A companion for life after a breakup
Season of Heartbreak
Healing for the Heart, Brain, and Soul
A practical guide to understanding why a breakup hurts so much and caring for yourself as you work through the loss.
After a breakup
A breakup can leave you grieving more than the relationship.
A breakup can unsettle far more than your relationship status. The familiar routines, the shared plans, the future you pictured—all of them can feel suddenly out of reach.
I wrote Season of Heartbreak from my experience as a therapist and as someone who has had his heart broken. It looks at why a breakup can hurt so much and offers practices to help you work through the grief.
Understand why it hurts so much.
Learn how attachment and grief can help explain the intense feelings that follow a breakup.
Find someone you can talk to.
Find words for what you’re going through and think about who could listen and support you.
Try practices that may help.
Discover journaling, self-compassion, boundaries, and other practices you can return to at your own pace.
Room for the whole process
Healing rarely moves
in a straight line.
A steadier day can be followed by a difficult one. The book discusses those ups and downs without putting a deadline on your grief.
You can feel hopeful one day and struggle the next.
Understand.
Grieving processes: the zigzag, powerful emotions, and the ways we protect ourselves from pain.
Reconnect.
Grieving pathways: relationships, inner resources, and places to turn for support.
Practice.
Grieving practices: journaling, compassion, boundaries, forgiveness, and more.
Reflect.
Grieving ponderings: being heard, living with difficult questions, and making meaning.
One practice from the book
A practice for talking about the pain
The book’s four-part practice, Deal, Feel, Reveal, Seal, helps you notice what you’re feeling and share it with someone you trust.
Deal.
Take a moment to notice what you’re going through without criticizing yourself for feeling it.
Feel.
Notice the emotions that are present: sadness, anger, fear, or something harder to name. Go gently; you can pause.
Reveal.
Share what you are feeling with a trusted, compassionate person—a friend, a therapist, someone able to listen.
Seal.
Notice how it feels when someone responds with kindness, and give yourself time to take that in.
A brief introduction to the practice explored in Season of Heartbreak. Take it at a pace that feels manageable.
A small place to start
Put words to what
you’re going through.
You do not have to make sense of everything today. If writing feels helpful, choose a prompt and begin with a few lines.
Reflection prompts inspired by the book’s themes.
01What am I grieving, beyond the person?
Consider a routine, a sense of belonging, or a future you imagined. Give one of those losses a name. What made it matter to you?
02What would kindness sound like today?
Notice one harsh thing you have been saying to yourself. How might you respond if someone you cared about were feeling the same way?
03Who could hear a little of my story?
Think of someone who can listen without rushing to fix you. What would you like them to understand? What kind of support could you ask for?
Meet the author
I’ve had my heart
broken, too.
I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist, and my own experiences of heartbreak have shaped how I understand grief.
I know how disorienting the end of a relationship can be. I wrote this book to share what I’ve learned about grief and what can help when a relationship ends.
Words about the book
What others are saying about the book
“This resource is practical and insightful and offers hope to those who are often forgotten with a painful loss. This is a much-needed book and will touch the lives of many.”
“Heartbreak. Loss. Grief. Healing. Mark Karris is simply masterful in Season of Heartbreak.”
“Mark helps us learn to walk through grief so we can be, even in the pain, fully alive.”
“Experiencing loss is one of life’s inevitable realities. . . . Mark Karris shows us a way forward that offers the kind of healing we all long for.”
Read 10 more endorsements
“Mark Karris’s Season of Heartbreak integrates the best of pastoral wisdom and clinical insights to craft a powerful and timely resource for those whose hearts ache after a painful breakup.”
“Mark Karris has been through the painful terrain of heartbreak and helped many others through it. Beautifully weaving together biblical truths and contemporary science, Season of Heartbreak will help you make sense of your experience and guide you through hands-on practices for moving through heartbreak to hope and healing.”
“Integrating faith, clinical research, and helpful tools, Karris provides the compassion, hope, and grace that you need to mend your broken heart.”
“A superb resource filled with real-life examples, deep insights, masterful metaphors, powerful practices, and contemporary research that will absolutely benefit you.”
“Season of Heartbreak is a much-needed travel companion for those of us seeking comfort and sanity after our heart has been broken in circumstances beyond our control. . . . Mark reminds us that a broken heart is meant to be tended to, that we were created to love and be loved, and that this wild, messy journey of human relationships is one of the greatest ways God leads us home.”
“With a compassionate tone and pastoral heart, Mark walks us through what can be expected in seasons of grief, and how to process these powerful emotions so that the outcome is a stronger heart and more insightful life. Many Christians struggling with the derailing pain of loss will find this a helpful guide on their dark path.”
“In this book, Mark thoughtfully, purposefully, and vulnerably uses his unique perspective to help all of us take steps forward toward a deeper life of hope and freedom.”
“Season of Heartbreak gently guides you through the darkness of grief and suffering while providing a step-by-step road map to health. With solid biblical underpinnings and supportive therapeutic research, Mark Karris’s insights are well worth your investment. You’ll come to know healing from the true Master of relationships: Jesus Christ.”
“I strongly recommend the passion, truth, and healing power of Jesus that flows through Season of Heartbreak. This book will expand the kingdom of God in your life.”
“Mark Karris, with a wonderfully pastoral heart and keen clinical mind, has written a heartfelt book that encapsulates both sound theology and cutting-edge psychology in a rich and practical way. Season of Heartbreak is destined to help countless heartbroken Christians grieve well.”
A note on the book’s perspective. Alongside its psychological insights and practical exercises, Season of Heartbreak includes Christian reflections. Its exploration of grief, self-compassion, and supportive relationships offers points of connection for readers from a range of backgrounds.
Begin where you are
You don’t have to
rush your grief.
You can read the book at your own pace and try the practices that seem helpful to you.
