When hope is lost.

Rehabilitation Medicine and Palliative medicine have much in common as both specialties deal with loss and impending loss related to incurable medical conditions. Significant losses are encountered by patients in both rehabilitation and palliative care settings, and often threaten quality of life, hopefulness, and resiliency. The losses are related to what the patient has identified as self. In this article the author suggests a way of approaching loss and suffering that incorporates, mindfulness, Disidentification and Ego-State work to help preserve a sense of self that is not identified with what is happening to the body.