“Loss and Grief Therapy”. People automatically think about death. The majority of loss and grief therapy I have done has had nothing to do with death actually. I have worked with hundreds of people who are dealing with the loss of their vision.
The challenge I saw for my clients was letting go of the reality that their vision is not coming back, and their life with never be the same. I had to guide them make room for a new reality, which is oftentimes troubling and frightening.
In losing their vision my clients also lost their ideas about what they thought the future would hold. They lose an aspect of their identity. Identity is everything. I watched them grapple with the fact that they have lost their familiarity and security.
While I understand how much pain comes with vision loss, I have been a witness to what this adversity can do to a person. I watched people turn pain into a propellant. Their vision loss forced them to shift what they thought they knew, and to learn how to navigate the world in a totally new way.
I always told my clients that it is okay to not be okay, and that one day soon they will find that they feel more okay than they did the day before.