Find Help with Grief and Loss Situations in the Grief Speaks Blog on Springfield Patch

My name is Lisa Athan and I am very happy to be a new Blogger for The Springfield Patch. My blog is called Grief Speaks. I have lived in Springfield for the past 25 years and am raising four children who have attended all five of the public schools in Springfield.  I'm married and have three adult step children and we share our home with our beloved dogs and cats.

I have a website www.Griefspeaks.com that presents a great deal of useful information and resources on grief and loss related to a variety of situations in the lives of children, teens and adults. I'm the founder and Executive Director of Grief Speaks, where I offer presentations and workshops in schools, universities, hospitals, organizations, support groups and as a keynote speaker at meetings and conferences. I'm a certified Grief Recovery Specialist and I have a Master's degree in counseling. I serve on the Traumatic Loss Coalition for Youth in Union, Middlesex and Essex Counties. 

I have presented at EVW, JCS, and JDHS  to students, faculty and parents.  I speak to the JDHS students each marking period in their health classes on Healthy Coping with Grief, Loss & Other Tough Stuff. I receive wonderful feedback from the students. They learn how to help a peer, friend or family member, that what they are feeling is normal, and when, how and where to get help for themselves when they may need extra support.

I will be writing about grief and loss in the lives of children, teens and adults and how to best cope with losses that may include such things as illness, death, divorce, loss of friendships, moving,  loss of job, separations, pet loss, loss of memory, security and more.  I will provide information that can be used by grievers as well as those who are supporting them. I welcome your comments and questions and would be happy to respond to specific concerns that you may have. I am aware of many resources and enjoy connecting community members to those available resources.

My goal is to help raise awareness and normalize grief in our "get over it" and "move on" society, so that we can best help ourselves and others who are going through difficult times, learn what is helpful and what is not as helpful to do or say and find out how to be able to experience the grief as opposed to avoid it, numb it or stuff it which often leads to it manifesting  in unhealthy ways.

I will also share a quote at the end of each blog just as I do on my Grief Speaks Facebook page.

"Enjoy the little things in life for one day you may look back and realize that they were  the big things." ~ Antonio Smith

Take care of yourself and I look forward to having you read my next blog,

Lisa