Has A Significant Loss Left A Void In Your Life?
Are you stuck in a continual cycle of sadness, despair, and denial?
Have you not felt like yourself since your loved one passed away?
Deep down, do you wish you had someone to walk with you during this difficult time?
Maybe you lost someone dear to you and it’s harder than you could’ve ever imagined. Your loss has shaken your whole identity—without your loved one there, it’s like you don’t know who you are anymore. Their absence follows you everywhere you go.
On the other hand, perhaps you’re mourning the loss of a career, a relationship, or an addiction. As you say goodbye to an old way of life, you might struggle to find meaning and purpose in its wake. For the first time, you might be considering grief counseling.
It’s Natural To Try And Avoid Grief—But That Only Makes Matters Worse
Some days, the pain of your loss may seem unbearable. You might experience crying spells, insomnia, loss of appetite, bouts of rage, and existential crises. You may turn to pain-avoidant ways of coping with your grief, using drugs and alcohol or staying as busy as you possibly can.
Yet the more you try to escape your pain, the more it rears its ugly head. It may sound counterintuitive, but in order to work through grief, you can’t run away from it. You have to let it wash over you. When you are able to sit with your emotions and make friends with them, you can release the weight of your grief and experience deeper healing in your mind and body.
As a therapist who specializes in helping people recover from painful losses, it’s my goal to provide a space where you can feel all your feelings and heal from your grief. You don’t have to navigate this process alone.
Everyone Experiences Grief, But Not Everyone Grieves The Same Way
At some point in life, all of us experience loss. Whether we lose another person, a relationship, or a way of life, we all experience the ups and downs of the grieving process. Although most of us have heard of the five stages of grief, the truth is that grief rarely ever follows any kind of script. It’s messy, it’s complicated, and it’s different for everyone. Some losses take years to recover from and there is no shame in grieving longer than expected.
Oftentimes, one of the hardest parts of the bereavement process is the sense of loneliness that accompanies it. Soon after the death of a loved one, you might be flooded with gifts, meals, sympathy cards, and phone calls from friends. But as time passes, most people move on with their lives and stop offering around-the-clock grief support. As a result, sometimes the loneliness of grief takes a few months—or in some cases, even a few years—to really settle in.
Grief Is A Lifelong Process—You Never Really “Move On” From It
We live in a very pain-avoidant society. We’re obsessed with quick fixes and miracle cures and we’re not taught to sit with our emotions. But when it comes to grief, you can’t just take a pill or slap a band-aid on it. It’s a lifelong process. We’re never really done grieving—it comes and goes in waves and tends to surface in some seasons of life more than others.
This is why it’s important to be kind to yourself. The way that you’re grieving is perfectly natural and you don’t ever have to get “over” your loss. There is no need to rush the grieving process. Once you accept this truth, it becomes much easier to work through your pain.
Counseling Can Help You Find Peace In The Midst Of Your Grief
When you cry, your natural instinct is to tense up and try to hold back your tears. In counseling with me, you don’t have to hold anything back. The act of releasing your grief—in some cases, even sobbing—is deeply cathartic. It can make you feel like a weight’s been lifted off your chest. This is a nonjudgmental space, so you are free to express your grief however you see fit.
Above all, I seek to create an environment of warmth, compassion, and validation. While I have extensive training and skills that I draw from, I am first and foremost a human being. I know what it’s like to hurt, to grieve, and to experience joy and fulfillment. By establishing a deep emotional connection with you, I believe that I can empower you to work through your grief and experience peace in the midst of your pain.
What To Expect In Grief Counseling Sessions
The first step of the healing journey is cultivating greater awareness. I will help you become more aware of your emotions and learn to name and identify them in real time. By paying attention to what your emotional self is telling you, you can learn more about the ways that your grief has affected you.
To help you increase your self-awareness, I use a lot of somatic techniques and breathing exercises. After all, the body knows about emotional pain before the brain does, so it’s very important that therapy incorporate the wisdom of the body. I will teach you breathing exercises for staying grounded in the senses, allowing you to stay present in your experience and open to the deep sadness you feel. This can help you “wake yourself up” to your emotions and begin the process of releasing your grief.
Additionally, you and I can work on integrating the memory of your loved one into your life. After all, healing from grief does not mean forgetting—it means taking your positive memories with you as you move forward into the future. Whether you are religious or secular, you and I will find ways to bring your loved one’s presence into your life and honor the impact that they had on you.
Grief is unimaginably hard, but the pain is evidence that the loss was significant and the person mattered to you deeply. Letting yourself be heard and witnessed in that pain has incredible healing power. As your therapist, my mission is to help you experience that healing power for yourself.
You May Have Some Questions And Concerns About Bereavement Counseling…
Why can’t I just manage my grief by staying busy?
The problem is that you can’t “work” your way out of grief. Busying yourself with other things may temporarily distract you from your pain, but it won’t allow you to heal. I encourage you to embrace this time and give yourself space to mourn. Counseling is a gift that you can give to yourself in this season of loss, a way to find the silver lining in the midst of your grief.
What if I don’t have the time and money for grief therapy?
Although your finances are important, so is your mental health. Just as you would see a doctor for a physical injury, it’s important to prioritize getting care for any emotional injury. After all, you can’t heal an injury by ignoring it. Learning to be with your grief is a healthy way to live. It can make everyday life feel less burdensome and make other areas of your life more fulfilling.
How do I know if you’re the right fit?
The therapeutic fit is the most important part of counseling, so I encourage you to find someone who you feel comfortable with. Although I cannot guarantee anything, I am confident that my warm, relationship-focused approach to counseling can provide the emotional connection you’re looking for. I have years of experience as a counselor and I have helped numerous people process and resolve their grief.
I Am Here To Walk With You In This Season Of Loss
Whether you’re mourning the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or any other kind of loss, I am here to support you unconditionally as you work through your grief. To connect with me, you can email me or call 303-475-4625.