Grief & Loss
Healing in relationship with ourselves and the world.
Grief is a natural response to loving and losing.
We grieve not only people we love, but relationships, identities, places, dreams, communities, and the lives we imagined. Grief can accompany death, separation, illness, aging, changes in identity, the loss of home or belonging, and the many transitions that alter the shape of our lives.
Sometimes grief has a clear beginning. Sometimes it accumulates quietly over time. There is no single way to grieve and no prescribed timeline.
You are not grieving wrong.
Our work begins with your particular experience. There may be sadness, anger, guilt, numbness, confusion, relief, longing, or emotions that are difficult to name. Grief can affect the body, relationships, identity, our sense of meaning, and our ability to imagine the future. We will make room for these experiences while you find ways to remain connected to yourself and to the life that continues around you.
When a loss has also been traumatic, our work can include attending to the ways trauma and grief have become intertwined.
The intention is not to leave grief behind. It is to develop a different relationship with it—one that allows both grief and life to have a place.
Living With Loss
There are losses we eventually integrate into the story of our lives, and others that change us permanently.
Therapy can provide a place to tend what has been lost while also listening for what remains—relationship, memory, meaning, love, and the possibility of a life that continues to unfold.
People come to grief therapy for many reasons, including the death of someone they love; grief following suicide; divorce or the ending of a relationship; estrangement; illness or aging; changes in identity; loss of home or community; the loss of a hoped-for future; and grief arising from uncertainty in the larger world.
Some grief is difficult to name. We may find ourselves grieving what never happened, what should have happened, or a version of ourselves or our future that can no longer exist.
Grief for Our World
Grief is not only personal. We may also grieve for the suffering we witness in the world—for war and violence, injustice, the loss of species and ecosystems, and the changes we are witnessing in the climate and the natural world. This grief can bring sorrow, fear, anger, helplessness, or a sense of being overwhelmed by what feels too large for any one person to hold.
Making space for this grief does not require us to turn away from the world or carry all of its suffering. Therapy can offer a place to acknowledge what we love and what we fear losing, to tend the emotions that arise, and to find ways of remaining connected to meaning, relationship, and our capacity to care.
Honoring Grief: Ritual & Ceremony
Grief is not always something we can think or talk our way through.
At times, our work may include simple forms of ritual or ceremony to honor grief and loss. Ritual can offer a meaningful way to honor what has been loved, acknowledge what has changed, and give expression to experiences that words alone cannot hold.
This might involve creating a personal ritual to mark a death, ending, transition, or significant change. It may include writing, meditation, imagery, symbolic acts, or connection with the natural world.
These practices are never required. When included, they emerge naturally from the therapeutic work and are shaped by your own beliefs, history, culture, and relationship to meaning.