Are You Overwhelmed By Grief And Can’t Imagine A Path Forward?
Are you coping with the loss of a loved one and feel like your life is falling apart? Is the grief you’re experiencing disrupting every aspect of your life, causing you to question how you will be able to pick up the pieces and move on? Do you wish you could speak honestly about what you’re feeling with a supportive person who understands the depth of pain you’re experiencing?
If you are coping with a devastating loss—such as the death of a loved one, losing a job or housing, or a health-related issue that has deprived you of mobility or ability—you may be wondering when the emotional pain will subside. Perhaps you’re finding it nearly impossible to resume your daily routine since life as you once knew it has forever changed.
Coping With Grief Can Affect All Aspects Of Your Life
As sadness, loneliness, and anger keep you stuck in emotional distress, you may also be wrestling with misplaced guilt you can’t escape. You may feel like you’re somehow responsible for what happened and get stuck in endless ruminations of “What if…” that inevitably lead you back to a reality you cannot change.
Maybe you’re struggling with brain fog and can no longer complete simple tasks when your grief zaps you of focus. If you are suppressing your emotions, you might be experiencing somatic symptoms in your body that manifest in muscle tension, headaches, or stomach aches. Coping with your grief may be leading to reckless or unhealthy behaviors such as substance abuse, gambling, or risk-taking.
Fortunately, you don’t have to face your grief alone. With counseling, you will have someone well-versed in the process of grief to help you process your pain and discover more helpful ways of coping with your loss.
Grief Is A Normal Process But Sometimes Becomes Prolonged
There isn't a person alive who isn't susceptible to grief or loss. By nature of being in community with each other, having relationships, and being closely connected, we will all inevitably experience grief. It is a natural part of life.
However, trying to deal with grief without social support can cause depression, anxiety, and something called Complicated Grief (CG), which affects between 10-20 percent of those coping with the loss of a loved one.[1] According to the Mayo Clinic, “In CG, painful emotions are so long-lasting and severe that you have trouble recovering from the loss and resuming your own life.”[2]
Unfortunately, the pandemic has brought unprecedented loss to millions of us across the globe. Statistically speaking, many of us can expect to experience prolonged grief as we come to terms with the fallout from COVID.[3]
It's Difficult For Others To Support Us In Our Grief
Although our culture acknowledges that grief is normal, most people don't know how to extend empathy and care to those who have experienced loss for as long as needed. Oftentimes, when we should be delicate with ourselves and work through our grief symptoms gradually, we are urged to go back to work or get socially active so that we won’t dwell on our loss.
When our pain is profound and we need long-term emotional restoration, we are commonly made to feel that we’re expected to have already moved on. That’s when we often stop talking about our loss and, instead, suppress the emotions we should be expressing.
Being alone can exacerbate the grieving process and make it feel more devastating. If you feel like you can no longer look to friends and loved ones for support in your grief, counseling can be a great option for expressing your emotions to a patient, compassionate person who will listen without judgment.
Grief Counseling Can Help You Find Common Ground
You are not crazy for wanting to talk or think about the loss you experienced, even if months or years have passed. No matter what anyone may have told you, talking about loss is a helpful way to process your difficult emotions and make incremental steps back toward a normal life.
Grief counseling offers you a safe place to bring up what you’re experiencing, especially when some time has passed since your loss occurred and those in your life no longer seem as willing to listen. Our grief counselors are infinitely patient and will allow you to tell your story as much as you need, even the details you might not usually share with others. They will bear witness to the trauma you have experienced and help you work through getting to the other side of your grief.
What To Expect In Sessions
At your initial session, your therapist will gather some background information about you. First and foremost, they will want to ensure your safety and may offer you some resources such as referrals to a psychiatrist for medication, grief support groups, or perhaps nearby emergency services.
With grief, your therapist will help you explore your feelings concerning the loss you experienced as well as examine the unresolved questions you have about your loss. It’s normal to wonder why this terrible thing happened—confronting any guilt you may have that it was in some way your fault will make it easier to any address any anger, confusion, and shame you may be dealing with.
If you have adopted unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with your loss, such as an unhealthy diet or substance abuse, your counselor may suggest you see a nurse practitioner to find healthier means of dealing with your grief. They will also ensure that you are taking care of yourself and encourage you to return to a positive daily routine once you feel ready. As you continue to get more acclimated to the loss, you will gradually re-introduce the routines and activities of our life that bring you joy and help ground you.
The Modalities We Use
Our grief counselors use a person-centered approach where the focus will be to listen intently to your story, validate, and normalize your experience. We offer grief counseling for children as well as Christian-based therapy if desired. Additionally, we may utilize Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help address any cognitive distortion you have that is contributing to feelings of anger or guilt.
Your therapist will be there to support your grief journey. Getting the chance to openly talk about what happened in a safe place allows you the comfort, validation, and warmth you need to begin healing. The grieving process is complicated and long after others have stopped listening, we will still be there for you.
But You May Wonder Whether grief counseling Is Right For You…
How will bereavement counseling help—I’ll never be happy again without my loved one.
After losing a loved one, it can feel like you are incapable of moving forward with life. You might think that you will never experience joy again and feel like you can’t take care of yourself anymore. Although coping with the loss of a loved one can be difficult to navigate initially, grief therapy can help you move forward.
Your grief counselor will help you find reasons to continue to engage in life. Although you will never stop missing your loved one, you will gradually learn to adjust to living without them. Imagining life without them may seem impossible right now, but over time that feeling will diminish.
If grief is normal, why do I need counseling for it?
The intensity of grief is unlike anything else. It can stretch you to your limits and at times make you question your sanity. You may be surprised by the amount of anger you experience or wonder if it’s normal to feel like you don’t want to go on without your loved one. Having a therapist by your side can help you navigate through the emotional turbulence of grief and normalize what you’re experiencing.
Won’t talking to a counselor about my grief be emotionally painful?
Although discussing your grief in therapy might be distressing, talking openly about it won’t be any more painful than what you’re already feeling. The truth is that it’s more painful to suppress your grief or hide it from others than speak truthfully about it. Bereavement counseling gives you a safe space to express your grief without fear of judgment.
You Don’t Have To Experience Grief Alone
We can walk alongside you and bear witness to your loss while helping you slowly move back into life. If you would like to find out more about grief counseling with us, you may call 513-770-1705 or visit our contact page.
As we try to raise awareness for Mental Health Issues, we are fighting the stigma, support to educate the public and advocate for good supportive policies for people with mental health illness. Each year millions of Americans are faced with the reality that they or someone they know are living with a mental illness.