The Importance of Guides in our lives:

Benefits of Having a Guide to Help you on Your Grief Journey

 

Guides are essential in many different areas of life, providing stability and support. We learn this from an early age starting with parents, teachers, and coaches. Other types of guides include tour guides, fishing guides, ski instructors, and spiritual guides. In middle and high school marching band, a guide helped me stay in formation and navigate the field. While marching, my guide provided a safe space for me to contribute equally and be a part of something that is extremely visual.

As one half of a guide dog team, Manolo, my fourth guide dog, aids in my mobility. We must work together to navigate obstacles and arrive safely. He must listen to my directions, and I must listen to his choices to walk a safe path. Choosing to work with a guide dog provides another option for confident and faster travel, along with companionship.

As a grief specialist I help adults navigate the often difficult, complex, and painful journey of grief. As a therapist, I work collaboratively with my clients to help them find a renewed sense of purpose and identity. I provide a safe and supportive environment for them to explore and process emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, all that grief encompasses. I can guide them from a place of darkness to a place of hope.

The teamwork involved in these relationships is also important. In each relationship, communication, trust, respect and listening to each other are essential. They are reciprocal and allow for growth, belonging, and to be seen just as we are.

Working with a therapist who specializes in grief allows clients to explore their depths of grief more fully, which helps them honor their past while finding a path forward. It gives them a place to find balance in the challenges that anticipatory grief creates. No matter which side of loss you are on, a guide to walk with you on your grief journey helps you know you are not alone, and that you will come out the other side with renewed resilience and coping strategies for those times waves of grief wash over you.

To learn more about how Manolo and I can help, visit: https://www.transitioningthroughchange.com