There’s an old saying: Grief is the price we pay for love. This simple statement reflects the reality that loss is inevitable. The only tragedy would be if you never loved anyone and so never had to endure their loss.

Because grief is a virtually universal human experience, it makes sense to understand the myriad ways in which people cope with grief — and the ways in which grief literally affects the body and mind. Throughout the ages, people have written about losing a loved one from a subjective, personal point of view. Fortunately, in recent years much research has also been conducted about grief from a scientific perspective. In an enlightening podcast published on the American Psychological Association (APA) website, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry Mary-Frances O’Connor “discusses how neuroscience can help us to better understand grief and resilience after loss, why grief is different from depression, effective therapy for grief, whether it’s possible to experience grief over the death of a celebrity, and how to support people when they are grieving.”

Click here to listen to the APA podcast with Professor O’Connor.