Grief and Loss Counseling in Bergenfield, NJ.

In my approach to grief and loss therapy, I provide a compassionate and understanding space where clients can process their emotions at their own pace. Grieving is a deeply personal experience, and I focus on helping individuals navigate the complex feelings of sadness, anger, and confusion that often accompany loss. Through tailored therapeutic techniques, I assist clients in finding meaning, honoring their memories, and rebuilding their lives. My goal is to foster healing, resilience, and a sense of peace during this difficult journey.

Grief and loss can happen when you're young or old. Whenever it happens it can result in an ongoing depression that can hamper your life. I understand how devastating it can be and use various approaches to help you recover and return to your best self. Having been there myself and worked through my own grief and loss, I know what it takes to overcome the pain of grief and loss, and I will help you overcome your own pain and regain your own healthy balance.

When I very young I lost my fiancée. I went about life as if nothing had happened until it caught up to me. I was trying to open a door with a key and it wouldn't work. I found myself crying and felt out of control. This happened because I didn't want to grieve. What I learned is you can't skip this process. It will catch up to you at the strangest times. I can walk you through this without bottoming out. Ignoring it and avoiding it doesn't work

Grief is a natural response to a loss, and loss can come in many forms: loss of a relationship, friendship, health, job, financial stability, safety; death of a loved one or even a pet; or a loved one’s serious illness. It is normal to feel sad, numb, angry, even guilty, following a loss, but these feelings should become less intense over time. In therapy, together we can explore if the pain and feelings surrounding your loss are so constant and severe that they keep you from resuming your life, if you feel “stuck” in an intense state of morning and how to overcome and learn to live again.

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.

It is very common for individuals to seek psychotherapy in times of grief. The death of a loved one is perhaps the single most intensive emotional experience an individual must face.We understand that sometimes there is little hope and trust because the road to recovery has been exhausting full of short-lived success. ART is dedicated to find an individualized treatment that closely fits the unique circumstances of each client; we do not apply "one size fits all" type of therapeutic treatment.

I specialize in a compassionate evidence based approach to grief and loss that helps clients process emotions, rebuild stability, and create meaning after significant life changes. Through supportive exploration, cognitive behavioral strategies, and personalized coping tools, I guide clients in understanding their grief. Clients benefit by clarity.

Our credentialed music therapists tailor sessions to each individual, utilizing personalized music exercises and interventions to address each person's unique experiences of loss or trauma. Involvement in music addresses trauma in two ways: music reaches us on an emotional level to help with coping, as well as on a neurological level to address and heal areas of the brain that are affected when trauma or loss are experienced. Our music therapists work with each client using musical elements like songwriting, processing, and guided imagery to help clients find their own voice and learn new coping skills to help manage trauma of any severity.

The loss of an important person, can be a terrible shock. I help you with moving through the process of grieving, including issues of survivor guilt, anxiety and depression that may arise after a loss, whether it be loss of a person, job, or pet. When grief feels overwhelming, I can provide the support needed to find meaning in the past, and hope for the future.

Grief and loss inevitably leads to anger & sadness. Not surprisingly, it also can lead to depression and feelings of guilt. The latter is called irrational guilt, as most of us lack magical powers to cure dying people. Even if they mean the world to us. I would encourage my clients to express feeling of guilt and anger often unconscious related to the loss. The anger is often at the person who died. Of course, this is irrational anger in most cases, as we all are going to die. The anger is over losing someone we love, value. I would use clinical interventions that usher in the grieving process. This fosters coming to terms with and an acceptance of the loss.

Grief is a deeply painful and often lonely and scary process to experience. Depending on the severity of your loss, it can impact every aspect of your life, like a giant ball in the box that is your life. Every time the ball hits the wall of the box it hurts. Over time, the ball gets smaller and doesn't impact every aspect of your life. However, when it does bounce against the wall it hurts just like it did in the beginning. With the right understanding of how grief it ebbs and flows over time and the space to allow it to be expressed, one can begin to heal.

Are you grieving over the death of a child, partner, spouse, parent or grandparent? Are you going through a painful loss such as a divorce or end of a relationship? Grief counseling may help you. We all experience, expresses and deal with loss in different ways. If your grief is making it hard to function, grief counseling may help. Maplewood Counseling therapist Debra Feinberg, LCSW provides individual grief counseling in a compassionate and warm environment. She helps men and women with the different emotional reactions to grief and trauma such as shock, anger and deep sadness.

Dr. Joel Stukalin and Dr. Sara Mandelbaum have guided many clients like you through their grieving processes. Since each client is special and unique, we work with the utmost sensitivity to help you during this emotional period so often filled with many memories and feelings. Some clients also experience unfinished emotional business with the deceased, which we work through with substantial empathic understanding and patience. This sensitive collaboration with Dr. Joel and Dr. Sara is invaluable in supporting grieving clients to achieve a sense of therapeutic closure and relief. Clients have stated that doing this necessary grief work with Dr. Joel and Dr. Sara has restored their lives.