For many who are suffering with prolonged grief, the holidays can be a time to reflect and find meaning in loss

  The holiday season is meant to be filled with joy, connection, and celebration of rituals. Many people, however, are starkly reminded of their grief this time of year and of whom – or what – they have lost.

  The added stress of the holiday season doesn’t help. Studies show that the holidays negatively affect many people’s mental health.

Pushing ‘closure’ after trauma can be harmful to people grieving – here’s what you can do instead

  From the breakup of a relationship to losing a loved one, people are often told to find “closure” after traumatic things happen.

  But what is closure? And should it really be the goal for individuals seeking relief or healing, even in these traumatic times of global pandemic, war in Ukraine, and mass shootings in the U.S.?

  Closure is an elusive concept. There is no agreed-upon definition for what closure means or how one is supposed to find it. Although there are numerous interpretations of closure, it usually relates to some type of ending to a difficult experience.

Moving beyond 9/11

  I’ve become increasingly ambivalent about the way we commemorate the dark days and months that began on September 11th, 2001.

  Each year the memories and all the feelings they evoke are less vivid. Thus, the news articles, commentaries, and TV specials about the 9/11 attacks serve as important reminders, not only of the immeasurable loss of life and the permanent degradation of our sense of security, but of the lessons we should have learned from the events and its aftermath.