When Journey of Hearts™ was launched in October 1997, it needed a term to describe the grief process that people go through following a loss or a significant life change—from loss through transition to healing. In addition we needed a way of describing this unique medical website, one that could be "experienced" as much as accessed for medical information. "Transitional Medicine" is the term we formulated for the grief and loss work done utilizing the Journey of Hearts™ website.

Transitional Medicine combines the best of medicine, psychiatry or counseling, and complementary therapies to provide resources and support in the grieving process of going from loss through a transition to eventually reach healing. The site also utilizes the advantages of the Internet that make it an ideal adjunct for web-education—patient and physician. New scientific research in the field of Psychoneuroimmunology is demonstrating that the mind can and does play a significant role in the disease and healing processes. Transitional Medicine is also based on concepts of psychoneuroimmunology.

This section contains information, articles, symbolism and quotes on Transitional Medicine. In addition it includes articles on Psychoneuroimmunology and web-education along with links to articles and presentations on Journey of Hearts.™

Grief AIDE
Journey of Hearts™ contains a variety of different Grief AIDEs to help in the education process including information, techniques for coping, resources, and links to other websites. Grief AIDEs help people understand and work through the grief process following a loss, how to survive present and past losses and how to cope when old losses become felt anew, or new losses occur.

On Transformation
This section describes the transformation process and the Journey of Grief that a grieving person goes through following a loss, crisis, or significant life-change, much like a caterpillar spinning a cocoon to hibernate during dark times before emerging as a butterfly, a different person in the spring. In addition it also contains links to a variety of Resources on Transformation including the butterfly for transformation, poems, quotes and articles.

On Surviving
A survivor is a person one who carries on or perserveres despite hardships or trauma; one who copes with a trauma or setback. The American Academy of Expters in Traumatic Stress consider a survivor of traumatic stress to be those who are exposed to, or witness events that overwhelm their coping and problem-solving capabilitites. This section explores surviving, the many different types of survivors and many different experiences that people can survive. In addition it also contains links to other pages that include thoughts and examples of surviving as well as quotes and musical lyrics on survivng and helping survivors to ultimately thrive.

On "Letting Go"
The traditional view of grief expecially following a loss through death involved "letting go" of
one’s attachment to the lost loved one, "getting over it" and "moving on" with one’s life. These traditional views on grief and mourning have changed and are explored in "Thoughts on Letting Go: New Paradigm for Grief for the 21st Century." However, there are certain types of losses, situations and circumstances in which the concept of "letting go" does apply and can be help the grieving person "let go" accept and integrate the loss. In addition this section also contatins links to a variety of Resources on Letting Go including poems, quotes and articles to help in Creating a Letting Go, or Creatively Expressing Grief.

In every crisis there is a message.
Crises are nature's way of forcing change
breaking down old structures,
shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place.