Grief and Loss Counseling in Petaluma, CA.

Losing a loved one changes you forever. While grief is a natural part of the life cycle, everyone can benefit from the emotional support psychotherapy provides. I can help you move through the grieving process so it does not turn into social isolation and depression. You don't have to go though this alone. I provide a safe place for you to sort through your sadness and loss. I can help you gather strength to move forward.

I help clients navigate grief and loss by welcoming their deep feelings as a part of the process and navigating them carefully when they become overwhelming. Grief is a growth process like other difficult experiences, and I help clients find the resilience inside themselves to both honor their loss while getting stronger. By honoring the pain of the loss, we can move into a new phase of life that allows for thriving.

When we lose someone we love, it feels like we have lost a part of ourselves. Something within us has been torn out, leaving a hole that we easily imagine will never heal. The pain can be profound, the feelings of helplessness, or regret, or guilt overwhelming. Having a partnership where you can talk through these feelings can make a huge difference not only in how quickly and how well you are able to move through the process of grieving, but also how you ultimately are able to frame the experience and your memories of the person lost into the narrative of your own self and life as you move forward. What you carry with you afterward is just as important as surviving the hurt of the loss.

Grief counseling helps people cope with grief and mourning following the loss of a loved one or due to major life changes that trigger feelings of grief (i.e. job loss or divorce). It provides a space for individuals to work through and process the complex emotions surrounding loss. Healthy grieving results in remembering the loss with a newfound sense of peace, rather than searing pain.

Grief work, including complex grief has become a specialty for me. One thing I have learned from my studies of Carl Jung and Sandra Ingerman is the importance of honoring your soul when you are grieving. I will hold the safe space for you to actively move through your grief so that you don't end up with depression or soul loss. Grief is often an initiation into sacred grounds where you come to understand your own soul and its needs. I am always honored to guide a client through their grief, for it can be a spiritual invocation, a catalyst for coming into more authenticity and self love. I offer gentle processes for complex grief, forgiveness work and creating healthy closure.

Are you using alcohol, substances, or addictive behaviors to cope with grief and loss? Although they provide relief in the short term, their long-term effects on your relationships and health can make it even more difficult to cope. Through a compassionate non-judgmental approach, I help clients explore their relationship to grief and loss so that they can overcome addictive coping strategies. If you're looking for another way forward, feel free to reach out and we can set up a free consultation to discuss further.

Experiences of grief and loss may occur in small doses on a regular basis. But some losses are too intense to handle on your own. When a major loss occurs, whether the death of a loved one, or the loss of a job or relationship, you may benefit greatly from contact with a psychotherapist. I am experienced at helping others get through these difficult and painful times. Suffering is unavoidable in this world. But you do have a choice about whether to do it alone. Let me know if you would like to talk about getting some counseling to help you through a difficult time.

When you lose something or someone important or close to you, it may be difficult to make sense of life or to feel that others can relate to or understand what you are going through. If you need someone to talk to about what happened, I am here for you. I understand that sadness is often something that shouldn't be fixed, but embraced. I also specialize in helping people who were hurt or abused by the deceased. Grief and Loss is a painful time of life, one that every human being goes through. You are not alone. I will come alongside you through the anger, loneliness, fear, shock, and panic. In the middle of the grief, the way forward can bring hope, strength, peace and freedom from guilt.

Grief is a potential reaction to a loss of any kind whether through death, divorce, abandonment, separation, job loss, illness, disease diagnosis, kids leaving home, etc. Feelings of anger, resentment, shame, confusion, isolation or abandonment can result. Friends and family may not know what to say or how to provide support. A trained professional, who is profoundly sympathetic, respectful and empathetic, with the skills required to help one navigate through this difficult time, can be critical in helping one regain equilibrium.