Grief and Loss Therapy

Compassionate Support for Grief, Mourning, and Life After Loss

Grief changes everything. It can affect your body, your relationships, your sense of meaning, and the way you move through everyday life. If you’re grieving someone you love—or grieving a life you expected to have—you may feel overwhelmed, exhausted, numb, or unsure of how to keep going. Grief can be isolating, especially when others don’t understand the depth of what you’re carrying or expect you to “be okay” by now.

I provide grief and loss therapy for adults in Washington State, offering telehealth psychotherapy and support for you as you navigate grief with care, steadiness, and compassion. You don’t have to go through this alone, and you don’t have to rush your healing.

Grief Can Look Many Different Ways

There is no single “right way” to grieve. Grief can show up as sadness, anger, shock, guilt, anxiety, relief, numbness—or all of the above. It can come in waves. You may be functioning on the outside while feeling completely undone on the inside.

Grief may also affect you physically, including:

fatigue or low energy
changes in appetite
disrupted sleep
difficulty focusing or feeling present
increased pain or nervous system overwhelm

Many people are surprised by how much grief impacts their whole system—not just their emotions.

A concrete sculpture of a person sitting with head down and arms wrapped around knees, placed on a pedestal against a dark background.

Types of Grief You Can Find Support for in Therapy

Grief isn’t limited to the death of a loved one. Many forms of loss can deeply affect your mental health, identity, and nervous system—especially when the loss changes how safe, connected, or hopeful you feel. In grief therapy, we make space for your experience, including losses that others may not fully understand.

Grief after the death of a loved one
This may include the loss of a parent, partner, child, friend, or other significant relationship. Whether your loss is recent or happened years ago, grief can continue to surface in waves and deserve support.
Anticipatory grief
Anticipatory grief is the grief that begins before a loss occurs, often when a loved one is living with terminal illness, serious medical decline, or end-of-life care. This kind of grief can feel heavy, exhausting, and isolating.
Complicated grief
Sometimes grief feels stuck, intensified, or impossible to move through—especially when the loss was traumatic, sudden, or layered with regret, conflict, or unanswered questions. Therapy can help you process complicated grief with steadiness and care.
Caregiver grief
Caregiving often includes ongoing grief, stress, and emotional exhaustion—both before and after a loved one passes. Many caregivers struggle with burnout, guilt, and a sense of losing themselves in the process.
Grief from chronic illness and chronic pain
Living with chronic illness can bring a unique kind of grief: grieving the life you expected, the changes in your body, your independence, your energy, and your sense of safety. This type of grief is real and often overlooked.
Grief connected to life transitions
Transitions like divorce, separation, moving, job changes, infertility, empty nesting, or estrangement can bring deep grief—even if the change was necessary. You may be mourning not only what ended, but also what you hoped would be.
Disenfranchised grief
Disenfranchised grief is grief that isn’t openly recognized or supported by others. This can include losses that feel “invisible,” complicated, or hard to explain—yet still deeply impact your heart and nervous system.

No matter what your grief looks like, you don’t have to carry it alone. Therapy can offer a supportive space to process loss, feel understood, and begin rebuilding meaning and steadiness over time.

Multiple small tealight candles burning in darkness, creating a warm glow.

When It Might Be Time to Seek Grief Therapy

Many people wonder if their grief is “normal,” or worry they’re taking too long to heal. The truth is grief doesn’t follow a timeline, and there’s no deadline for missing someone or mourning what was lost.

It may be time to reach out for grief and loss counseling if:

you feel stuck in grief or overwhelmed most days
you’re carrying guilt, regret, or anger you can’t move through alone
your loss has changed how you see yourself or the world
you’re struggling with anxiety, numbness, or emotional shutdown
you feel isolated or misunderstood by others
your sleep, appetite, focus, or relationships are being affected
you feel like you’re “surviving” but not really living

You don’t have to wait until you’re falling apart. Therapy can be a supportive place to grieve honestly and find steadier ground again.

What You Can Gain from Grief and Loss Counseling

Grief therapy isn’t about forgetting your person, “moving on,” or forcing closure. It’s about helping you live with grief in a way that feels more manageable and less isolating.

In grief therapy, you can:

talk openly about your loss without being rushed or “fixed”
process grief at a pace that honors your nervous system
make space for sadness, anger, numbness, or relief without shame
work through guilt, self-blame, or unanswered questions
learn coping tools for intense grief waves and triggering moments
feel more grounded and supported in day-to-day life
reconnect with meaning, values, and what still matters to you
integrate your loss while rebuilding your life gently and intentionally

Over time, many clients notice that grief becomes less sharp and consuming. The love remains, but life begins to feel more livable again.

My Approach: Gentle, Grounded, and Nervous-System Informed

Grief is not only emotional—it’s physiological. Loss can activate the nervous system in powerful ways, especially when grief is connected to trauma, caregiving stress, or prior losses. I use an embodied approach that supports both emotional processing and nervous system regulation.

I integrate:

Mindfulness-based therapy to support grounding and presence
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help you hold grief while reconnecting with your values
Internal Family Systems (IFS / parts work) to support inner conflict, numbness, and self-compassion
Somatic approaches to support your body in finding steadiness again

This work is compassionate and collaborative. You won’t be pressured to “perform grief” a certain way. We make room for what’s real, and we move at the pace that feels safest for you.

You might be wondering….

If your grief feels overwhelming, isolating, or hard to carry on your own—or if it’s affecting your sleep, mood, relationships, or ability to function—grief counseling can help. You don’t have to wait until you’re in crisis to seek support.
Yes—intense grief can still be normal months or years after a loss. Grief often comes in waves, especially around anniversaries, milestones, or reminders, and grief therapy can help you navigate ongoing mourning with more support.
Yes. Therapy can help if you feel numb or stuck after a loss, which can be a protective trauma response in the nervous system. Grief counseling can gently support emotional processing while helping you feel more grounded and present again.
Grief often includes complicated feelings like guilt, anger, regret, or even relief. A grief therapist can help you process these emotions without judgment and work through complicated grief in a supportive, compassionate space.
Yes—grief therapy can help with anticipatory grief and caregiving grief, especially during serious illness or end-of-life care. Therapy can support you through emotional stress, burnout, and the layered grief that caregiving often brings.
Grief counseling sessions offer a safe space to talk about your loss, your emotions, and what daily life feels like now. Grief therapy may include emotional support, coping tools, and nervous system regulation to help grief feel more manageable over time.
Yes. I offer telehealth grief therapy in Washington State for adults who want support with loss, bereavement, and complicated grief. Online therapy allows you to receive care from the comfort and privacy of your home.