Introduction
Hello, I’m Dr. Marcel Westerlund, a psychiatrist based in Sweden with over 50 years of clinical experience. But today, I’m speaking to you not just as a medical professional, but also as a parent who has walked through the darkest valley of grief.
Several years ago, I lost my son to suicide. It was a loss that shattered my world and challenged everything I thought I knew about mental health, healing, and resilience. In my professional life, I had helped countless patients navigate their pain, but suddenly I found myself on the other side of that equation, searching desperately for light in the darkness. I thought I was having a nightmare, but the problem was that I was all awake and not dreaming. It was suddenly hard to breathe.
This dual perspective—as both a mental health professional and someone intimately acquainted with profound grief—has given me unique insights into the journey of healing. It has deepened my understanding of what truly works in therapy and recovery, beyond what textbooks and clinical research alone can teach.
The courses I’ve developed emerge from this intersection of professional knowledge and lived experience. They represent evidence-based therapeutic approaches and practices that have been tested in the crucible of my own healing journey.
Course Offerings
Overcoming Depression: Beyond Medication
Depression can feel like an impenetrable fog that disconnects you from yourself and others. Having experienced the crushing weight of grief-induced depression after my son’s passing, I understand how clinical explanations often fall short of capturing this experience. It can not be described properly, only lived through, to understand.
In this course, I combine cognitive-psychodynamic-behavioral techniques with compassion-focused approaches to help you:
- Recognize depression’s early warning signs
- Develop personalized intervention strategies
- Create meaningful connections even when emotions feel distant
- Build sustainable daily practices that gradually lift the fog
Hypnosis for Depression: Accessing Inner Resources
According to my experience, one of the most powerful tools is therapeutic hypnosis. When the conscious mind is overwhelmed by pain, hypnosis re-frames and offers a different pathway to healing by engaging with the subconscious.
This course teaches you:
- How hypnotherapy works specifically for depression and grief
- Self-hypnosis techniques for anxiety reduction
- Ways to access positive emotional states when they seem unreachable
- How to use guided imagery to create internal safe spaces
Mindfulness and Meditation for Emotional Regulation
After my loss, my emotions would often overwhelm me without warning. Mindfulness and introspection became my anchors, helping me observe these emotional storms without being swept away. by them.
In this course, you’ll learn:
- Practical mindfulness exercises tailored for emotional volatility
- Brief meditation practices that can be integrated into daily life
- Body-scan techniques to recognize emotional responses before they escalate
- Self-compassion meditations specifically designed for times of intense suffering
Building Resilience: Coping with Life’s Challenges
Resilience isn’t about never falling—it’s about learning how to rise again. My personal journey taught me that resilience can be cultivated, even when it feels like your capacity to endure has been exhausted.
This course covers:
- The neuroscience of resilience and how trauma affects the brain
- Practical techniques to build psychological flexibility
- How to construct a personalized resilience toolkit
- Ways to transform painful experiences into sources of strength
Managing Anger and Irritability
Grief and depression often manifest as irritability and anger—emotions I struggled with intensely during my own healing process. This course acknowledges these difficult emotions as natural responses to suffering.
You’ll discover:
- How to recognize anger as a signal rather than an enemy
- Physiological techniques to de-escalate in moments of rage
- Communication frameworks for expressing anger constructively
- Practices for releasing unexpressed anger in healthy ways
Sleep Hygiene and Insomnia Management
Sleep disturbances are both symptoms and amplifiers of mental health challenges. After the loss of a loved one, my loss, insomnia is very common, became a constant companion, making every other aspect of healing more difficult.
This practical course provides:
- A comprehensive approach to sleep hygiene beyond the usual advice
- Techniques to quiet the racing mind at bedtime
- Strategies for managing grief-related nightmares
- How to establish sleep as a healing practice rather than another source of anxiety
Building Healthy Relationships and Communication Skills
Loss and depression can profoundly affect our relationships, sometimes when we need connection most. In the aftermath of my son’s death, I had to learn new ways of communicating my needs and understanding the needs of those around me.
This course explores:
- How to express difficult emotions without overwhelming yourself or others
- Ways to maintain connections when you want to isolate
- Setting boundaries during vulnerable periods
- Rebuilding trust and intimacy after trauma has changed you
Grief and Loss: Healing Through Self-Compassion
This course is the heart of my program, informed directly by my journey through parental grief. It acknowledges that some losses are impossible to “overcome” but rather to be integrated into a new way of being.
You’ll learn:
- Why traditional grief models often fall short
- How to practice radical self-compassion when facing unbearable pain
- Ways to honor your relationship with what you’ve lost
- How to find meaning without minimizing your suffering
Conclusion
I cannot promise that these courses will erase your pain. That would be dishonest, and disrespectful to the depth of what you’re experiencing. But I can promise, that these practices—drawn from both clinical evidence and lived experience—offer real pathways towards living meaningfully alongside your pain.
I have walked this path myself. I know its darkest corners and unexpected moments of grace. And I would be honored to walk alongside you, sharing what I’ve learned through both my professional training and my most profound personal loss.
The light does return—not as it was before, but in new, unexpected ways. And when it seems impossible to believe that, I will hold that hope for you until you can hold it for yourself.
Thank you for allowing me to share this journey with you. You never walk alone!