Your Brain on Grief - Why It’s Important to Honor and Process Grief

Your Brain on Grief – Why It’s Important to Honor and Process Grief

Date : Sep 6, 2023 Duration: 24:58 min

Fully processing our losses is essential for overcoming prolonged grief. When the grieving process is disrupted, and we can’t properly acknowledge our loss and integrate them into our lives, we can get stuck in prolonged grief. When we have unresolved grief, memories can bring back strong fight-or-flight reactions and cause emotional responses that can be hard on our bodies and our lifestyles. Grief is something that we all have to deal with, and it can be a very difficult emotion to process, but it’s essential that we take the time to deal with it in our own ways and create the remembrance and reverence for our losses that we need so we can move on in a healthy way. Honor and talk about your grief, and don’t get stuck with a ‘grief brain’.

WHAT IS THERAPY: DECONSTRUCTED?

Society has led us to believe that therapy is for those with deep-seated issues and that it’s not for those of us who are “successful and stable”. The Therapy: Deconstructed podcast, hosted by Dr. Bonnie Wims, debunks the myths and societal beliefs about therapy and explains not only what therapy is, but also how it can help anyone who’s facing obstacles in their lives.

As a therapist, coach, and a UK Chartered Counseling Psychologist specializing in helping the global community, Dr. Bonnie has helped innumerable people get from where they are to where they’d like to be. She’s “your someone else” who is there for you when you need to bounce things off of so that you can better understand yourself. And she does it in a warm and intelligent style that’s peppered with levity.

Listen in each week to Dr. Wims if you’re therapy-curious and get answers to all your questions about what therapy is, what it is not, and how therapy may be the x-factor you’ve been searching for.

Show Notes:
▶️ We all experienced grief: unresolved grief can impact your life negatively. 01:14
🤕 A story about Bonnie’s friend: the prognosis of her illness was not good. 02:41
😢 Traveling to say goodbye: the difficult and beautiful moments in life. 05:32
🧠 Foggy details and ‘grief brain’. 07:19
👉 Grief can be felt emotionally, physically, behaviorally, and spiritually. 08:16
🤷‍♀️ What prolonged grief is, and how to recognize it. 08:54
⚠️ How grief affects your brain: trauma and fight-or-flight mode. 10:10
⚱️ Difference between the initial grief and the grieving: traditions that help and differences in the process. 11:34
😭 Six months after her father passed, Bonnie had an emotional reaction while donating platelets at a hospital. 13:21
📕 Unresolved grief can extend the grieving process. 17:35
🛐 With ambiguous losses, a lack of rituals and support can be difficult. 20:20
‼️ How to help someone who is grieving: a fear of stopping grieving, so we can hold onto loved ones. 21:19
🎯 Grief in therapy is handled like all emotional trauma: it needs to be honored. 23:05

Link

Connect with Dr. Bonnie Wims: www.bonniewims.com
Books/Resources: Called To Lead
Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief
Follow Dr. Bonnie Wims: www.linkedin.com/in/drbonniewims
Book a free call with Dr. Bonnie Wims: calendly.com/bonnie-96

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What Listeners Are Saying

LoloB426

Every month, I look forward to a new episode of Therapy Deconstructed. The way Bonnie weaves her own story through the episodes is captivating. She has a calm and nurturing voice, like the trusted friend you always turn to when you need solid advice. I always finish an episode feeling like she was talking directly to me.

Thomas MacInnes

As someone who had never gone to therapy, I found myself in a situation last year that was very sad, confusing and overwhelming for me and I was really unable to figure my way through it. I turned to Bonnie and she so graciously and effortlessly (seemingly) had so much empathy and compassion for my feelings and she truly helped me navigate getting my emotions and really my life back on track. I am very grateful for Bonnie and her wisdom, honesty, humor, candor but mostly for her compassion. I’m excited to listen to her podcast but would highly encourage anyone who is reading this to reach out to her. She really helped me and I am very thankful to have her in my corner.

Janee_Lovess

Dr. Wims makes therapy digestible and even fun to learn about. Sometime therapy feels like a big mystery and something super intimidating, but she breaks it down make it feel more personal and helpful.

Stellar-Venus

I’m pretty particular about what podcasts I’ll tune into, but this one was recommended so I decided to check it out. Bonnie is a natural at this – she offers thoughtful insights into our thoughts and emotions and why we humans fall into unhelpful patterns, then provides simple wisdom on how to reframe them. Big fan.