Welcome to episode 268 of Live Happy Now. This is Paula Phelps, and as we begin a new month,

all of us are dealing with a lot of different emotions. One of the things that many people are

dealing with is a sense of loss. All of us have lost something this year, and that's affecting us

whether we realize it or not.

This week, we're talking to Aaron Wiley, a clinical psychotherapist, and executive director of the Willow Center, a counseling practice in Toledo, Ohio.

She's here to talk about the many ways our losses could be affecting us and our loved ones, then gives us tips on processing

grief and coping with the changes brought by the pandemic.

Erin, welcome to Live Happy Now.

Thank you so much for having me, Paula.

I appreciate it.

Thank you for coming on the show and talking us today.

You've got a great topic that we don't normally associate with happiness, but it's really important for us to talk about,

and that is grief. A lot of times, you know, we associate grief with major losses through things

like death or divorce, but it comes from other losses too, and that's really what I want to talk to you

about. I think, like you said,

we classically think of things like losing a marriage or a pregnancy as being, obviously, a milestone

grief marker in life that's really difficult to get through. But with COVID-19, there's been so

many losses and losses upon losses. And I think they're just not traditional

because they've never happened before. And so it's easy to dismiss them, especially in the

face of a global pandemic where we're trying to remind ourselves these losses may be pale in

comparison to the loss of someone's actual life. But they are still nonetheless a loss that is painful and needs to be

processed. Do you see people doing that, minimizing it and saying, yes, this was a loss, but it's not

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