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GRIEF COUNSELING

Are You Looking For Guidance And Support As You Navigate Grief?

a girl with a box of tissues
  • Have you suffered a difficult loss?

  • Are you reeling from intense feelings of shock, sadness, anger, and despair?

  • Are you experiencing uncomfortable physical symptoms, including fatigue, sleeplessness, a weakened immune system, and/or unexplained pains?

  • Does it seem like triggers exist just about everywhere, waiting to remind you of your loss at any given moment?

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Grief can be a beast. On the one hand, you may be desperate to find relief from debilitating sorrow. On the other hand, perhaps you’re experiencing immense guilt for “moving on.” Every emotion seems to be a double-edge sword, at once making the grief feel tangible while also totally overwhelming your system. Not only is it exhausting—you may be suffering from confusion and mood swings as you struggle through conflicting emotions daily.

Beyond individual emotions, loss tends to affect most aspects of life in its aftermath. Maybe you’re having a hard time concentrating, making work, school, and other obligations nearly impossible to manage. Or perhaps your relationships have become strained because of mood swings or handling the loss differently from those around you. It’s common to feel misunderstood in the days, weeks, and months following a loss, often causing withdrawal and tension within relationships.

At SoCal Individual, Family, & Trauma Therapy, our therapists are experienced working with a variety of losses and help you process the overwhelm as you move through various stages of grief. We acknowledge that while every loss is unique to the person experiencing it, there is often an attachment to what you are grieving, so we delicately help in honoring the loss while also making room for connection and acceptance. As a part of your grief counseling, we will collaborate with you to establish a plan that feels both supportive and efficient.

“Moving On” Is A Myth

There’s a tendency to associate the word “grief” with death, but grief can follow any difficult loss. Some losses that bring one to grief counseling include (but are not limited to):

  • Loss of a parent, grandparent, spouse, child, or friend

  • Sudden, unexpected, or traumatic loss

  • Death by suicide

  • Death of a pet

  • Terminal diagnosis

  • Loss of a pregnancy

 

There are also other types of grief-inducing loss that can include:

  • A divorce or breakup

  • Loss of health as the result of illness or disability

  • Loss of a dream, purpose, or identity

  • Loss of financial stability

  • Betrayal or loss of trust

  • Home loss or relocation

a man sitting on his bed slouched over

Our society is very quick to help people “move on” rather than supporting those struggling through loss. If someone has not “moved on” at some point, there’s often a message that something is wrong, leaving many to feel like their very understandable emotions are a burden to themselves and others.

Many of us are expected to go on with business as usual following a loss, especially if we have demanding careers, children to care for, and other obligations. Instead of being free to express vulnerability and ask for help, there is immense pressure on us to appear strong and accepting of platitudes like “everything happens for a reason” or “they’re in a better place now.” However, so much has changed externally and internally in one’s world, it feels impossible to move through life in the same way as before.

Navigate & Nurture Your Grief

For most, grief invites an explosion of feelings that can be confusing and uncomfortable. It’s normal to want to bypass, numb, or avoid these intense, acute emotions in the days and weeks following a loss. But often, we mistake surface-level symptoms as the core issue without doing the deeper work of exploring our pain. This prevents us from understanding not only the ebb-and-flow nature of grief but also that it’s very difficult to get through one’s grief process without help from community and trained clinicians.

A trained, experienced grief counselor can be a vital resource as you move through your grief journey. Working with someone who is committed to understanding your unique loss—while also offering concrete tools for improving functioning—may be the key to nurturing your grief with a sense of peace and resilience.

Have Questions? Send Us A Message!

Grief Counseling Through SoCal Individual, Family, & Trauma Therapy

Our therapists understand that bereavement and grief don’t follow a rulebook. Your process is entirely unique to you, and we will move at a pace that feels both comfortable and supportive. At the outset of therapy, we will work together to start helping you feel grounded with coping strategies and ways you can start to feel more functionality if that’s being impacted. Once you feel you have the necessary support in place, we can begin the deeper work of processing your loss together and integrating it into your life in a more meaningful way. Loss can be profoundly overwhelming and sometimes traumatizing, so helping you process and heal can shift how you move forward through life. 

girl in a counseling session

At the same time, grief therapy can be a source of comfort and even hope even as you move through the stages of grief. Together, we’ll look for moments of peace and joy, exploring meaningful ways to honor who or what has been lost, so that you don’t just need to “let it go” or “move on.”

Our goal is to offer you compassionate, practical ways to manage intense emotions, while also helping you find lasting perspectives that will support you as you navigate life after loss. The stages of grief are not linear, and you may experience waves of emotions and unexpected triggers along the way. Together, we’ll ensure you feel equipped to handle the ebbs and flows of grief, so you can find moments of peace and healing amidst your journey.

The Modalities We Use

girl in counseling

Grief counseling is individualized to the needs of each client, but some of the tools we often draw from are:

  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) – As a body-based, trauma-informed approach, EMDR helps clear neural pathways of triggering or upsetting associations to enhance feelings of calm and resilience.

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS)/Parts work – This non-pathologizing therapy does not view emotions as “good” or “bad” but rather parts or self-states that come up as protectors from overwhelming feelings. We may use IFS or parts work to enhance self-compassion and help align any inner conflict or dilemmas you may be experiencing

  • Somatic work – Helps process grief by releasing emotions stored in the body, allowing for a deeper, more integrated healing experience.

  • Expressive arts and experiential practices – Allows for creative, nonverbal ways to process grief, helping you express and release emotions that words alone may not be able to capture.

Our therapists understand grief on a profound level—we know that it sometimes feels like you will never find your way out of the overwhelm that was left behind following your loss. But reaching out for help so you don’t have to go through this alone are the first steps towards processing your grief. You are not supposed to know how to do this. No loss is too big or too little to navigate through grief counseling, and we will be here to ensure you feel supported along the way.

Common Concerns About Grief Counseling…

I’m worried that grief counseling will cause me to lose my connection to what was lost.

This is a concern that many of our clients share upon experiencing a profound loss. Yet, there is a misconception that moving through the grief process means moving on from your loved one or what was lost. We know “moving on” is a myth, and a vital part of the counseling process is figuring out a way to honor your grief as you move through your day-to-day life. Therapy is not about forgetting; it’s about helping you learn how to cope with your loss and maintain a connection to it without it being overwhelming. Oftentimes, there’s an experience of feeling even more connected to who or what’s been lost because you’re not frozen or stuck in certain stages of grief.

It’s not normal to still be grieving this intensely.

Grief has no set rules or timelines—it ebbs and flows, often manifesting intensely and when we least expect it. What you’re experiencing is a very normal grief response. And even when you have moments of acceptance, something may trigger you causing big emotions. That’s okay. Therapy isn’t about rushing the healing process but rather managing the daily experience of your grief.

Other people think I should be “over” my loss by now, and a therapist will probably also judge me because I’m not there yet.

Sometimes, people around us expect us to match their experience of grief or be fully recovered after some time has passed, which often leads to feelings of isolation and shame if we feel we are moving through the process in the wrong way. These people usually mean well and just want us to feel better—but they don’t understand the complexities of grief the way a therapist does. In counseling, your grief will be validated and recognized as a process with no set timeline or expectations. Everyone’s journey is unique, and we will hold space for your grief for as long as you need.

You Are Not Alone In Your Loss

At SoCal Individual, Family, & Trauma Therapy, we are a team of trauma-informed clinicians who are here to walk alongside you in your grief journey. For more information or to get started with grief counseling, contact us.

111 Pacifica # 120, Irvine, CA 92618

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