A meditation on David Whyte's poem "The Well of Grief". I explore how depth psychology, affective neuroscience and Niobe Way's work on gender stereotypes helps inform my work with men's grief in therapy.

The Well of Grief (David Whyte)

Those who will not slip beneath
    the still surface on the well of grief,
turning down through its black water
    to the place we cannot breathe,
will never know the source from which we drink,
    the secret water, cold and clear,
nor find in the darkness glimmering,
    the small round coins,
          thrown by those who wished for something else.