Adults who went through the death of a parent as teenagers often point to this loss as a hinge point in their personal history: There was life before it happened, and life after; the two are drastically different. Just as we come to the part of our story when it’s finally our turn to do the adult things we’ve looked forward to most of our young lives, an often traumatic and cataclysmic shift occurs, a very serious adult experience that separates us from our peers and forces us to deal with painful feelings, both our own and those of other surviving family members.

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We are literally never the same.

 

Factors influencing how we experienced the death of a parent are many and varied. That for many, the experience was significant enough to affect our relationships, worldviews, spiritual and social lives, and even personality —is not in dispute.

 

Adolescence, when the expectations of development and growth can already be challenging, can be made all the more difficult by forced membership into a club we never asked to be in- kids with dead parents.

  

Those of us who lost a parent as a teen also had a variety of ways of getting “through” it. Even with the best support during our grieving process, including trusted adults who offer love and look out for us, the freedom to express and resolve painful feelings, etc., it's possible that we may still struggle with feelings of grief and abandonment in adulthood.

 

My counseling practice offers adults who were parentally bereaved as teens an opportunity to gain insight and deepen their relationships with themselves and their experiences. I combine compassion, hope and experience in order to support you in your unique personal journey navigating life after this loss. I do not claim to have the answers but I am honored to support you as you find yours.