Honoring Love, Loss, and Grief: A Family’s Story of Connection Beyond Life

At Eastside Counseling Center, we often speak about the healing power of connection ~ how love weaves through every stage of life, even through unimaginable loss. Today, we share something deeply personal and profoundly human: a video written and created by our founder and her daughter, Aspen, in honor of their beloved son and brother, who passed from an accidental overdose on November 12, 2019.

This video is a tribute ~ not only to one life but to the love that continues beyond loss. It’s an offering to all who have loved someone deeply and have had to learn how to love them differently after they’ve transitioned.

🌿 Love That Transcends Loss

Grief is, at its core, love ~ love with nowhere to go. When someone we love dies, that love doesn’t end. It changes shape. It lives in memories, in breath, in the quiet moments that remind us they’re still near.

This video is born from that space: the space between heartbreak and hope. Between remembering and rebuilding. Between what was and what still is.

Through the words and music Aspen helped write, this piece invites us to sit with both the ache of loss and the enduring pulse of love. It’s a reminder that grief is not something to “get over.” It’s something we learn to carry ~ together, gently, with time and compassion.

💬 Why Sharing Stories Matters

At ECC, we believe that telling our stories ~ even the painful ones ~is a vital part of healing. When we speak our grief aloud, we make space for others to do the same. We say to one another, “You’re not alone. Your pain has a place here.”

Sharing this video is one way we hope to model that vulnerability and courage. It’s a reminder that in mental health care, in therapy, and in life, grief is not a problem to be solved. It’s a sacred process that asks for presence, not perfection.

Whether you are a clinician, a client, or someone quietly carrying your own loss, we invite you to watch this video not as a story of tragedy, but as a story of love. Love that endures, love that heals, and love that reminds us what it means to be fully human.

🌱 The Importance of Honoring Grief

In a culture that often rushes us to “move on,” pausing to honor grief is an act of resistance ~ and of self-compassion.

Grief lives in the body, the mind, and the spirit. It affects how we breathe, sleep, eat, and connect. That’s why at ECC, we approach grief holistically, helping clients tend to every part of themselves ~ from the physical symptoms of loss (fatigue, tightness in the chest, tension) to the emotional waves that come unexpectedly.

Through grief therapy, mindfulness, and practices like EMDR, ART, Tapping and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), we can help regulate the nervous system, allowing the body to process the intensity of grief while gently reconnecting to moments of calm. Healing doesn’t mean forgetting ~ it means integrating. It means allowing love and loss to coexist within us.

🕊️ From Personal Loss to Shared Healing

While this video was created from one family’s story, its message reaches far beyond. Many of our clients and community members have been touched by addiction, overdose, or sudden loss. These are not isolated experiences ~ they are shared human realities.

By bringing this story forward, we hope to create a bridge of compassion ~ for families navigating grief, for those supporting loved ones in recovery, and for anyone learning how to live with an open heart after deep pain.

If you or someone you love is grieving, know this: grief is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of having loved deeply. And love, even when stretched across the veil of death, remains one of the most powerful healing forces we have.

💚 A Note from Our ECC Family

As you watch the video, we invite you to hold space for your own memories ~ for those you’ve lost and for the ways they still live within you. Let it be a reminder that love is not bound by time or distance, and that healing is a communal act.

At Eastside Counseling Center, we are honored to walk with individuals and families as they navigate the complexities of grief, love, and meaning. Together, we remember that healing doesn’t mean leaving someone behind ~ it means learning how to carry their light forward.

In loving memory of Reece Gabriel Vallee, and in honor of all those we carry with us.