A2C Therapeutic Services, INC

01/03/2025

When you’re living with a grieving heart there are so many emotions you struggle with; sadness, confusion, frustration, fear, impatience, and anger, just to name a few.

Then there are the emotions you long to rediscover; hope, optimism, resilience, acceptance, peace, and serenity, again just to name a few.

If you were going to Alaska, you would bring warm clothes, boots, a heavy jacket, and gloves.

If you wanted to enjoy a tropical vacation on the beautiful island of St. Lucia, you would only need shorts, a tank top, and sandals.

But, if you visit the Pacific Northwest, where one day's weather can fluctuate from cold and rainy to warm and sunny, you need to bring and wear multiple layers.

Here’s the thing…the experience you have in each location has everything to do with how prepared you are.

So…as we start a new year, what are you packing in your suitcase for 2025?

Gary Sturgis - Surviving Grief
Author: SURVIVING - 'Finding Your Way from Grief to Healing'
Available at Amazon: https://mybook.to/SurvivingGrief

01/02/2025

A2C has some exciting news!

Our office has moved!!!
345 South Walnut Street
Statesboro, Ga 30458

We are excited. This space will allow my business partner to come on board and provide more clinical hours to our current and prospective clients.
Check out our website for more information.

11/19/2024

Grief is hard and the holidays aren’t always the most wonderful time of the year, especially if you’re grieving a loss.

01/04/2024

Saw this post on LinkedIn. I love the concept….. The art of rest.

"Sleep and rest are not the same thing, although many of us incorrectly confuse the two." 💤 Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith research reveals that rest should…

11/21/2023

https://www.facebook.com/100063643748586/posts/860455286085922/?mibextid=cr9u03

ALMOST Normal

As the new year approaches, I'm reminded that it will mark ten years since my person died. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday, and other times it seems so long ago.

I guess 10 years is a long time, and people probably think I should be over it, or that I've moved on.

But...none of that is true.

After all this time, there's still never a day I don't think about who I lost. It's always in the back of my mind. It lives in a secret place that belongs only to me. It silently passes through my thoughts, sometimes making me sad, and sometimes the memory is calming. It’s reassuring. It’s safe and feels good.

This is why losing someone is so hard. Because the feeling of missing that person never ends. The ache never fully goes away. The pain lessens over time, and you learn to live with it. But the part where you miss them never really changes. It just doesn’t hurt as much. It becomes bearable.

If you're fresh in your grief, I want you to know that this is how grief changes over time.

Here's the thing...it doesn’t end, and it doesn’t go away. It just changes. You really do feel ALMOST normal again. It's just different in a surreal kind of way.

You have to learn how to live in a world without the person you love, and that’s hard! But you do begin to learn how to live with it. I know this might be hard to believe now, but you even learn how to be okay again.

I think that those we lose never fully leave us. I believe they become a part of us, that they live on within us. They live in our heart, and they're by our side each step of the way.

Even though you might heal from your grief, you'll still carry some of it with you.

It’s just not as heavy a load.

You'll still miss your person because they're a part of who you were and of who you still are. Your life has been permanently changed because of them.

So while you may have this hole in your heart forever, you can find comfort in knowing that because of the person you miss, your life was made better because they were a part of it.

Don’t you agree?

Gary Sturgis - "Surviving Grief"

11/18/2023

Grief during the holidays can be particularly challenging. Here are some tips from the Grief toolbox that maybe helpful.

11/18/2023

11/02/2023

May 14, 2023 - How to control thoughts? In this pin I share best 4 tips for control our thoughts.

10/07/2023

Living With A Broken Heart

It’s difficult to strike a balance between the act of grieving and your total lack of control over it.

Living with a broken heart makes it hard to have the will to continue living life and making plans.

When you’re grieving, there’s an array of thoughts and emotions you continue to face that are somehow invisible and unfamiliar to everyone else.

The only people who can understand this are those who have lost a piece of their heart.

After someone you love dies, it feels like everything you say and do is foreign to the outside world. It’s like carrying this invisible, massive boulder, cradling it between both your arms, trying hard not to drop it, praying that at any second, it won’t fall and smash your feet.

How do you explain to people, who have no idea what you’re experiencing, that it’s been several months and you’re still crying yourself to sleep? That you’re always sad? How do you show them what you had to witness with your own eyes, or explain to them why you still just want the person you love to come back?

Well…you can’t.

When someone you love dies, it’s not just their death that you struggle with, it’s also the regret of all the things said and done during the time in which they were still alive. And it’s in all the things you can’t say or do now that they’re gone.

It’s not just about the last interaction you had with someone, it’s about all of it: the birthdays, the holidays, the hugs, the talks, the trips together.

It’s about the lifetime of good memories.

When someone you love is taken from you suddenly, your brain has a way of doing whatever it does when you experience a traumatic event, it holds onto it tight and constantly floods you with thoughts of it.

The unfortunate truth is that you’re susceptible to grief, because you’re able to love. The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief.

Living with a broken heart means learning to accept the fact that every day is just another day without your loved one in it, and that will never change.

Here's the thing...the problem with living with a broken heart, is nobody can see it.

Gary Sturgis - “Surviving Grief”