Center for Grief Recovery and Therapeutic Services

06/29/2025

by David Fireman, LCSW What a joy it was to come together and celebrate 40 incredible years of our counseling center’s service, heart, and impact. Thank you to each and every one of you who joined us and made the celebration so meaningful—whether you came for the heartfelt speeches, the deliciou...

05/30/2025

https://www.griefcounselor.org/2025/05/30/consoling-bereaved-empathy-care/

by David Fireman, LCSW When someone you care about is grieving, it’s natural to want to help them feel better. But offering comfort during such a difficult time can feel overwhelming. What do you say? What should you do? It’s important to remember that your support doesn’t need to be perfect.....

05/16/2025

https://www.griefcounselor.org/2025/05/16/2001-a-space-odyssey-and-the-two-paths-of-facing-mortality/

by David Fireman, LCSW The awareness of mortality—our finite existence—stands as one of the defining features of human consciousness. Unlike other species, humans possess the capacity to comprehend our own inevitable demise. I believe this realization, universal and unavoidable, triggers an inst...

05/02/2025

Founded in 1985, The Center for Grief Recovery and Therapeutic Services is a 501(c)(3) non-profit housing eight independent practitioners who are dedicated to empowering individuals to heal themselves and enrich their lives.

04/09/2025

by David Fireman, LCSW Life’s challenges often place us in a difficult tension between feeling helpless and trying to persevere. Grief can feel like a constant state of dislocation, a dizzying and porous frame of mind where one is rendered unable to focus and organize thoughts and feelings. The pr...

03/21/2025

by David Fireman, LCSW The ego is a very complicated element of the personality. It is the decider, the doer, the experiencer and evaluator, and mediates between the internal world of thoughts, impulses, values and emotions, and the external world of relationships and demands. We may think of it as....

03/05/2025

03/01/2025

by David Fireman, LCSW The role of hope in Greek mythology, particularly in the story of Pandora’s jar (commonly mistranslated as box), is puzzling at best. According to Hesiod, Pandora, the first woman created by the gods, opened a jar that released all the evils into the world: disease, sorrow, ...

02/06/2025

https://www.griefcounselor.org/2025/02/06/stage-models-for-grief-are-sus/

By David Fireman Grief is one of life’s most complex emotional experiences, which profoundly shapes our understanding of love, loss, survival, and recovery. It is often discussed through the lens of stage models, which attempt to describe the psychological and emotional processes we undergo when c...

01/23/2025

Who Am I Now? How Can I Go On? The Ripping of Grief

Grief is among the most profound and universal experiences of being human. At some point in life, everyone encounters its power—an anguish so deep it feels as though the very foundation of one’s identity is under siege. While grief manifests differently for everyone, its origins, influences, and...

01/10/2025

Join us in welcoming our newest associate, James Drake, LCPC. Find info about his new private practice at CGR here.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/james-drake-chicago-il/1320551

01/08/2025

Welcome to a renewed chapter of this blog, where we explore the profound, complex, and deeply human experiences of loss, trauma, grief, mourning, and self-renovation. These topics are universal, yet they touch every person differently. Our refreshed vision is to create a space where we can navigate....