ABSTRACT
Grief, the experience of loss, is universal. Mourning, the way in which an individual or group expresses that loss, is cultural. It is important to understand this distinction when working with bereaved people and reflecting on our own experiences and expressions of grief and loss. Grief is not an intellectual concept, one that can be neatly dissected and labeled. Every statement we make about grief, every explanation that we give to someone in pain, is a distortion of a truth which only they can name. Without love there is no grief, which explains why grief groups are so powerful and cohesive: Participants are not only sharing the devastating experience of grief, but also the inspiring story of love whose absence is so keenly felt. The ability to accompany a person or group of people on a grief journey comes from combining the two concepts: grief and mourning, the universal and the cultural.
