For Further Study: Environmental Grief Sources and References
An extensive list of resources for further study on environmental grief, including both Western approaches and other cultural frameworks: research, therapy approaches, Indigenous concepts and knowledge, and more.
Expanding Our Understanding: Alternative Frameworks for Environmental Grief
Western psychology is beginning to recognize environmental grief as a legitimate response to ecological destruction, but other cultural frameworks have long understood the deep emotional connections between humans and the natural world.
Understanding Environmental Loss as Disenfranchised Grief
The psychological impact of environmental grief is very real: anticipatory grief for future losses, feelings of helplessness and overwhelm, existential anxiety about the future of our planet, and painful disconnection from others who "don't get it." But environmental grief demonstrates psychological health, not pathology.
Disenfranchised Grief and Pregnancy Loss: Understanding Your Valid and Natural Response
The loss of a pregnancy—whether through miscarriage, stillbirth, or other circumstances—brings profound grief that can feel overwhelming and isolating. Understanding the concept of disenfranchised grief can help explain why this loss may feel particularly challenging to navigate in our society.
The Reality of Pet Loss Grief
The grief you feel when your animal companion dies is real, profound, and deserving of recognition—even if the world around you doesn't always understand.
When History Becomes Personal Loss: Historical Trauma and Disenfranchised Grief
Grief about historical atrocities or ongoing systemic oppression represents one of the most misunderstood forms of disenfranchised grief in our society.
When Your Grief Doesn't "Count": Understanding Disenfranchised Grief
Disenfranchised grief occurs when society doesn't acknowledge your right to grieve a particular loss. Your pain is real, your sense of loss profound, but the world around you may minimize it, ignore it, or expect you to "get over it" quickly.
Alua Arthur: Why Thinking About Death Helps You Live a Better Life
“Death creates context for our lives… How we die creates the period at the end of the sentence but it is the period that makes it a sentence at all.”
What Really Matters at the End of Life
BJ Miller is a physician whose passion for hospice and palliative care stems from his own near-death experience.