As a thanatologist and psychologist, my work is grounded in attending to loss, grief, suffering, and the conditions of mortality.

We are living through a time marked by war, state violence, environmental disaster, wealth inequality, and genocide. These conditions shape not only physical survival, but the inner worlds of those who endure them and those who bear witness.

The living are left to grieve under conditions that often make mourning difficult or impossible—without safety, without stability, without the ordinary structures that allow grief to unfold. The dead are not always able to be tended to with dignity: they may remain unnamed, unburied, displaced, or otherwise denied the forms of care that human beings across cultures have long understood as essential.

Where death, mourning, and burial are disrupted, suffering is carried forward—through families and communities, across generations—taking shape in both psychic life and collective memory.

Psychological work, in my view, cannot be entirely separated from the conditions that produce trauma, grief, and loss. To attend to suffering is, in part, to acknowledge where and how it is occurring.

My practice remains a space for individuals of all backgrounds. I aim to offer care that is grounded in respect, attentiveness, and an openness to the complexity of each person’s experience.

This reflection is offered simply as a way of naming a commitment: to remain in contact with suffering, and to honor both the living and the dead.

— Rebecca Marcelina Gimeno, PhD, CT