Grief and Loss Counseling in White Oak, MD.

Grief and loss are some of the most difficult issues we can encounter. The feelings can be very intense and feel as though they will never end. All feelings have a beginning, a middle, and an end. As we move through the stages of grief, we can feel confused about what is normal and what is to be expected. Seeking help will allow you to move through your issues more quickly and effectively. I will assist you in moving through the grief process towards healing and expanded growth.

Are you struggling to find your way through the painful journey of grief and loss? As a compassionate and experienced therapist, I am here to guide you towards healing and renewed hope. Together, we will create a safe and supportive space where you can freely express your emotions and unravel the complexities of your grief. Through active listening, empathy, and personalized therapeutic techniques, I will help you navigate the stages of grief, offering validation and understanding every step of the way, to help find meaning amidst the darkness. Together, we will embark on a transformative journey towards healing, acceptance, and growth. You don't have to face this alone.

Everyone faces grief and loss, whether it’s over a romantic relationship or a job ending, a physical health problem, or the death of a loved one. We offer support to face grief, understand it, follow the innate mourning process, and integrate the change into life and your sense of self. We offer a safe place to explore the range of emotions which accompany loss, which really matters when friends and family don’t know how to stay with and witness the pain and sorrow. Grieving has its own demands and pace, and we will stay with you through it.

When someone lost the loved one, he/she will experience different feelings, such as sad, angry, lonely, confused, and guilty. When these strong emotions all come together at the same time, one can be overwhelmed. Hence, grief counseling can help. Everyone goes through birth, aging, sickness, and death, and grief is a normal process of human’s life. Grief counseling gives you an opportunity to find a better way to memorize the loved one while moving forward your life.

The grieving process is intensely personal and intensely painful. It can feel as if the world has gone crazy and is spinning away without you. How do you make sense of anything in the face of such pain? The simplest tasks can feel impossible. Going to the grocery store, visiting the bank, walking the dog, and even making your morning coffee can trigger a heart-wrenching ache. With mindfulness and support, you CAN begin to heal and weave your loss into the tapestry of your life. You will laugh again, dream again, and love again.

Losing someone or something is incredibly hard. I believe that one of the great myths that we are told is simply that “time heals all wounds.” Time can actually reinforce the pain of loss and it is important to mourn and grieve that which we no longer have. I am honored to partner with my clients on their journey through healing and finding peace after a loss. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you.

To help a client cope through grief and loss, I sometimes use the example of how an oyster forms a pearl. The oyster ingests a grain of sand that causes pain, and which cannot be removed or dissolved (just like we cannot eliminate the pain of missing a loved one). So the oyster begins to encase the grain of sand with layers of calcium-like substance, that makes the grain of sand easier to carry and hold, without the rough edges. Coping through grief and loss can involve learning how to unpack, experience, and adjust how we carry the pain. Therapy can help you soften and encase the pain of loss, forming a "pearl" around it that is easier to carry with you, and perhaps make it more precious.

Grief can affect our actions, emotions, thoughts, body, and faith. These changes can be overwhelming and you may have a lot of questions about the future. People cope with loss in different ways. One of the most important ways, is having support from others. Our counselors have training and experience in grief that can provide support and help you to learn to live well despite your loss. We invite you to contact our office to schedule an appointment with our grief specialist.

Grief and loss are a natural and unavoidable part of life, whether it is a sudden loss, like the loss of a loved one to death, or a more gradual loss, like the loss of physical vitality with illness or aging. When a very large loss overwhelms us and makes life seem painful and perhaps meaningless, it is time to get help to put that loss in perspective. I help people to work their way through loss and find ways to make it part of the larger mosaic of their life, helping them reduce the overwhelming pain and helping them find hope and meaning again.

One's grief and loss is very important for you to define with help and then work out each area until you have learned how to see the flags and cope with the truth. The fiction must be discovered from the truth, otherwise one will stay trapped. It's ok to cycle between the different stages of grief as long as you do not get stuck. It is a major key for me to listen to your pain. I have a free e-book called "Don't Waste Your Pain" Go download it; it's free to you.

Handling loss sometimes feels impossible. Learning to live without the lost loved one oftentimes leads to feelings of hopelessness and fear of the unknown. I work with my clients to celebrate the ones we have lost as well as find ways to continue. I make sure that we don't go too fast in trying to "get over" the pain of loss. It's important to both celebrate our loved ones while we learn to move on without them.

I help my clients process many kinds of loss, both real (death, separation, miscarriage) and ambiguous (dementia, missing persons, addictions), through their relationships and context. My training as a couple and family therapist helps me think about grief and loss through the lens of family stress. Empathic listening helps me understand your experience, and we work together to heal your grief and sadness at your own pace.

The pain of loss can be intense and all-consuming. Sorrow isolates you from others, even from those close to you who are likely also struggling through similar pain. Activities you once found meaningful, probably seem like a distant memory. The grief can make you feel lost and out-of-control. The goal of therapy for grief is to help you rebuild the ability to connect with others, restore purpose, and experience joy, while you transform the pain of loss into treasured memories.

Everyone reacts to death differently. Some become numb and will eventually disconnect from friends. Despair sets in as the reality of the loss settles. The grieving process can be long and isolating. My objective is to counsel the soul with methods generated by the Spirit of God. So that the process is in reliance to Him. Receiving reassurance and feeling understood is also part of the counseling process and will make the recovery process more complete during one of life's most challenging times. Even Jesus wept. It is okay to do so. It is both natural and biblical to grieve. It is part of the healing process that I look forward to helping you through. You are not alone.

Our society doesn't always do such a great job understanding grief and loss...well-meaning friends and family just want you to "move on" and "be okay". When I work with clients around grief and loss, I try to educate them on the wave-like quality of grief; that it comes in waves, and ebbs and flows. Just because it comes back occasionally doesn't mean you're not healing - it takes time, patience and understanding, but you can heal.

Grief & Loss For those who grieve, I offer support and encouragement for healing from their loss. Working through shock, numbness, denial, and disbelief is common to the grieving process, as well as emotions such as anger, guilt, and depression that may emerge. I support my clients in working through their grief, which helps them avoid physical or psychological symptoms. Readjustment and transformation develop gradually, as a new life emerges.

Learn how to work with you grief due to loss. Understand that this is your journey to go through in the best way for yourself. Acquire emotional support; develop awareness and understanding; and utilize techniques that help you get through your time of sorrow in your own time. There is no defined time for grieving; only and acknowledgement and learning of how to live with it.

When grief and loss occur unexpectedly, or even after an illness, it can have a profound, even shattering impact on daily life. And, although grief is not an illness, getting through the process of grief may require support. Sharing the story of loss can reduce symptoms of grief such as avoiding feelings of guilt, emptiness, sadness, depression and even the unspoken emotions of tearfulness. Each story of loss is unique and requires different approaches to get you back to life and happiness. Healing takes courage, I am here to help you find a new story of life, love and self. Loss can seem senseless, and with time, it can be channeled into new meanings and purpose.

Experiencing loss is part of every life and learning to grieve our losses effectively is a necessary pathway to growth. Whether it is the death of a loved one, sickness, aging, financial setback or simply the loss of a dream, no one is untouched by the pain of life turning out differently than expected. My approach in therapy is to provide a safe and compassionate place for you to journey through the stages of grief resulting in new hope for the future. I believe that accepting our losses and learning to grieve well is a powerful tool for emotional and spiritual growth.

I work closely with you to help you cope with grief and mourning the loss of a loved one, major life changes, and major life disappointments. We often feel alone and sad when we are disappointed by our losses. I will help you to develop a plan to recover move forward toward an inner peace with the past. We will move at your pace and honor your response to your loss.

Loss of a loved one can impact us in so many ways . Often without talking to someone we struggle on our own to process and understand feelings pertaining to loss. With the help of counselor we can be able to communicate and process feelings of sadness and some anger that we experience after we have lost a loved one. Similar feelings can surface after a divorce, separation or job loss. By talking to someone about our loss we are able to process and understand that we are not alone. We can learn that loss/grief are a normal part of life and much can learned from how to go through the journey of life after loss.

Some individuals enter psychotherapy without serious mental health symptoms but are managing a difficult life transition like a divorce, family changes, death/bereavement, moving, processing identity changes, adoption, job changes and medical issues. These individuals are often looking for a place to process this transition and to gain support for the life change. Psychotherapy is not only for a psychiatric diagnosis, like depression or anxiety, some enter therapy to process transitions so that they may better manage their life and achieve their goals. Some people dread the life transition they are facing or fear change; therapy helps these people to feel enriched by the life event and/or develop an enhanced sense of meaning or purpose as a result....(view profile to read more)

Learning how to healthily grieve is foundational to experiencing peace in the midst of a broken world. We all experience various forms of loss, from the "little" disappointments that we don't even consciously notice, to the catastrophic losses that feel as though they will drown us. We are relational beings who are meant to grieve and work through all of these in the context of relationships. As one who is no stranger to loss, I know how scared we can be to face our grief and loss. And I know the great peace and strength that comes through doing so. I would be honored to guide and walk with you in your grief journey, helping you to eventually find new life on the other side of your loss.

Loss is inevitable. It is the flip side of love and the greatest pain we know. Hearts can break and hearts can heal. We must first accept ALL feelings. We can cultivate gratitude for the gifts our loved one gave us. Sometimes it is also important to acknowledge and learn from the mistakes of the one we have lost., the ways they may have caused pain to themselves and others. If the person has been a large part of our daily living, it is as if we need to recreate our lives bringing new resources into the emptiness. The waves of extreme pain become less frequent with time. The person's memory remains with us, and their gifts to us can inspire those very strengths in ourselves.

Though I don't pathologies grief and loss, I help to prevent it from continuing to burden your life by (1) allowing you to freely talk about the deceased; (2) assisting with distinguishing grief from a traumatic event, and (3) assist you in dealing with any guilt and effectively organize your grief. We support persons encountering grief, adjusting to loss, in need of bereavement care, as well as seeking support while facing an anticipated loss.