Are you a caregiver? I define caregiver as someone who spends most of their waking hours and even non-waking hours holding themselves responsible for and trying to meet the needs of others (pouring out all the contents of their emotional, physical, spiritual and financial glass). You could be caring for your children, aging parents, a sick family member, or your patients/clients/employees. Basically, if you find yourself in a chronic state of over commitment of your time and energy to others with little to no time to care for yourself, you might be a caregiver.

Common experiences of a caregiver are excessive and inappropriate guilt, perfectionism, being in a state of control that does not allow others to help when help is being offered, fatigue, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, autoimmune flare-ups, and overall decline in physical health.

I work with women to identify their values, establish boundaries, and reframe unhelpful and guilt-inducing thought patterns and core beliefs. Wouldn't it be nice to reclaim the essence of you so that you can show up better and stronger for yourself and those that you will continue to care for and serve, modeling for them necessary self-awareness and self-care.

"We usually only think of grief as a response to death. But death is only one of many forms of loss. Loss is experienced when anything we have become attached to is no longer there."

-J. Shep Jeffreys in "Helping Grieving People- When Tears Are Not Enough."

Change, whether positive or negative, wanted or unwanted = loss, likely of something we have become attached to, resulting in grief. J. Shep Jeffreys also writes that grief is natural, complex, predictable and unpredictable, even adaptive and helpful. It is not to be fixed or cured.

1- There is no one right way to grieve. 2- You cannot fix or cure grief. 3- There is no universal timetable for the grief journey. 4- Every loss is a multiple loss. 5- We grieve old loss while grieving new loss. 6- We grieve when a loss has occurred or is threatened.

I work with women who are grieving by validating their unique experience, exploring coping skills and resources, learning new ones if needed, and rebuilding meaningful attachments.