Bella- As overwhelmed as your friend is with her situation, my experience is that for most of us, even when loss is imposed, there is always a part of us deep inside that feels on some level a sense of opportunity in this loss—that there is some doorway, an opening, a transformation to be had. The reality is, noone lets go into a vacuum—it’s too hard to just get rid of things without a sense of what you are trading those objects for. However intangible what you are reaching for is. So, the very first thing your friend needs to do is to meditate on that spectre of her future, however vague it is, and give it a name. “Blue skies” “Mobility” “Freedom” “Self-reliance” Self-Discovery” And to keep that theme in her mind and get rid of eveything that doesn’t align with that image, that impulse. Keep in mind, we only use about 20% of what we own in any given category of our lives: we listen to the same 20% of our CD collection, refer to the same 20% of information in files, wear the same 20% of our wardrobe over and over. So, if your friend is being “forced” to get rid of 80% of her belongings, that’s not a bad thing. Her proactive step is to identify her 20%—what are the treasures that she truly uses, and truly loves, the objects that most energize her and that she uses all the time.