As a mental health professional, I often emphasize the importance of confronting past traumas. Recently, I embarked on a deeply personal and transformative journey with my childhood friend, Angie, to her childhood home in Puerto Rico, a place steeped in her traumatic memories. Facing the..
In my journey as a psychiatric nurse practitioner and, more poignantly, as a grieving mother, I have encountered many well-meaning but misplaced attempts at consolation. Grieving the loss of a child is a profoundly personal and painful experience, and the words chosen to address it..
In the realm of grief and loss, there is a unique and complex type called anticipatory grief. It’s a mixture of pain and preparation, a blend of sorrow and foresight that often accompanies the impending loss of a loved one. As a psychiatric nurse practitioner..
As I sit here on the two-year anniversary of my daughter’s passing, a painful truth echoes in my mind: no one is going to rescue us from our pain. This realization, as harsh as it sounds, is a cornerstone of my journey and my teachings…
Hello, I’m Cristi Bundukamara, and today, I want to share my deeply personal journey through grief and how I’ve managed to turn my pain into purpose. I recently received a request to discuss the concept of fight or flight in the context of grief, and..
Hello, I’m Cristi Bundukamara, and today, I want to share with you a deeply personal experience that has shaped my life profoundly – the death anniversary of my beloved son, Reggie. As I recount this painful journey, I hope to offer you three essential tips..
Grief is Pain. That’s a truth I want to emphasize. Anyone who claims otherwise, I challenge them. In my own experience of grieving, I delved into various grief theories, and what I discovered left me with a feeling that these theories failed to understand the..
Grief is a complex emotion, one that often seems at odds with joy. The pain of loss can be so overwhelming that it can feel impossible to find moments of happiness amidst the darkness. However, we’re going to delve into a powerful perspective. I have..
Losing a loved one is an unimaginable pain, a journey that I intimately understand. My powerful story is marked by the loss of my three children over 17 years. Despite my overwhelming grief, I want to share three profound strategies that have helped me find..
Losing a child is a tragic and devastating experience that can leave parents overwhelmed and broken. Grief is a natural process after losing someone we love, but healing after losing a child can be incredibly challenging. In her video, Dr. B shares her deeply personal..
Grief is a complex and multifaceted emotion that affects individuals in many ways. Dr. Cristi Bundukamara, aka Dr. B, a psychiatric nurse practitioner and a grief expert, has shared her experience of going through the 45 Days of Grief series and highlighted the importance of..
In 1969, Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross first introduced the stages of grief in her book On Death and Dying. Since then, the five stages of the grief model have become widely accepted as the go-to framework for understanding how people journey through grief. But what..
The death of a loved one can be one of the most challenging experiences that a person can go through. It is natural to feel overwhelmed and confused by the many intense emotions that come with grief. Fortunately, there is a model to help people..
Understanding Grief Grief is an incredibly complex emotion. Everyone processes grief differently, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to navigating it. Typical grief stages include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It is important to note that these stages are not necessarily linear; you may..
Cristi Bundukamara, Ed. D, PMHNP (aka, Dr. B), founder and creator of the Mentally STRONG Method, discusses the physical aspect of grief and what grieving does to the body. Dr. B is an expert in mental health and grieving, publicly sharing her experience grieving the..
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