THE HEALING POWER OF GRIEF
The Journey Through Loss to Love and Laughter
by Gloria Lintermans & Marilyn
Stolzman, Ph.D., L.M.F.T.
Table of contents | Introduction | Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights for the Bereaved:
- We have the right to express our grieving in our
own way.
- We have the right to know that grieving is slow,
hard work and to move through it at our own pace.
- We have the right to express our feelings about
grief and to explore them.
- We have the right to forgive ourselves for the things
we think we “should” have done or “might” have
done and realize that what we did in that moment of time was based on
the information at hand and that we did the best that we could with
the knowledge we had.
- We have the right to be ourselves and to recognize
our strengths and our limitations.
- We have the right to participate actively in our
mourning, to remember the past with fond memories and to allow ourselves
to enjoy our lives again.
- We have the right to move forward and to speak of
our pain, whether that makes people uncomfortable or not.
- We have the right to go back and forth in our grieving;
some days making progress and other days slipping back.
- We have a right to express our emotions and to have
others bear witness to our story.
- We have the right to believe that we will have a whole life again!
©2004, Marilyn Stolzman, Ph.D. , L.M.F.T.
