Relationships
Relationships can be hard, for numerous reasons.
Those we have with others, as well as the one we have with ourselves.
They dictate an enormous amount of our lives, affect our everyday interactions and often, our feelings and emotions.
So when a relationship is experiencing difficulties, is causing you more pain than comfort, has broken down or ended, whether it's your choice or not, it can cause significant heartache and disruption to your world.
It's not just "romantic" relationships that have the propensity to have this effect either. It can be a partner, a relative, a work colleague or a friend, that any type of conflict in that relationship causes immense feelings of hurt and loss.
If a relationship has come to an end, there is a natural period of grief to experience. Can we grieve someone who hasn't died? Yes, you can. Grief can encompass many aspects of loss in our lives. Grieving someone who hasn't died, but isn't a part of our life anymore can be referred to as Ambiguous Grief. The pain from that grief is very real and so are the emotions we can experience as a result.
Being conflicted over the end of a relationship is common too. Happy or relieved it's finally over, but sad because you miss their presence in your life or silly jokes that made you laugh?
Just as grief is not linear, neither is understanding why a relationship might have come to an end, even though you still love that person, but couldn't quite make the relationship work.
Then you can be left wondering, what do I do now? Who am I without that person? I thought I had my life all planned out, knew what my future looked like, now everything has changed and I feel lost...rebuilding your identity or rediscovering who you are now, or who you want to be, can lead you to a wonderfully empowered destination; but the journey there can be harrowing and full of devastation.
If you are experiencing any of the things I mentioned above, I am the person who is willing to support you on that journey. I will be there to listen, validate, question and encourage you, as you build yourself into the person you want to be.