On July 24, 2015, Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen left on a fishing trip.
The two 14-year-olds took off from Jupiter Inlet on a 19-foot fishing boat. When they didn’t return, the Coast Guard started a massive search but never found them.
Both of their families were left devastated.
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Perry Cohen’s Dad, Phil Cohen, recently discussed how he has dealt with the grief of losing his only child in a Ted Talk.
Now he is sitting down with Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden on Florida’s Fourth Estate to talk about how he is using this devastating experience to help others.
“Losing a child has been known by and said by many to be arguably one of the most profound and painful things that a human being can endure,” Phil Cohen said.
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The father said he didn’t know how to cope.
“At one point I actually went online, and I Googled ‘How to grieve,’” he said.
He said the results were dominated by The Five Stages of Grief. Then he realized those were actually created for people diagnosed with life-ending cancer, not for those grieving the loss of a loved one.
So, he decided to focus his Ted Talk on what he calls The Grief Continuum.
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He said it suggests navigating grief is different for everyone.
“We don’t all start at the same place, graduate through the same stages to eventually arrive at the same destination. Rather that grief would be more accurately represented on a continuum with acceptance in the middle and negative emotions on this side and even positive things that can happen after acceptance,” Phil Cohen said.
“I believe grief is something that we move back and forth through forever; from good to bad, to good to bad, this never-ending cycle of back and forth as opposed to going from one step to another to reach this place where you’re like ‘Alright I made it,’” he added.
Phil Cohen said he also leans on his faith to deal with losing his son, an experience he calls “indescribably painful.”
“God is good. He has brought me through it. Quite honestly, I don’t even know how people make it through something like this without God. It’s ultimately my relationship with Jesus Christ that really helped me break through this,” Phil Cohen said.
To hear more from Cohen and how he is helping others to cope with loss listen to Florida’s Fourth Estate. You can download it from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch anytime on News 6+.
You can listen to every episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate in the media player below: