06-07-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
How to cope with grief? Evoking awe and beauty was the answer for this bereavement expert
As a teen, John Tsilimparis experienced a wrenching loss that would later shape his attitudes towards grief.
'I was 15, and my 17-year-old brother passed away. It crushed the family,' he recalls. 'It was hard to see my mother, especially, suffer so deeply. And she was never the same after that. She lived about 30 years more, but she was inconsolable.'
At the time, Tsilimparis had no tools to help himself or his family navigate the sorrow.
'Nobody was in therapy,' he says. 'It didn't occur to anyone to find help. So we all kind of went into our own corners.'
John Tsilimparis is a psychotherapist and bereavement expert. Photo: John Tsilimparis
Everyone endures loss or tragedy of some kind in their lifetime, and
grief is almost unavoidable when it happens. Most who have experienced it want to escape it as quickly as possible.
