While I sometimes work with acute loss, such as the recent death of a loved one, I mostly work with complicated and disenfranchised grief. 
 

Complicated grief involves not having had something one needed. This grief is complex because it isn't about mourning something that was lost, but something that never existed. An common example is the lack of the nurturing, safe, or loving childhood one needed.
 

Disenfranchised grief is a loss that doesn’t get recognized or supported by the wider culture.  This might include mourning a non-traditional relationship (like an ex-partner or chosen family), a stigmatized loss (like suicide or incarceration), or grief tied to identity and systemic oppression (like racial trauma, transphobia, or reproductive loss). It can also be about grieving something less tangible, like a lost childhood, climate decline or another ongoing societal injustice.

 

Further resources: 

 

Article: an emergent strategy response to mass shootings, adrienne marie brown (2022).

https://adriennemareebrown.net/2022/06/07/an-emergent-strategy-response-to-mass-shootings/

 

Article: Letting Go: Wisdom From Our Grief, adrienne marie brown (2021). 

https://truthout.org/articles/letting-go-wisdom-from-our-grief/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

 

Website: Janina Fisher, janinafisher.com 

 

Book: Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey (2022).

 

Podcast: Tara Brach, PhD. tarabrach.com/podcast

 

Podcast: How to Survive the End of the World, adrienne maree brown and Autumn Brown, endoftheworldshow.org