Show #226 – The Psychology of Grief with Psychologist, Amanda Gordon

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Love our new show tune in the intro/outro? It’s talented Australian independent artist Melanie Horsnell’s song “Birds”. So proud to support this wonderful Aussie artist and have her grace the show with her wonderful words and song!

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And on this week’s show!

I’m going to make a bold claim: That every human needs to listen to this show today. I burst into tears. Big time. From thinking about loss close people to me had experienced in their lives, to then thinking about the whole community and the collective grief out there to then having a personal button pushed – grief I didn’t even know I was still moving through, probably because I never fully came to terms with the loss, such is the strange situation of growing up thousands of miles away from your family. 

Grief is something all of us will move through and all of us will wonder if we’re doing our best to support someone moving through it. So today, I have the wonderful clinical psychologist, Amanda Gordon on the show to help us understand our own grief when moving through it, as well as to live with that grief and tune into the ways to be a great support to someone grieving in our lives. I know this show will produce tears and pain and sorrow. It did for me. Lean into it. Reach out to someone today. Powerful, important stuff. And of course, as always, head over to the show notes for more details, our supporter offer and to join the Low Tox Club. 

The questions I asked Amanda:

1. How did you come to feel psychology was the best field for you and the way you wanted to impact people’s lives? 
2. Death and dying – how do you feel we can do things better as families, communities? Some cultures seem to do such a wonderful job of rites of passages, in my experience of death as a western European/Aussie we seem to get very awkward around people who are grieving, no real way to navigate death and grieving, so often we detach and ‘leave people to grieve’ – I’d love to hear how you’ve thought about this over the years through your study and experience with clients? 
3. What does grief look like for a person? 
4. How does the way a loved one passes on impact us psychologically? Is there a difference between a long window of knowing it was coming, compared to a sudden shock? 
5. What are some of the most effective tools for us when we’re grieving? 
6. How can we be the best support to someone grieving? 
7. What are the signs we might need additional support/medical support in our grieving process? 
8. What steps can a person take to work through their grief to be able to go back to work/find moments of joy as they move through it? 
9. What can we do when we experience dips of grief – everything’s been great for a while, finally feeling back on track and you’re then triggered and sent into a spiral of grief: a framework to support people during this time? 

Other helpful links:

Learn more about Amanda Gordon and her work: https://armchairpsychology.com.au/

Join him on Instagram @armchair_psychology_sydney and on Facebook

This week’s show Sponsor

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