Rating: ★★★★★
From Grief to Grace: A Therapist’s Journey of Healing After Loss is one of those rare memoirs that does more than tell a story — it reaches into your chest, rests a gentle hand on your heart, and reminds you that you are not alone. As a survivor myself, this book resonated with me on a level I did not expect. Anita Salek Aasen writes with a kind of emotional clarity and vulnerability that can only come from someone who has truly lived through the darkness and found her way back into the light.
This memoir follows Anita’s journey after the sudden loss of her beloved brother, Lou — a bond so deep that his absence left her unmoored, stunned, and hollowed out. What makes her story so deeply moving is the way she balances her personal grief with her professional understanding as a licensed clinical social worker. She knows the theories, the stages, the clinical models… and yet grief humbled her, reminding us all that intellectual knowledge is no shield against emotional devastation.
And perhaps that is the greatest gift of this book: its honesty. Anita never pretends to be stronger than she is. She never sanitizes the messy parts of mourning — the spiralling thoughts, the quiet breakdowns, the unexpected triggers, the loneliness that lingers even in a crowded room. She writes exactly what most of us feel but cannot always express.
One of the sections that struck me the hardest was her reflection on music — the songs she turned to during her recovery, and the unexpected way melody can become a lifeline. As someone who also found solace in music during my own healing, these passages felt like a warm recognition, a shared language between survivors.
Throughout the memoir, Anita blends her personal reflections with therapeutic insight in a way that feels comforting rather than clinical. She reminds us that grief is not a problem to be solved, but a process to be honoured. Her voice is compassionate, steady, and full of grace.
By the final pages, she offers a wide range of healing practices — from traditional counselling to more unconventional approaches — acknowledging that there is no single “right way” to grieve. We each find our path in our own time, and that truth alone makes the book profoundly reassuring.
This memoir is not just for those who have lost someone.
It is for anyone who has ever felt broken, anyone learning to live with a scar, anyone trying to understand the invisible weight someone else might be carrying.
I highly recommend this to readers who are navigating loss, supporting someone in grief, or simply seeking a story that affirms the resilience of the human spirit. Anita’s voice is a blessing, and her courage in sharing her journey will bring comfort to many.
A beautiful, healing, unforgettable read.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Read my Goodreads review here.
