Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Alan Wolfelt
Helping Yourself at Your Time of Loss
By Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D. I seem to be falling apart. My attention span can be measured in seconds. My patience in minutes. I cry at the drop of a hat. Feelings of anxiety and restlessness are my constant companions. Rainy days seem extra dreary. Sunny days seem an outrage. Other people’s pain and frustration seem insignificant. Laughing, happy people seem out of place in my world. It has become routine to feel half crazy. I am normal I am told. I am a newly grieving person.
Alan D. Wolfelt: Why is the funeral ritual important? Part II
“When words are inadequate, have a ritual.” — Author Unknown Mourning need #1: Acknowledge the reality of the death Mourning need #2: Move toward the pain of the loss Mourning need #3: Remember the person who died Mourning need #4: Develop a new self-identity Another primary reconciliation need of mourning is the development of a new self-identity. We are all social beings whose lives are given meaning in relation to the lives of those around us.
Alan D. Wolfelt: Why is the funeral ritual important?
“When words are inadequate, have a ritual,” — Author Unknown Rituals are symbolic activities that help us, together with our families and friends, express our deepest thoughts and feelings about life’s most important events. Birthday parties honor the passing of another year in the life of someone we love. Weddings publicly affirm the private love shared by two people.
Embracing the Sadness of Grief
In every heart there is an inner room, where we can hold our greatest treasures and our deepest pain. – Marianne Williamson Sadness is a hallmark symptom of grief, which in turn is the consequence of losing something we care about. In this way you could say that sadness and love are inextricably linked. Yes, when you are grieving, it is normal to feel sad. I would even argue that it is necessary to feel sad. But why is it necessary? Why does the emotion we call sadness have to exist at all?
The Journey Through Grief: The Mourner’s Six ‘Reconciliation Needs’
The death of someone loved changes our lives forever, and the movement from the “before” to the “after” is almost always a long, painful journey. From my own experiences with loss as well as those of the thousands of grieving people I have worked with over the years, I have learned that if we are to heal, we cannot skirt the outside edges of our grief. Instead, we must journey all through it, sometimes meandering the side roads, sometimes plowing directly into its raw center.
Cremation & Permanent Placement: Educating Families About the ‘Whys’
Published in the August/September 2021 Issue of Memento Mori By Alan D Wolfelt, PhD Today’s families lack an understanding of the importance of permanent placement and memorialization. This unfortunate trend goes hand-in-hand with the rise in cremation, which, in and of itself, is a perfectly acceptable choice. The problem I am addressing in this article lies in what happens next. More and more families are taking cremated remains home with them, often without a plan of what to do with them.
Ewing Funeral Home donates grief resources to local libraries
Founded in 2014, August 30 was once again National Grief Awareness Day. In an effort to provide support for the families in its communities who have lost loved ones, the staff of Ewing Funeral Home has promoted and supported programs such as GriefShare and Families in Transition in recent years. This year, Ewing Funeral Home made a contribution of books to each of the public libraries in the communities of Britt, Kanawha, Clarion, Belmond and Dows.
Remembering A Life Blog
“The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness.” — Norman Cousins The COVID-19 pandemic has increased our awareness of the problem of loneliness. We were lonely before the novel coronavirus arose, and we’re even lonelier since routine social distancing, isolation, and quarantining became unfortunate necessities. Today loneliness is a crisis that cuts across cultures, continents, and classes. Britain has added a Minister for Loneliness to its federal government.
Grief can feel even tougher than usual during holiday season
The holiday season, as anyone who has ever mourned the loss of someone they love knows, can be an excruciating time.
Remembering A Life Blog
I’ve become a fan of sunrises. Before COVID-19 changed all of our lives, my busy travel and teaching schedule had me hopping. Most mornings after I woke up, I went straight to work. I had a love-hate relationship with the adrenaline of stress. I was a slave to emails, itineraries, deadlines, and flight schedules. Now I’m in limbo. With most of my presentations postponed or canceled, I’m home. I have time to linger over my morning cup of coffee. I have time to breathe and to think.
Remembering A Life Blog
You Are Not Alone Holidays are often difficult for anyone who has experienced the death of someone loved. Rather than being times of family togetherness, sharing, and thanksgiving, holidays can bring feelings of sadness, loss, and emptiness. Love Does Not End With Death Since love does not end with death, holidays may result in a renewed sense of personal grief—a feeling of loss unlike that experienced in the routine of daily living.
Grief During Cancer – Coping with Cancer Magazine
By Coping Magazine 22 Apr, 2019 CANCER, HOW TO COPE - SURVIVOR COPING WITH CANCER, GRIEF Alan D. Wolfelt, PhD by Alan D. Wolfelt, PhD Not only am I a prostate cancer survivor, but I am also a grief counselor and educator. For 40 years, I have taught people about the need to embrace and express their grief after a significant loss so they can go on to live and love well again. I now know firsthand that cancer is one of these significant losses.
Grieving the Loss of a Loved One
Everyone grieves the loss of a loved one differently and grief has no defined timeline. There are many different emotions related to the loss of a loved one. You may be able to learn to live with it, but the feeling of loss may never go away. Fear of Life after the Loss of a Loved One One of the great barriers to moving on is fear of the unknown. How will you move forward without the person you depended upon? How will you survive financially?
How to make up for the loss of human touch during the coronavirus pandemic
The power of touch is one that many are yearning for in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo: Getty Images) Dr. Alan Wolfelt is an author, educator, grief counselor and director of the Center for Loss and Life Transition in Colorado. My first grandchild was born in early 2020, right as the COVID-19 pandemic was gaining momentum.
Wolfelt: Reframe the coronavirus lockdown period into ‘opportunity’
By Alan Wolfelt I keep thinking about freeze tag. As we move into our second stay-at-home month during the COVID-19 pandemic, I find my thoughts returning to the old-time childhood game I played decades ago with my neighborhood friends in my Indiana hometown. You might remember that in freeze tag, when the person who is “it” touches you, you’re frozen in place until another player tags you, setting you free again.
How to reframe the difficult coronavirus lockdown period as 'one of the greatest opportunities of our lives'
"Now that the routines of our daily lives have been disrupted," the author writes, "many of us are finding ourselves with more time for mindful presence. Instead of doing, doing, doing, we can simply be." (Photo: Getty Images) Dr. Alan Wolfelt is an author, educator, grief counselor and director of the Center for Loss and Life Transition in Colorado. I keep thinking about freeze tag.
Remembering A Life Blog
A Pandemic Lesson in the Value of Liminal Space I keep thinking about freeze tag. As we move into our second stay-at-home month during the COVID-19 pandemic, I find my thoughts returning to the old-timey childhood game I played decades ago with my neighborhood friends in my Indiana hometown. You might remember that in freeze tag, when the person who is “it” touches you, you’re frozen in place until another player tags you, setting you free again.
Grief Resources During Covid 19
Grief Resources During Covid 19 Articles: Below are various articles written with helpful information during these difficult times.Click on your preferred article below: Live Streaming Grief Presentation on Facebook with Christine MacMillan, Clinical Social Worker Topic: Meeting Your Needs While Grieving During Self Isolation FAQs Our promise to you, our families and our community Whatever the unknown we may face, we, at Families First, will work together to honour your loved one by providing...
Remembering A Life Blog
If someone you love has died of the novel coronavirus, it is likely that you are facing a number of challenging circumstances. Grief is always difficult, but it is especially difficult whenever a death is sudden, unexpected, and unfolds in ways that violate our expectations and put up barriers to the cultural grief rituals that help us through. I have been a grief counselor and educator for over forty years, and this pandemic is unlike anything I have encountered.
Remembering A Life Blog | Funerals in the Time of Coronavirus: Thoughts for Families
Needless to say, the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 is a challenging time for everyone. But if someone you love has died, it is likely that the current social distancing orders and travel restrictions are making funeral planning especially difficult for your family. Losing a loved one is hard enough. Losing a loved one at a time of unprecedented upheaval and limitations may seem overwhelming.
Opinion: How to address a pandemic of grief
Alan D. Wolfelt The coronavirus is not only causing a viral pandemic: It is giving rise to a pandemic of grief. As I write this, in mid-March 2020, we as a global community are suffering so many losses that I hardly know where to begin. Death and grief go hand-in-hand, of course. Thousands of people have already died of COVID-19 worldwide. Many more are dying now. These are terrible losses their loved ones, who will need our support in the months to come.
The Grief and Mourning of Cancer
Dr. Alan Wolfelt Not only am I a prostate cancer survivor, but I am also a grief counselor and educator. For 40 years, I have taught people about the need to embrace and express their grief after a significant loss so they can go on to live and love well again. I now know firsthand that cancer is one of these significant losses. Cancer Causes Loss From the moment you first learned you had cancer, you began to experience losses of many kinds. To begin with, you lost your health.
13 books that talk about tough health topics
13 books to help parents and kids discuss tough health topics Some conditions and diseases can be hard for children to understand. Our Experts have put together a list of books to make talking about certain health topics a little easier. Hi My Name is Jack by Christina Beall-Sullivan This book focuses on siblings of children who have a chronic illness and addresses the range of emotions that siblings feel when their brother or sister is sick.
Blog
For several years I presented weekly wellness classes to adult men and women cancer patients at a cancer support facility. Most of the classes focused on ways for participants to optimize wellness while undergoing various treatments for cancer. Such classes provided a sense of direction and hope at a time when fear and pain dominated life’s daily landscape.
Hope and Healing After Suicide
Grief is a journey not meant to be travelled alone…especially grief resulting from the loss a loved one to suicide. The Helpline Center is offering you a day of hope and healing. This workshop is designed for adult survivors, those who are 18 years or older. This workshop is not appropriate for teens or children. Accomodations: Lodging is available at a variety of hotels in the Chamberlain/Oacoma area. Participants are responsible for the cost of a hotel room and for making their own reservations.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Alan
Contact Alan, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack