Illness & Mortality
These articles examine the psychological and relational aspects of life-altering illnesses, chronic conditions, and other experiences that force clients to address mortality. You'll find guidance on supporting clients through diagnosis, treatment, and end-of-life transitions, including existential distress. Explore how illness reshapes identity, relationships, and meaning, and learn to offer practical strategies for integrating these themes into therapy. Discover how to better help clients navigate fear, loss, and uncertainty with compassion, presence, and clinical skill.
No one can prevent the horrors of cancer, but processing this particular experience of loss with a therapist who's been through it may stave off the trauma of... Read more
A cancer diagnosis, while devastating, can be a powerful teacher. Through the fear and anxiety, we can discover how to reliably calm ourselves and ask for... Read more
Although you can’t change unpredictable and uncontrollable situations, you can change how you respond. You can regain a sense of control and emotional... Read more
A number of states have passed legislation giving terminal patients the option of medical aid in dying. What therapists need to know about helping patients and... Read more
Hospital protocols have replaced the time-honored customs that once enabled the dying to be lead actors in their life’s final drama. Why do we spend so much... Read more
Helping the traditionalist generation care for their aging partners. Read more
When something is coming at you that may cause pain or self-doubt, it’s natural to want to duck. Read more
We’re living longer and longer, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that we’d choose to live through a painful terminal illnesses. Do we have the right to... Read more
A perverse set of financial incentives within the medical system too often leads to the promotion of maximum treatment, no matter what. When this happens... Read more
An ill child finds his place among a group of other boys in aging men's bodies. Read more
An emergency room social worker's day revolves around handling emotional crises of strangers facing terrible moments of their lives. Read more
A woman recovering from cancer develops a new sense of her body and her comfort zone. Read more
Despite everything I had no choice about, I did have one fundamental choice to make: my choice of a "stance" toward life. Would I find joy in the options that... Read more
The phrase "in sickness and in health" is a hallowed part of our marriage vows for good reason. As human beings vulnerable to a wide variety of diseases and... Read more
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