Therapy for Grief and Loss
Grief is a natural response to loss
Grief isn't a sign that something is wrong. It’s the natural, human response to losing someone or something that mattered deeply, and a way for us to process and reckon with such loss. It arises from any change or loss that fundamentally alters your world. It can be tangible and public, or deeply personal and private. Sometimes, it’s an ongoing or anticipated loss, or one that’s hard to even name.
Grief is the pain of a future that will never happen, or a past we can’t return to.
It can often feel like there are a lot of expectations on how we should grieve. You may feel pressure to “get over it” quickly, experience your grief in a neat set of stages, or feel that your loss isn't "big enough" to justify the depth of your feelings. When this happens, it can feel incredibly invalidating and isolating, making this natural but difficult process more challenging than it needs to be.
The purpose of grief counseling is to counteract this, and give your experience the full, non-judgmental space it deserves. Therapy for grief is not about pathologizing it, rushing you to a conclusion, finding silver linings, or erasing the pain. It's about honoring what was lost, and learning to carry the weight of your grief so that, in time, it can be integrated into your story—transforming from an overwhelming burden into a visiting companion.
Grief takes many forms
Grief is a complex, fluctuating experience rather than a single emotion. Naming some of its forms can help provide clarity and validation. These are a few lesser-known types of grief:
Disenfranchised Grief: A loss that isn't widely acknowledged, understood, or seen as valid. This can include the death of a beloved pet, the deeply personal journey of infertility or miscarriage, or the quiet fading of a friendship.
Ambiguous Loss: A type of grief where closure is unclear or seems impossible, often experienced with family estrangement, a loved one’s dementia, or a missing person.
Trauma-Related Grief: The grief for a life that was changed by a traumatic event. It can manifest as mourning for a loss of a sense of safety or trust in others, or the version of you that existed before the trauma.
Health and Disability Grief: Grieving a former self, lost physical or cognitive ability, or the future you had imagined before developing a chronic illness or disability.
Prolonged or Complicated Grief: When an intense, debilitating grief is consistently present over a long period, making it hard to function in daily life. It can feel like being stuck in the acute, early feelings of loss.
Anticipatory Grief: Grief that begins before a loss occurs. You might feel it when facing a terminal diagnosis for yourself or a loved one, or when anticipating a major life change like a layoff, a move, or the end of an era.
Cumulative Grief: The experience of carrying multiple losses at once. When a new loss occurs before you have had time to process a previous one, the grief can feel compounded and overwhelming, as if there is no room to breathe.
Collective Grief: A shared sorrow felt within your community or the world, in response to events such as war or public violence, social injustice, or environmental disaster or decline.
What grief can do to your body and mind
Grief is emotional, but it can also be physical, to the point where sometimes people wonder — “Can grief make you sick?”
Loss can activate the nervous system in ways that affect the whole body, as stress hormones flood your system. Many people worry when they feel this way, not knowing it can be a completely normal (if challenging) part of how the body processes loss.
Grief can cause:
Brain fog or trouble concentrating
Altered memory and difficulty concentrating
Fatigue or heaviness
Anxiety or restlessness
Emotional numbness or feeling disconnected
Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
Loss of appetite, or eating more than usual
Body aches and muscle tension
These are normal ways that your body responds to acute emotional pain, separation, stress, and change.
Grief also often comes in waves rather than stages. It can intensify unexpectedly, then recede, then return again.
Therapy for grief helps normalize these experiences, and can help you be gentler with yourself as you move through them.
How therapy can help with grief
Grief doesn’t usually need advice. It needs room.
Therapy can offer a place where your grief does not need to be rushed, explained away, or sanded down for the comfort of others.
Our work may include:
Making space for the emotions grief brings
Understanding and normalizing how loss is affecting your nervous system and body, as well as providing strategies to help weather this
Telling your full story of love and loss
Honoring who or what that was lost
Creating rituals of remembrance
Exploring continuing bonds with the person, place, or identity that mattered
Integrating the story of what happened into your wider life narrative
Supporting the completion of stress responses that became stuck during crisis or caregiving
Making meaning if it arises, without forcing silver linings or an “everything happens for a reason” narrative
There is no single right way to grieve. The work is to find a way that is true to you.
You don’t have to carry it alone
Grief can be isolating, especially when others expect you to be finished with it, explain it clearly, or hide the parts that are messy.
You deserve a place where grief can be spoken plainly and held with care.
If you’re looking for online grief therapy or support after a loss, you’re welcome to reach out or schedule a consultation.
Online therapy for grief is available for clients anywhere in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.
Get in touch
You’re welcome to schedule a free 30-minute consultation with me directly, or you can use the contact form if starting in writing feels easier.
When scheduling, you’ll be asked for a credit card as part of the standard booking process. There is no charge for the consultation, and this will only be used should we decide to work together.
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