Life After Loss

World-renowned grief expert Vamik D. Volkan approaches how grieving differs depending on the experience of loss as he shares details on how humans mourn and the dangers that come with avoiding the psychological process of grieving.

In this guide to processing the loss of people in your life, from those you’re closest with to those you simply knew, Dr. Volkan, a psychiatrist with a specialization in grief, approaches the process of losing someone from two points: “complicated” and “uncomplicated” mourning.

Sharing his own story of grieving to show the power of unresolved losses throughout these pages, the three parts of Life After Loss examine the dynamics of successful mourning, the risk factors that can influence the grieving process, and how therapy, resiliency, and creative expression can help us grieve.

Vomik D. Volkan, M.D., is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute and is on the faculty of the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center. He has been a pioneer in bereavement therapy and is considered an authority on grief and its complications.

Elizabeth Zintl is an award-winning journalist.