A very natural and common response to loss is grief. It is identified as the emotional pain you feel when something or someone is taken away from you. Most commonly, grief is associated with the death of a loved one, which causes the largest amount of pain. It’s important to note that any loss can cause grief though and that each is unique in its own way relating to each individual person.

The following are just a few examples but the list is endless because it relates to your own perception of what loss is.

The way in which you grieve depends on several factors: your unique personality, life experiences and how you cope, faith/spirituality and several more factors. Grieving does take time. Healing happens at a gradual rate; and cannot be forced. Some may feel better in just a few weeks or months. For others grieving may take years. The key is to be patient with yourself and to not judge the process but to allow it to unfold naturally.

Finding support is the key to overcoming loss. Getting plugged into others will allow you to express your feelings, emotions and develop a sense of community at a time when it is easy to isolate.

Counseling along with support groups allows you to work through the various stages of grief and process each stage to completion. In therapy you will feel safe to express your fears, anxieties, shock, sadness, etc. These feeling you have at the same time. Allow yourself this opportunity to heal so that you can move on and forward with your life.

When a person’s thoughts, behaviors, or feelings are distressing due to grief, they become unrelenting. They hold you prisoner and in pain. A qualified mental health professional trained in the area of counseling for grief can assist you tremendously. In therapy you will learn to not just only cope with the stress and emotional sadness, you will learn to shift into acceptance.

Each person experiences grief in their own unique and personal way. With my clients I tailor my approach to each person as it relates to their level of grief and uniqueness.

Group Counseling can be helpful in conjunction with individual counseling for those seeking out others and sharing their related thoughts and feelings as it relates to grief. Family therapy may be suitable for a family whose members are struggling to adapt to the loss of a family member.

EMDR is an effective approach to help you move through the stages of grief. This is done primarily though Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy. EMDR helps clients deal with the trauma from the loss as well as areas they feel stuck. These are narrative or belief systems that are formed in the past that we kee[ recreating and bringin into the present moment,