Grief & Bereavement Counseling

Bereavement refers to our state of loss—of being deprived of someone’s presence that was valuable and meaningful to us. Grief is our emotional response to that loss. Bereavement and grief are a natural part of the human condition, as is death and dying.

‘Death is a mirror in which the whole life is reflected and magnified.... Family dynamics, which often mean family neurosis, are heightened and exposed. Love, compassion, regret, anger, resentment, stress, greed, envy...virtually every human condition is brought up and blown up.’

(Paraphrasing & quoting author Andrew Holecek and his teacher, Sogyal Rinpoche)

The death of others washes over us with grief and also confronts us with the reluctant, even subconscious, awareness of our own future passing. Is it any wonder then that we experience such an emotional upheaval when someone important to us dies?

Grief can be expressed physically, emotionally, and socially, including:

• crying, sighing, loss of appetite, weight loss, headache, difficulty sleeping, weakness, and fatigue;
• feelings of emptiness and loss which may come in waves;
• preoccupation with thoughts and memories of the person who has died;
• yearning for the presence of the person who passed;
• emotions of sadness, worry, guilt, and anger; and
• feeling detached from the world, isolating from others, or behaving in ways that are not normal for us.

How we grieve and how deeply we experience a loss is very different from one death to the next. Grief can be affected by:

• our relationship with the person who is dying or who has passed;
• the manner of a person’s passing such as a sudden death, suicide, miscarriage or stillbirth, death of a child or young person, or a difficult or terminal health condition;
• our cultural background; and
• our personal history—how we learned about death and dying.

When a death is anticipated, we may begin grieving well before the person’s passing. This is often seen when there is a terminal illness or with the passing of our elders. It is known as anticipatory grief.

Once in a while, our grief is deeply shattering and may even become more complicated as time passes. This makes it more difficult to function in our lives as we once did.

Therapy is a sheltering place to attend to your feelings. I can help support and guide you as you heal. We’ll work together to refresh your healthy ways of coping as you move through bereavement and grief at your own pace.