Bereavement, Loss and Traumatic Grief

No matter how much you understand death as a part of life, it does not make it any easier to accept.  Death is painful and difficult to experience.  It hurts beyond belief and it is complicated.  At times the pain may seem insurmountable, but therapy can help you understand, accept and ease the pain.  After the death of a loved one, life will never be the same.  However, therapeutic treatment has been shown to provide skills and tools to assist with the creation of a new normal that integrates your loss into a new existence.

As therapists, we will support you through the process of grief or bereavement.  We will help you navigate the pain and sorrow, the tears and the laughter.  We will remind you that there will be good times again.  You will smile, you will cherish your memories and you will be able to move forward.  Everyone can benefit from support during the grieving process: help with self-care, help with the sadness that accompanies the loss of someone you love or help with daily challenges you face.  Perhaps grief has overtaken your life and you have lost your identity and interest in things that used to make you happy.  We can help you reclaim these assets.  We can help you cope through the devastating first years. Therapy heals.

Traumatic and complicated grief

Sometimes individuals are faced with traumatic circumstances that accompany and complicate grief.  Traumatic grief often occurs when a loved one dies in a sudden, unexpected manner including a suicide, accident, act of violence, overdose, health crisis, or unexpected circumstance.  Complicated and/or abusive relationships with a loved one who dies or a prolonged caregiving process or illness might also result in traumatic bereavement.  We are skilled at simultaneously helping you heal from both the trauma and the grief in these difficult situations.

Together, in therapy we will focus on alleviating your symptoms and enhancing your resilience.  We will provide a safe environment and teach you how to re-establish boundaries, control, and find increasing interludes of peace.  Your therapy will focus on re-establishing safety, regulating your nervous system, and decreasing the trauma you have experienced so that you can grieve, process, and integrate your feelings. Your body and spirit long for peace and serenity and together we can discover calm moments of respite within your storm.