Talking about your loss in therapy can also help you make sense of a complex situation, and expressing your feelings can help you move through your grief faster, allowing you to process painful emotions, rather than keeping them buried.
By offering yourself the space to grieve and caring for yourself in important ways, you’ll be able to move through your grief, accept your loss, and experience the joys of life again. You’ll even be able to look back on the one you lost with joy, not simply sorrow.
Helpful Resources
Bereavement and Grief: Mental Health America
Compassionate Friends
Grief and Loss as Alzheimer’s Progresses
Grief, Bereavement, and Coping with Loss: National Cancer Institute
Grieving the Loss of a Sibling
Helping Grieving Children and Teenagers
Hope for Grieving Families
How Grief and Mourning Change During a Pandemic (The Atlantic)
Complicated Grief Therapy (CGT)
There’s no “normal” timeline for grief, and everyone heals from loss at their own pace. But for some people, the feelings of sadness, numbness, incomprehension, and anger don’t improve or go away with time.
Their emotions remain so overwhelming that they find it difficult to function in everyday life. This is “complicated grief,” sometimes called “chronic grief” or “prolonged grief.” Although it may seem like you’ll never feel okay again, you can heal from your loss, and specialized grief therapy can help.
I have training in Complicated Grief Therapy from Columbia University, which research has shown to help mourners move through the grief process, come to terms with their loss, and find purpose in their lives after losing a loved one. In a safe place, you and I can work through your feelings around your loss so you can move through your loss and restart your life.
Helpful Resources
After a Death, the Pain That Doesn’t Go Away (The New York Times)
The Center for Complicated Grief, Columbia University
Symptoms of Major Depression and Complicated Grief
What Is Complicated Grief? (Seven Ponds)
When Grief Won’t Relent (The New York Times)
Loss from Suicide
The grief that comes from losing a loved one to suicide is unique – one of the worst experiences any person can ever endure. It’s a different kind of grief, with different emotions than other losses: guilt, stigma, anger, disconnection, just to name a few.
I have a special interest in helping suicide loss survivors heal from this life-changing tragedy. I will walk through this grief next to you, offering you a safe place to talk and be heard. Although it may feel like you’ll never heal from your catastrophic loss, it can be done. I will support you while you heal, come to acceptance, and eventually emerge from your suffering in a place where you can enjoy life again.
Helpful Resources
Alliance of Hope
American Association of Suicidology
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention National Capital Area Chapter
Crisis Text Line
MIRECC/CoE (Mental Illness Research Education Clinical/Centers of Excellence, Veterans Administration) Uniting for Suicide Postvention
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
SAVE