Jacksonville Center for Grief and Loss

01/02/2025

For all who are grieving as 2025 begins...

may this year find you remembering your loved one with more love than pain.

10/01/2024

Robin Williams's daughter said this about grief...

09/29/2024

Please be aware:
Halloween can be an especially difficult time for parents who have lost a young child.

09/17/2024

Love this.

07/15/2024

We live in a culture that is impatient with the pain of grief. But you don't have to suffer in silence. Reach out. Www.jaxgrief.com

07/15/2024

vulnerability doesn’t mean telling others what happened to us from across a cafe table or from behind a microphone

and then going home from the experience feeling just as alone as you did before

vulnerability means allowing your human heart blanket to get sewn to other heart blankets

it’s about connection

we don’t share for status
we do it for synergy

we don’t confess for clout
we do it to build community

we tell our tale
to invite others
to tell theirs

it’s the sacred cycle
of storytelling

we gather in a circle of trust and
say “here is my journey”

then we listen to
the other journeys
that are shared

we take space
then we give space

we pour
then we absorb

we speak
then we listen

we are storytellers
then we are witnesses

vulnerability isn’t just about
grave digging in our past
to expose our skeletons

it’s about sewing quilts

here is my patch
here is your patch
here is their patch
here is us

here is our story



~ john “patchwork heart” roedel

art by the ab-fab
Paula Jones Fine Artist

05/12/2024

04/07/2024

It’s funny, grief, isn’t it? How you die with them. Whoever you were before has gone. Your ghost walks the earth. You look the same, sound the same, but are not the same. You don’t breathe oxygen the way you did before. You negotiate life under an ocean. Drowning as you do your shopping, drowning as you ride the bus, drowning as you go to work. You can’t live with this, you think. No one could live with this. It’s unliveable. Then there are moments when your head rises above the water. You find something funny, laugh. A glimpse of your previous self. Until you are submerged once again.

― Charlotte Levin

07/15/2023

Hi, friends!
I'm hosting an online event called "Self-Care Sunday" on Sunday, August 13th from 10 a.m. EST to 11 a.m. EST. Attendance is free but attendees have the option of purchasing a special "Self-Care pampering kit" to use during the event and on many days after! (It's what's shown in the photo). I'll be guiding everyone through how to nurture ourselves through the stress in grief (though you don't have to be in grief to attend). It's a women-only event. Come to learn ways to nurture your mind, body, and spirit. It's the first in a series on self-care that I'm planning. 🙂
Please share this with anyone you like. Hope to see you (and anyone you're sharing it with) there! If the cost of the kit is prohibitive, please contact me. Some reduced rates are available.

Much love,
Rachel

Join me for a soothing online session. You'll be guided in gentle self-care techniques to calm your grieving mind, body, and spirit.

07/10/2023

I'm proud to have recently added this to my credentials. Providing grief support and grief education for over 25 years since having received my Master's in Counseling Pyschology and receiving, a few years loater, additional training in supporting grief and loss, there is always more to learn in order to be the best I can be for my clients. This course was extraordinary and I'm grateful to have completed it.

07/09/2023

Hello, friends.

I'm proud to announce an additional certification I've earned. While I've been supporting grief and educating about grief for over 25 years after getting initial grief related training when I retired from my work as a traditional therapist, I can now say I'm a "certified grief educator" due to an extraordinary course I took through author and renowned grief expert, David Kessler (who wrote a book with grief trailblazer, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross). There is always more to learn about supporting grief and I am always committed to deepening and expanding my work.

If you have any questions about how I work and whether or not you could benefit from working with me, I encourage you to reach out just to gather some information. Every type of loss is valid and no matter how much or how little time has passed or how many losses you have experienced either recently or long ago, you have the right to be heard and supported. My website is www.jaxgrief.com and you can reach me at (408) 540-4950. I provide support both in person as well as via Zoom. I hope to hear from you. Regardless, be kind to yourself as you grieve and find someone who feels supportive to you. In the words of Iyana Van Zant, "Every wound needs a witness"
-Rachel Weinstein, M.S. Ed.