No one is immune from life’s losses and they are an unavoidable part of the human experience but, despite knowing that intellectually, nothing can prepare you for the seismic loss of a loved one. ‘The task psychologically is to both face the death, and find a way of living with it,’ says Julia Samuel, a therapist specialising in grief and the author of This Too Shall Pass (Penguin, £14.99).
“You need to find a way of engaging with life, so your grief does not overwhelm you”
‘Your loss may be of a more complex nature - someone you did not like but for whom you have strong feelings. You need to find a way of accommodating loss while still engaging with life, so grief doesn’t overwhelm you. Part of that is to remember that the person may be gone but love never dies.’