Loss isn’t an easy story to tell. So often – we don’t. Instead, we stuff it down and close up shop. Our pain sits there, sometimes for decades, but it doesn’t go away. And when we do this, we miss the opportunity to see and understand, allow ourselves to have our feelings, and to move through the loss to a new place of healing and growth.
Coping with Grief & Loss
Treatment for grief and loss refers not only to death, but other types of loss, such as job loss, relationship loss, loss of health, loss of independence, infertility and miscarriage, pet loss, and more abstract losses such as loss of a dream.
Grief is the natural reaction to loss. It is a painful but also an inevitable aspect of the human condition; we will all experience losses throughout our lives. We often think of grief as a short time of pain or sadness in response to a loss – like the immediate days after a death. In actuality, grieving is a complex process of coping with a loss, and there is no specific timeline or predictable path. Individual experiences of grief also vary and are influenced by the nature of the loss. The intense pain, sadness, anger, numbness, and other emotions that one experiences while grieving can be incredibly challenging to navigate. Without proper support, people may become isolated, self-destructive, or develop unhelpful coping patterns as a way to manage their grief.
“What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” — Helen Keller
Therapy for Grief & Loss
Therapy is a space where you can process your loss, understand the emotions you are experiencing, and begin to move through to a place of more acceptance. It is a space where you can become better equipped to deal with triggers and reminders, make meaning of the loss, and create healthy bonds or connections to what has been lost, if relevant. Grief work often also involves relational work and education of the grief process to those around you so that they can better understand how to support you. You can experience deeper connection to life and growth after the trauma of loss. You do not have to grieve alone.