with us. This direct connection allows us to interact, build trust, and share ideas.

Through blogging, we will help you recognize the importance to find your true self as you acknowledge your past, learn through your adversity and find inner peace and happiness. Doing so is challenging. Through Loss2GROWTH, Dr. Norris and I hope  you gain confidence to focus inward allowing yourself to develop self–awareness, which in turn will lead to your interpersonal growth.

Our primary focus is on ambiguous loss, a loss that occurs without closure or a clear understanding.  Ambiguous loss leaves you searching for answers, thus complicating and delaying the process of grief. Ambiguous loss, physical and psychological, often results in unresolved grief.  Examples of ambiguous loss include, yet not limited to: suffering a miscarriage, the disappearance of a loved one, the sudden death of a loved one getting through a divorce, and experiencing a broken relationship.

The goal of Loss2GROWTH is to provide a safe place for you to cope with your ambiguous loss, overcome the pain, and restore resiliency.

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Mary Jean Gandolfo, Grief Specialist