Grief Counseling
Are You Experiencing Constant Stress and Fatigue After A Recent Loss?
Grief is part of the normal human experience, and yet living through it can make us feel as far from “normal” as possible.
Have you recently lost someone special in your life? Maybe you are attempting to navigate the death of a family member, a pet, a partner or spouse, or even a child.
Maybe you are grieving a natural life transition, such as the end of a relationship. Maybe you are grieving after receiving a chronic or terminal medical diagnosis. Maybe you have been diagnosed with infertility or experienced a miscarriage and are now grieving the life you once imagined.
Whatever your circumstances, you might be wondering if grief counseling can help you during this difficult time.
Grief Can Cause Both Mental And Physical Symptoms
A lot of people who have not experienced grief before are shocked by how debilitating it can be.
Grief and loss can affect your mental health, making it difficult to manage your own emotions and interact with others. The effects, severity, and longevity of grief related symptoms are wide-ranging and vary from person to person.
Common grief symptoms include:
Shock and disbelief, feeling numb; even denial that the loss occurred
Sadness, despair, depression, loneliness, and feeling empty
Anxiety, fear, helplessness, and insecurity
Depending on the circumstances of the relationship you had with the person you’ve lost, you may also experience feelings of guilt, regret, shame, or even anger or resentment. The emotional reactions to death and loss can be intense and, at times, even result in symptoms such as panic attacks or even thoughts of suicide.*
The physical symptoms of grief are part of the body’s reaction to intense emotions, stress, and possibly trauma. You may also:
Experience nausea, have digestive trouble, get sick easily, or lose or gain weight
Feel aches and pains, experience heart palpitations, or even become faint or lightheaded
Have night sweats and trouble sleeping
Most people experiencing grief and loss want their pain and suffering to decrease as quickly as possible so they can "move on." However, grief isn’t necessarily a process that has a defined “end”; rather, we learn to adjust to the experience of grief.
A counselor can help you navigate your own experience with grief, no matter how long you’ve been facing it.
Grief Is A Common Reaction To Any Form Of Loss
Grief and loss affect everyone at some point in their lives. Although it is a painful experience, grief is a reflection of the significant relationship an individual had with who or what they lost.
For many of us, it’s difficult to navigate the feelings of grief, due to perceived societal beliefs about how we “should” grieve or for how long. If our grieving journey is different from a friend's or family member's, we may wonder why we can’t seem to move on.
Riding The Waves Of Grief
Grief can be challenging to navigate because of how disarming it feels. A commonality in the grieving process is that it often comes in waves—just when we gain our footing, it can knock us back off our feet. Grief can also exacerbate unhealthy patterns of behavior such as isolating, numbing through unhealthy coping mechanisms, and avoidance, which can create additional mental health challenges.
If you have access to a supportive network of people, that can be a huge asset. But it may be challenging to find the right people to express your feelings to in a safe environment. A counselor can provide that judgment-free space that you need and listen to your story, help you understand and navigate your grief, and find a more steady path forward.
Counseling Can Support You While Living With Grief
All forms of grief are valid and worthy of compassion. There is no "right" way to experience grief, as it can be unique from person to person.
We take a holistic approach to grief counseling, as this addresses the numerous ways grief affects you as a whole. Therapy allows you to process your feelings, teaches you healthy coping skills, and provides objective support while you are grieving.
What To Expect In Therapy Sessions
Grief therapy can help you identify and explore how bereavement is affecting you, determine more effective ways to acknowledge and make space for your emotional experience, and find compassion for yourself. It can also help you process your relationship with the person you lost, and how that factors into the grieving process.
Even experiencing the loss of an important relationship or a big life transition involves grieving, and therapy can help support you as you manage these feelings in a healthy way.
Methods To Help You Find Your Inner Strength and Resilience
At Attuned Minds Therapy, your counseling journey will involve modalities that can help you manage your grief and provide skills for staying balanced when you become overwhelmed by mental and emotional distress.
Mindfulness-based skills can teach you how to identify what you are feeling, where you feel it in your body, and how to turn towards those feelings rather than try to negate them.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a counseling approach that can help you learn to accept the loss of your loved one and help you live with the uncertainties of the grief experience.
Hypnotherapy, specifically Ericksonian-informed hypnosis, is a therapeutic approach that accesses the unconscious mind through the use of gentle hypnotic techniques. This can help target unconscious processes and painful experiences that are compounding your grief.
Additionally, group therapy for grief is incredibly effective, and quite often, individual therapy in conjunction with group therapy is an even more effective treatment plan.
Grief and loss are part of the human experience. As Neimeyer says, “Death may end a life, but not necessarily a relationship.” (1) Therapy can help you navigate this relational change.If you are struggling, the best thing you can do for yourself is to ask for help.
You Might Still Have Questions About Grief Counseling…
How can grief therapy really help? It can't bring my loved one back.
Acknowledging the fact and experience of how grief is affecting you will make a difference. When you are suffering and feeling vulnerable, it takes wisdom and courage to share your story and ask for support. Therapy will not magically remove your suffering, but it can help you weave your grief and loss into your life in a way that makes moving forward easier.
I can't stop thinking about this loss. Won't talking about it make it worse?
Speaking about your grief will not make it worse. In fact, grief counseling can help you integrate the reality of loss into your life going forward and help you to maintain a healthy bond with your loved one’s memory. (2) Part of the therapeutic process, especially gentle hypnosis, is a safe and effective technique to facilitate changes in your physiological, sensory, behavioral, and emotional experience through hypnotic suggestion.
I just want to be alone. The last thing I want to do is talk to a stranger.
It is important to stay connected to others while grieving. Meeting with a grief therapist can provide your mind with the stress relief that comes from sharing a safe and affirming space with another human being. Therapy can also help you set up and utilize your support system, which may include your family, friends, leaders in your faith, and a bereavement support group.
Learn To Manage Your Grief Journey
Grief is not an experience you have to endure on your own. Please reach out to Attuned Minds Therapy® at 407-502-2635 for a free, 15-minute phone consultation to discuss how counseling can help you learn the skills to manage your grief in a healthy way.
*If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) 24 hours a day/7 days a week.
(1) and (2): Neimeyer RA (ed) (2013). Techniques of grief therapy: creative practices for counseling the bereaved. New York: Routledge.
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