July 2022

Many of us are familiar with Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’ five stages of grief : denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—a call to move forward in life while welcoming the different waves of grief that come and go. In today’s world, these waves have grown stronger because of the rise of losses and reasons behind them, which reside outside the confines of inevitable mortality and natural death. We are up against a relentless recurrence and severity of death in the context of violence,...

By Danielle Friedman, Photo: Vanessa Leroy/The New York Times, The New York Times, July 7, 2022 When Cheng Xu was serving in the Canadian Armed Forces as a paratrooper and infantry officer, he experienced a series of traumatic events in rapid succession — his best friend and fellow officer took his own life, a soldier under his command was injured during a live fire exercise and a close friend’s father was kidnapped. He felt like the world was collapsing around him everywhere except at the...

Deeply rooted shame from childhood adversities can lurk beneath conscious awareness, even after early memories are reworked. New understanding of the brain provides hope for breaking the painful grip of shame that’s imprinted in childhood. Traditional therapeutic strategies might not be the best starting point. This blog introduces the first of several healing strategies.