Loss & Grief
Loss can change the shape of everyday life and our understanding of what we expected the future to be. Grief may follow the death of someone we love, but it can also accompany the loss of a relationship, role, ability, opportunity, or way of life. Navigating grief involves acknowledging what has changed while gradually finding ways to carry the meaning of what was lost into the life that continues.
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How Betrayal Evokes Life Transitions, Part lll: Betrayal in Family Relationships
Betrayal within a family can surface when aging parents, death, and inheritance disrupt long-established roles. Dr. Wagner explores how sibling rivalry, unresolved family dynamics, and questions of trust can transform relationships at a time when families are already vulnerable.
How Betrayal Evokes Life Transitions Part ll
Betrayal can disrupt our understanding of a relationship, another person, and even ourselves. In Part II, Deborah Wagner explores the psychological process of navigating betrayal, making sense of what has changed, and beginning to integrate the experience into the larger framework of our lives.
How Betrayal Evokes Life Transitions Part l
Betrayal can disrupt trust, identity, relationships, and our understanding of the life we thought we were living. Deborah Wagner explores how discovering a betrayal can challenge deeply held assumptions and become the beginning of a profound and unexpected life transition.
The Stories We Tell Part 2
The stories we share near the end of life can become an intimate form of legacy. When families create space for those stories to emerge, they can discover experiences, emotions, and meaning that deepen how they know—and remember—the people they love.
The Stories We Tell Part 1
As life nears its end, telling our stories can preserve identity, meaning, and a sense of legacy. When those stories are heard and witnessed by the people we love, they affirm the life that was lived and what will remain.
The Last Conversations: How Terminal Illness Became Our Greatest Teacher
Terminal illness can transform ordinary conversations into opportunities for honesty, connection, and understanding. When time becomes uncertain, the things left unsaid can take on new importance, creating space to express love, resolve unfinished feelings, and discover meaning within the experience of loss.
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Psychologist | Author | Expert on Life's Transitions
Exploring how we understand, navigate, and integrate the changes and challenges that shape our lives.
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© 2026 Deborah Wagner, Ph.D. All rights reserved.