GriefHaven Blog | Insights and Stories of Healing

July 4, 2025

Depressive symptoms may hasten memory decline in older people

The researchers concluded that depression and memory were closely interrelated, with both seeming to affect each other. The researchers concluded that depression and memory were closely interrelated, with both seeming to affect each other. Senior author Dr Dorina Cadar, of the UCL Department of Behavioral Science & Health and Brighton and Sussex Medical School, said: "It is known that depression and poor memory often occur together in older people, but what comes first has been unclear.

June 17, 2020

QA Bet Mother Who Lost 21 Year Old Son Ten Years Ago And SEW

Am I going crazy? To address your question “Am I going crazy?” the answer is no, you are not, although I understand how you might feel as if you are sometimes. We have all felt that. You are grieving normally and naturally, given your circumstances and lack of physical grief support, such as private counseling by a true grief expert or regularly attending a grief group with other parents who get it. I'm still having a hard time understanding why. After ten years, I wonder if the question you ask of “Why?” is still a true/real question or one that you find yourself, as when you are in disbelief that he is actually gone from this world, asking as a more generalized question, still trying to understand how such a thing could have happened so quickly

May 27, 2020

Mindfulness For Middleschool Students

Two new studies from MIT suggest that mindfulness -- the practice of focusing one's awareness on the present moment -- can enhance academic performance and mental health in middle schoolers. The researchers found that more mindfulness correlates with better academic performance, fewer suspensions from school, and less stress. "By definition, mindfulness is the ability to focus attention on the present moment, as opposed to being distracted by external things or internal thoughts.

March 17, 2016

2016 – Spend the Evening With Dr. Eben Alexander

Special Evening With Dr. Eben Alexander A Note About Our Evening With Dr. Eben Alexander and Karen Newell Thank you for spending last Tuesday with us and sharing in the special Eben Alexander event. Whatever your reasons for attending, I hope you walked away with at least something that resonated with you and that will help you in your lives. As I said on stage, my goal, and the overall goal of griefHaven, is to find and bring to everyone various approaches to living life that educate, provide hope, and help all of us as we continue our lifelong journeys. The work I do with those who are grieving involves a lot of anguish and hopelessness for a while, and that was also true for me for quite some time. When people see me now, they often ask what I’ve done over the […]

October 19, 2020

Wrote for those at Virginia Tech

About Avery: Avery Beer is 9 years old, and her mommy, Kori Beer, died in 2005. Avery is an amazing girl who wrote this beautiful tribute to all of those at Virginia Tech. Here is what she wrote:

This is a poem I wrote for those at Virginia Tech. If you knew any of them I'm sorry to hear. Oh and when I wrote it I was thinking of the family of these people so it's sort of said by the students.

October 16, 2020

To All Parents

I’ll lend you for a little time a child of mine, he said, For you to love the while she lives and mourn for when she’s dead, Maybe six or seven years or twenty-two or three, But will you, ‘til I call her back, take care of her for me?

October 19, 2020

The pain of death

The pain of death is not with those who have passed on.
It lives in the hearts of those who remain behind.

An unbearable ache that grows with each empty day.
Days without our children; comforting them, holding them, drying their tears and sharing their laughter.

Our children have passed into a place of calmness, comfort and peace

October 19, 2020

Love Lives On

A fire no longer glows bright,

A bird that suddenly takes flight.

An ocean switches from calm to wild,

A torrent of wind you once thought was mild.

A sturdy tree torn down in a storm,

Love suddenly changes form.

April 14, 2020

How Stress Remodels The Brain

Research led by Si-Qiong June Liu, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, has shown how stress changes the structure of the brain and reveals a potential therapeutic target to the prevent or reverse it. The findings are published in the Journal of Neuroscience. Working in a mouse model, Liu and her research team found that a single stressful event produced quick and long-lasting changes in astrocytes, the brain cells that clean up chemical messengers called neurotransmitters after they've communicated information between nerve cells.

June 9, 2020

Covid-19 Psych Impact

A new survey conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health during the COVID-19 pandemic found a more-than-threefold increase in the percentage of U.S. adults who reported symptoms of psychological distress -- from 3.9 percent in 2018 to 13.6 percent in April 2020. The percentage of adults ages 18-29 in the U.S. who reported psychological distress increased from 3.7 percent in 2018 to 24 percent in 2020. The survey, fielded online April 7 to April 13, found that 19.3 percent of adults with annual household incomes less than $35,000 reported psychological distress

May 24, 2020

Those Left Behind: Working With Suicide-Bereaved families

Rumination is common in individuals experiencing suicide bereavement and is unique compared with the responses to bereavement for other reasons. Suicide, the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, is on the rise. In 2016, nearly 45,000 Americans 10 or older died by suicide, up by 30% since 1999. An individual’s death by suicide has far-reaching effects on a wide range of people, including immediate and extended family, friends, acquaintances, and healthcare and mental health professionals.

June 27, 2014

Tom Coughlin Jay Fund

GRIEFHAVEN AND THE Tom Coughlin Jay Fund JUNE 27, 2014 – Report by Susan Whitmore, griefHaven Founder What an incredible honor it has been to be a part of the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund organization. I was privileged to be the keynote presenter on Saturday morning, opening up the conference. I then conducted three workshops on Saturday afternoon, with my husband Wendell at my side. All of the families in attendance lost a child, sibling, or grandchild to cancer…a journey I know well. On Sunday morning I shared an overview of the weekend, how to go on in life without our children, and what it means to embrace life once again. Tom Coughlin, founder of the Jay Fund and coach extraordinaire for the New York Giants, gave a passionate and moving talk to the audience of parents and siblings who were gathered together for the final candle light ceremony. Coach Coughlin […]