Therapy and Counseling
Services in San Francisco
The Flood Building
Suite 441
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 846-6557
Daniel C. McCracken, MA, MFT
Licensed Psychotherapist
Contact Daniel
Grief and Loss
Bereavement is our natural way of healing loss. Through entering into therapy I can help you to navigate grief and loss, not only with a current loss but with past losses that you may have stored up. This often happens when on some level, we feel that in experiencing the loss it will be too overwhelming, that it might "break" us. Many people suffer great losses in childhood and aren't offered, for whatever reasons, the ability and safety to learn how to grieve. This can lead to depression. Much of what I do is to teach people how to morn, and that it is okay to morn. It won't break you. Loss is part of life. Grieving is valuable and can feel safe.
We often think of loss as the death of a loved one. Although this is true, we also experience loss within many facets of our lives. This could be as simple as our life not turning out the way we had imagined. It could also be in losing a relationship, whether it turned out to be a "good" thing or not. It could even be a reaction to getting older or moving onto a new career. The point is that we lose on a daily basis and unless you can find a way to deal with it, it can often lead to inadvertent problems popping up in other areas of your life. It can also affect your spirit, making it feel dull and heavy rather than bright and hopeful. At times we don't even understand how much loss we have until something as big as a loved one dies.
Our culture promotes the misconception that grief is something that we will get over in time, that there is a natural progression of stages that we have to go through, and that time heals all wounds. This misconception assumes that we all have the same path for dealing with grief and that all of our grief is the same and most importantly, that it is something that has an ending point. Once we have had a loss it remains just that, a loss. What therapy can do is to have you begin to find a way to live a sometimes happy, healthy and productive life in spite of and without having to bury your loss.