Moving On Doesn’t Mean Letting Go: A Modern Guide to Navigating Loss

Licensed therapist Moffa’s book is anchored in both her professional experience and her personal navigation of loss. She makes grief nameable, providing a lexicon that many people lack, by using words her clients have used (“grief mess”) and her own phrases (“grieffall”). Moffa also strikes a beautiful balance between compassion and the recognition that many struggling with loss recoil against the words people have for describing it. This is a highly personal book, full of stories from individuals Moffa has worked with over the years and from her own life, which gives readers a sense of shared solitude and unspoken or invisible yet powerful community in loss. She also provides pause points and safety checks to ensure that readers are prepared to encounter the feelings and experiences she discusses. There’s nothing easy about loss, and Moffa doesn’t sugarcoat that. Instead, she shows how difficult it is—and how valuable it can be to accept that, while also integrating loss into a new state of being so that readers can move forward without a sense of guilt or shame.