Are You Overcome With Grief?
Do you feel an uncontrollable sadness and have no emotional reserve to give to others as you’re coping with the loss of a loved one? Are you trying to recover from a breakup or divorce because they meant the world to you? Did you lose your job before or during the COVID-19 pandemic, and you’re overwhelmed with numbness at the loss of something you worked so hard to attain?
Maybe you’re functional at work, but out of nowhere, you’re engulfed by memories of your loss. Or perhaps the unfairness of life has left a hard place where your heart once was. You may not be able to sleep as soundly as you once did. You’re tired, weak, and have no appetite. And you may isolate yourself from others because you feel that they would never understand.
These are only some of the possible ways that grief can impact you. Grief can also manifest itself in feelings of hopelessness. Your body may respond with its own symptoms—a pounding heart, headaches, stomach aches. Or maybe you’ve lost the strong sense of faith you once had, or you started looking for spiritual answers outside of yourself to manage coping with grief.
Grief is a complicated human emotion that we unfortunately all experience. Nobody escapes its grasp. And without working through your grief, you increase the risk of developing depression. You also open yourself up to a weaker immune system, with negative emotions that increase stress hormones and make your heart work harder, increasing the risk of heart problems as a result.1
The emotion of grief is normal, but its effects can be anything but. Grief counseling can help you work through your pain to access the emotions you carry and face them, helping you move forward in your life.
We All Grieve, Each Of Us Differently
Grief is as common as the air we breathe. We grieve when we lose a loved one. We grieve when our lives are changed by injury or illness, when a beloved pet dies, or when we lose a treasured job.
Grief is something none of us is immune to, yet we as a society don’t place enough value on how coping with loss deeply affects us. Our culture says, “You can have a few days off, but we’ll need you back in the office after five days.” Up to five days of paid leave is a generous gesture, but how many of us are done grieving after five days? How can any of us get through the five stages of grief in less than a week? Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—not always in that order.
Facing grief alone can also be problematic because each loss is different, and without the help of a grief counselor, we may lack the tools to work through each type of grief alone. So, we may share in passing conversations with friends and co-workers about the grief-stricken aspects of our lives. And it helps a little bit to heal the open wound. But as much as we have people to support us in a time of need, they might not be present for our whole grieving process. A friend might help initially, but then they move on, and we’re left to pick up the pieces ourselves.
You don’t have to face your grief alone. As isolated as you may feel, grief counseling can bridge the gap between where you are emotionally, and where you want to be. And it can give you the support that you need to work through complex emotions to move forward from a place of acceptance.
Grief Counseling Can Help You Gain Acceptance And Move On
In many instances, grief dissipates with time. Yet not every experience is the same. Unresolved grief can creep up for someone who has trouble being vulnerable, so as a result, they may not ever feel the full weight of their loss. Others might find grief traumatic and may need professional help to navigate through complex emotions. Not everyone processes grief in the same way, which is why grief counseling can be a powerful tool to help people work through their individual experience(s) of loss.
In my work as a grief counselor, I’ve recognized the benefits of therapy in helping people to face loss and work through each stage of grief fully. Therapy offers a supportive environment where you have the space to mourn. And instead of mourning alone, you will have someone to listen intently to your story and help you “turn the page,” getting through each stage of the grief process.
During counseling sessions, we can address your particular experience with grief, whether that’s counseling for family grief, bereavement, or the loss of a parent. I can also provide grief counseling for children or interweave spirituality in our session.
My office provides a warm, genuine, and respectful environment to help guide you through your experiences with grief. I aim to cultivate a supportive, empathic connection with you to talk about your loss and how it impacts your life. We begin this discussion in our first session and further explore these points in ongoing sessions. During this exploration, we will also identify the emotions you experience to help you move forward, minus the survivor’s guilt.
Your grief may have a hold on different aspects of your day-to-day life, which is understandable—life can’t always be compartmentalized. Counseling will allow us to work together to provide your emotions with a healthier outlet using talk therapy, mindfulness practice, and self-care. Talk therapy is a proven way to help you improve in mind and body, as well as behaviors and emotions. According to the American Psychiatric Association, 75 percent of people who use talk therapy benefit in some way from it.2
Fully working through your grief will take effort, but anything worthwhile does. Feelings of numbness, anger, guilt, and any number of emotions are a normal part of the grieving process. And grief counseling can help you to accept rather than reject these feelings.
Through the support you receive in counseling, you can begin to exist again in the present without letting the overwhelming feeling of grief overcome you. Counseling can give you the strength to face each day, and put one foot in front of the other, looking forward while carrying the past not as a burden but as homage to who or what you lost and your evolving journey.
But you may still have questions about grief counseling…
I don’t have the budget for counseling.
If you are having trouble processing your grief, you might need more than time to help you. Investing in yourself through grief therapy can be the answer. Grief therapy is a form of self-care that can help you move through your loss in a healthy way. Counseling can also help you to curb costly coping strategies and save yourself both time and money.
I don’t have time to visit a grief therapist.
I offer teletherapy, meaning online sessions. So for the same amount of time that travel and parking might take, you can have a therapy session. If you want to stay socially distant with COVID-19 precautions, or if you don’t have the time to travel to an in-person session, teletherapy can be a convenient solution for you.
Are our sessions confidential?
This is a valid question to ask, especially in a world today where privacy seems to be an afterthought. And I can assure you that all sessions are confidential. I won’t share anything that happens in our sessions, unless I am mandated to by law. So for example, if you want to harm yourself, I am ethically and legally obligated to keep you safe.
Are You Ready To Relieve The Inconsolable Sadness?
If you’re ready to face your grief, work through its stages, and move forward in life with the help of counseling, I invite you to call or schedule a free, 15-minute phone consultation.
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1 https://myheartsisters.org/2014/09/28/intense-grief-and-cardiac-risk/
2 https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/psychotherapy#:~:text=About%2075%20percent%20of%20people,show%20some%20benefit%20from%20it.&text=Psychotherapy%20has%20been%20shown%20to,problems%2C%20and%20increased%20work%20satisfaction