Grief and Loss

I specialize in grief counseling for adults, teens and children.   Grief is the most painful emotion to experience, yet it can be transformative.  It is very difficult to organize your thoughts and feelings about the world around you when you are in the midst of grieving.    This is compounded when it seems that no one understands, leaving one to feel that no one seems to ‘get it’.   Grief is a highly unique experience for each person (even within the same family), intensity and duration varies and also varies depending on the life stage of the person grieving and the nature of the relationship. 

Traumatic Loss can complicate one’s grief, often causing individuals to get ‘stuck’.   Individuals sometimes struggle to overcome disturbing, repetitive images that interfere with daily activities.    Parents who grieve for the loss of a child are particularly at risk for these complications.  These challenges also happen often in cases of homicide, suicide or accidents where the surviving loved one struggles to make sense of un-senseless situations.    These struggles can happen for anyone who has experienced a traumatic loss.    I provide helpful therapy that eases the disturbing images to help you transform your current way of coping to a more helpful way of coping.

In addition to my work with adults, I provide grief counseling to teens over 13 who have suffered the loss of a family member or parent.   I work with individuals at their own pace providing warmth, encouragement and support as they find their way following such significant change. Through effective grief counseling, a person can work through these confusing and overwhelming emotions to adapt to the change in their environment and day to day life.  

Generally, grief and loss therapy involves sharing information via various methods and mediums about the loss. The structure of the method and medium used in grief therapy varies from person to person and the circumstances of the loss.  I incorporate a variety of techniques in the grief counseling process including the “restorative retelling” model developed by Dr. Edward Rynearson, EMDR therapy, exploration of related life situations, as well as art and play therapy techniques.   Drawing, painting or writing could be introduced at various stages of therapy which has shown to be particularly transformative.