Grandparents are an army of proxy-parents for many families, playing a vital role in raising the next generation. Yet sometimes as a grandparent, you may find that the parenting approaches you adopt don’t always line up with how your kids are raising your grandkids.

Loneliness is experienced by everyone at some point in life, whether after moving cities, following a breakup, or during major transitions like parenting, caregiving, or retirement. Loneliness has now reached epidemic levels in countries such as the United States and Australia, and it is uniquely felt within LGBTQIA+ communities.

If you've been through a major upheaval, adversity, or trauma, you're likely to be familiar with the after-effects. Traumatic responses might include shock, numbness, and denial, the intrusive re-experiencing of memories and oscillating efforts to both avoid and bring meaning to those memories.