Hi Brooke,

I have been struggling quite a bit the past few days with feelings of sadness and grief. I work in a hospital and work with different senior physicians every few weeks. I recently finished working with one individual who ended up having a significant positive impact on me, and is clearly someone who I consider a role model. I am now on my vacation, however, and while I am so thankful for our time spent working together, I have been dealing with feelings of grief that our working relationship has completed. Basically, I am sad because I would have liked to get to know them better, and that there are so many more things that I would have liked to learn from them. Usually, the type of relationships that I have at work are quite superficial and restricted, despite dealing with emotionally intense emotional situations with patients. This individual is different, however, and I felt that we were able to discuss the full spectrum of emotions that are involved with caring for vulnerable persons. I don’t mind feeling these feelings of sadness, because I keep telling myself that it is important to feel the whole spectrum of human emotions, but things are complicated by the fact that I also keep telling myself that there is something wrong with me for having developed such feelings of attachment for someone in only a short period of time. Essentially I am telling myself that it doesn’t make sense to feel this way, and that there is no reason to feel sad (we will still work in the same hospital, and have the potential to work together again). I know that this is the culprit thought, but it just makes me feel worse about feeling sad.
Any advice?