Grief and Loss Counselling in Bon Accord, AB.

My approach to grief and loss is extensive, starting with healing and mindfulness practices. Each individual may experience something different while suffering the loss of a loved one. Treatment must be sensitive to the needs and goals of the individual seeking treatment. Many times during grief and loss sessions I use Emotional Freedom Technique (also known as Meridian Tapping) to help alleviate stress on the neuro feedback loop.

I would like to be your support system in your grief journey by giving you a safe and judgement free environment, where you will be able to experience emotional and physical support. Together, we will start your healing process through sharing your story, increasing your understanding of the situation, finding new coping skills, working on your hope...

Our fast paced world does not create the adequate time needed to process and move forward from loss toward healing. Therefore, the counselling process can create space and time for clients to grieve in the time and way each individual needs. Helping clients to slow down from the busyness of daily demands allows clients to identify the effect of the loss and build hope for the future.

Grief and loss is inevitable in life. All change, no matter how small or how large, involves moving through the grief process. Unfortunately, some people have not had secure attachment relationships to enable this natural process. When we haven't processed the normal developmental changes and losses in our lives, we find other means to overcome the loss such as numbing, obsessive behaviours, or anxiety and depression. Processing grief and loss requires a safe, skillful, dependable, reliable counsellor to help guide you through.

Grief is a natural and universal reaction to events that occur in our lives. Still, the grieving process can be hard to navigate alone. If you are experiencing grief for the loss of a loved one, or if you would like support in processing loss of a different kind, then you can benefit from supportive counselling with me. Psychotherapy for grief and loss provides you with the opportunity to honour the feelings you are experiencing. I will support and guide you to find peace and joy in your own life in a way that values and honours your loss. Grief is natural. We do not need to run from it. I offer you the support and guidance to grieve without being overwhelmed by your loss.

Grief is a natural reaction to the death of a loved one or a major life change such as divorce or illness. For some people, the grieving process can cause acute mental and physical anguish that, left untreated, can persist for months or years. Grief counseling is a form of therapy designed to help resolve the feelings of helplessness, anger, sadness and anxiety that accompany loss. The process of grief counseling is different for everyone, but the primary benefit of such counseling is to help people and families work through and recover from loss in a healthy manner.

Losses can effect individuals in a variety of ways. Within a cleint-centered counselling approach I provide individuals with a safe and non-judgemental environment in which they can explore their feelings and process various types of losses and grief as well as complicated grief. I assist individuals in adjusting to life after loss and in coping with a variety of changes that can occur within oneself and in relationship with others around them.

Feelings of loss and grief come up for different reasons. You may have lost a loved one, a relationship or even a change in your physical functioning due to accidents or illness. Whatever the reason, therapy can help in the grieving process. It gives you the space to acknowledge your loss, what it meant to you as well as finding new ways to ascribe meaning in your life.

Loss and grief come in many forms. Grieving is a personal experience. I have worked with clients experiencing loss of a loved one including a pet companion, loss of functioning/mobility, employment loss including retirement, and relocation/joining a new country. My approach integrates compassion, hope, renewal, and ways to integrate the loss. In my work and research in this area, moving forward from loss combines honouring the past while actively finding new ways to engage in the present.

As cliche as it sounds healing from grief takes time. In fact my philosophy is that you do not really heal from grief. You will always feel the hurt from the loss of the loved one, and it is that hurt that keeps you connected to them. We are not going to try and get rid of your heartache, but rather help you manage and appreciate the heartache that you have in a more optimistic positive manner.

Grief counselling is a form of counselling that aims to help people cope with grief, & mourning following the death of a loved one, or with major life changes that trigger feelings of grief such as loss of a job, relationship or even a family pet. Everyone experiences and expresses grief in thier own way, which is often shaped by how their family or their own culture honors the process. The grief process has many faces and stages where one can experience a wide range of emotions and behavior associated with grief. A grief counsellor will facilitate expression of emotion and thought about the loss including sadness, anxiety, disbelief, loneliness, guilt, anger, confusion, or lack of feeling.

The death of a loved one shakes us to our core. Some of the questions people ask are how to move on and how to let go without dishonouring the love for the one who has died. Loss is most obviously of a person but it can be a pet a relationship, a job or a sense of a changing identity or position in the world.

We all experience grief and loss. Yet sometimes, the pain cuts too deep. Sometimes, people stay stuck in acute grief for a really long and difficult time. To help, I use techniques based on research by Robert A. Neimeyer. They focus on creating ways to make sense of what happened, together, as a team. This way, the loss could be integrated into your continuing life story. Such grief therapy is not truly about moving on or moving past - it is about reconciling whom - or what - you lost with what you still have. So you can continue to live fully, with a place for both sadness and joy of memories in your heart. I work online across Canada or in-person in Calgary.