Grief and Loss Counselling in McDougall, ON.

Grief and loss are viewed as inescapable features of normal human experience. Clients can expect a supportive approach which invites narration, catharsis, encourages creative commemorative rituals and molding new traditions, with a view to extracting the grains of wisdom and lessons for living that can be buried, yet found around a loss. Traumatic loss can be more complicated and clients may be helped by a process similar to the one outlined above, but including trauma re-processing techniques to help them shrink and cope with the worst, stickiest memories and distress of an extreme experience of loss. "Sometimes the only cure for grief, is grieving." Dana Reeve

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.

What makes grief so painful? Perhaps it's because we experience a double loss. The first is losing a loved one, the second is losing a part of our ourselves. This is why the familiar saying, "you gotta let go," can sometimes make things worse. Instead of letting go, I'm interested in how we can bring people closer: closer to what we hold dear, closer to what we cherished most… In doing so, we can begin to develop a new relationship with our departed loved one, and simultaneously offer comfort and healing to parts of ourselves.

Grief, loss, and bereavement, whether it is the passing of a loved one, the end of a career, or the falling-apart of a relationship are all similar: we are losing or have lost an important part of our lives. Understanding the emotions, feelings, and behaviours we have when we experience grief and bereavement is part of helping us accept what has occurred, why we feel the way that we are feeling, and what is next for us. In working with clients on grief, loss, and bereavement it is important to understand that the way we process these experiences is unique to each person, and the pillar of respect is paramount.

As someone who has experienced loss and studied loss, I understand how unique and different everyone's experience with it is. Grief can be one of the most complex and complicated of human experiences and can occur with or without a tangible loss. Using a person centered and strengths based foundation, I will hold space with you and aid you in navigating these complex feelings at your own pace.

Processing loss is painful, confusing and often isolating. This is not something that is as simple as progressing through "stages" in order and typically involves emotions that we have been taught to avoid or suppress. Working with a therapist to unpack and go through grief and loss can offer some space and perspective that is not there when we talk with friends and family. Here you can have a non-judgmental space to take the time to work this out in the way that you need. This is not always easy, but we can navigate this together.