Grief and Loss Counselling in Nisku, AB.

Grief can touch every part of life — emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Whether you’re mourning the death of someone you love, the end of a relationship, or another painful change, I offer a safe and supportive space to make sense of what you’re feeling. With me, you don’t have to hold your pain alone. Together, we will explore your emotions at your own pace, gently uncovering the layers of sadness, anger, guilt, or numbness that often accompany loss. The goal isn’t to “move on,” but to help you find new ways of holding your loss — with compassion, understanding, and meaning.

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.

Loosing a loved ones hurts especially if it's a spouse, child, parent, friend or family pet. Dealing with grief is a process and having a gentle, compassionate person to walk through this with you can be the difference between drowning, and moving through overwhelmingly painful feelings to feeling whole again. Art therapy offers another modality for expressing grief that may be hard to articulate. It is when we process our emotions that pain can be lifted and new maces of being in the world are found.

Grief can be an incredibly challenging experience, whether it's due to the loss of a loved one or the ending of a significant relationship. In my approach to therapy, I focus on various cognitive therapies. CBT is a compassionate method that aims to help you navigate the emotional pain and sadness. It offers helpful tools that you can use to address your loss.

There is no "getting over" loss, but there is a way to grieve and live meaningfully and fully. I help clients adjust to this new reality and focus on what really matters. We will process the full range of normal, complicated feelings that come with loss. Together, I will help you move forward through your pain and grief to build a new life while honouring what you have lost and staying connected to those you love.

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.

Standard Grief: Sadness directly related to a loss. Complex Grief: Sadness related to a loss. Includes additional meanings and associated emotions as in: Regret – “I am a horrible person” Anger – “The universe took something too soon” Hopelessness – “ My life has not meaning now” Fear – “I am at risk of losing more” Helpless – “I am incapable- I cannot go on” Complex grief is grieving that get stuck because of the complicating meaning the trauma of loss has triggered. In order to treat complex grief, we remove the LBs associated with the loss, as shown above, and this lets the standard grief progress through the regular stages of grief, to arrive at a healthy perspective on the loss.

[I OFFER VIDEO SESSIONS THROUGHOUT ALBERTA AND ONTARIO]. You are hurting now, and I understand that. I have been a psychologist since 1986 with plenty of hard-earned wisdom. I too have experienced grief and loss many times in my life. I can help. Let us chat about the pain you are feeling now. Book with me right now by going to https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=14249112

Grief is like having a broken rib. You may look fine on the outside, but there is massive pain on the inside. It hurts to move, sometimes it hurts to even breathe. Everyone experiences grief differently, but a commonality is that grieving alone makes it harder to heal. We are social beings and we feel intense grief when we loose someone we love. You are meant to be seen, heard and supported by others through grief. Sadness needs to be processed and there is no quick fix (I wish it was easier). If we can find meaning in the midst of loss it provides something to hold onto as you navigate your pain, and learn to move forward.

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.

It has been said that life is about loss, and how one deals with it. Grief is how we deal with loss. Uncomplicated grief is an adjustment process, not an illness. There is one, though...an illness, I mean. I'd say the "illness" is cultural: For one reason or another, people ordinarily lose patience with the grief process, and often well before a healthy mourner is through their active grieving process. Unexpressed grief from former losses can extend the time needed for healthy grieving. People's wounds and scars can close heart and mind toward the grieving process. In an imperfect world, psychotherapists hold space and make time for (and precious to) a balanced grief process.

I specialize in helping individuals process grief and loss through compassionate virtual sessions. In this safe space, we face the full spectrum of emotions together, embracing every aspect of your experience. By creating a narrative that honors your loved one’s life and legacy, we transform grief into understanding and connection. My approach supports healing, acceptance, and personal growth, empowering you to integrate loss while preserving meaningful memories and sustaining emotional resilience.

The loss of a loved one, whether a spouse, friend, relative or pet, is a tough experience to deal with, and grief is expected and normal in such situations. I can work with you to process the grief that you are experiencing, and together we will work towards finding a stronger person within you, who is able to grieve and accept the loss, and also find ways to adjust to the changes that the loss had in your life.

When we are unable to emotionally move on from a significant loss, the grief recovery process can help. It is a 8 session process to identify the loss, in addition to others, and creates a structured format to move through the thoughts and feelings that remain. This process leaves clients feeling very differently at the end of the set of sessions, where they report that they have said what they needed to say, but never had a chance to and now feel very differently about accepting the loss and finding peace within the acceptance.

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...

Grief is a natural process that's painful, personal, and normal. Grief allows a person to come to terms with a significant loss, and make sense of their new reality without a loved one. I can help those who are experiencing complicated grief. Typically, the goals of my therapy for complicated grief revolve around overcoming obstacles to the normal grieving process, and to coming to terms with the loss.

Loss can be the most painful thing we as humans can experience. The finality of loss and the pain of grieving often take a toll on our mental health. Grief is not just an emotion we experience, it is a physiological process our body goes through after a significant loss. Grief and loss also does not just occur from experiencing the death of someone we care about. Grief is not always about a negative loss. Grief can occur anytime there is a transition in life where we have to let go of something familiar. Even positive experiences like having a child can lead to feelings of grief and loss from the life we had before or how we have changed how we now define ourselves.

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.

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. This is a time when our spiritual and religious values can help us or perhaps a time to dig deeper into ones self. I am able to offer a deeper perspective on death and dying and help you find meaning in profound loss. I am personally familiar with personal loss so that my help is based on real life experience.

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.

Not only is grief painful because you have lost someone or something you love and care about, but often people can hold a wide range of emotions that amplify the grieving experience. For example, some people may feel guilt - the feeling I didn't do enough, I didn't act soon enough; or fears about what the future might hold. My job is to hold space for all the layers of your grief experience and help you express your pain while also considering how to begin resuming your life after your loss. You can expect to be met with gentle compassion, space for your tears, and help to begin taking small steps of care towards your self along side of your grief.

While grief is a natural part of life, it can be overwhelming to go through the multitude of feelings that accompany a loss. I believe that people grieve a number of events in life, from the death of a loved one, to the loss of important relationships, retirement, the "empty nest," or transitioning from one phase of life to another. I help those who are grieving to understand the process, and learn how to bear the feelings that rise up "like waves." I also work towards helping people to honour the positive aspects of what has been lost, and reach a place of acceptance, while adapting to a new way of living.

My approach with grief and loss is first and formost to empathize with the client. Care and be with the client as they feel the loss they are feeling. Talking about and giving details about the situation is very important, most to the initial time is given to hearing all about it. Having them understand the cycle of grief is also important and allows for one to feel normal. The last stage of grief and loss therapy is to begin to focus on the future and moving on.

Grief can take on a number of forms in pregnancy and parenthood. Grief regarding fertility struggles, miscarriage, infant loss, loss of identity and more can be common experiences for parents. At Nest, we provide a supportive and sensitive environment for those who are struggling with grief and loss and empower individuals to incorporate grief into their lives in a meaningful and sustainable way.

The process of coping with any deep emotional loss takes time. Men and women deal with the tragedy of loss in very different ways - our elderly population also experience loss in a way that is very unique to their age and life experiences. Grief and loss will be an aspect of every person’s life at some point. We all cope with these challenges in unique ways. Understanding the stages of grief and how they impact us individually is the first step in managing any loss. And learning effective ways of coping with that pain is critical when we are trying to make our lives functional again.