Grief and Loss Counseling in Cinnaminson, NJ.

Losing a loved one is complicated and hard on so many levels. In therapy, I will provide you with a safe space where we can process your grief and the many levels which are unique to your situation. We will go at a pace which is comfortable to you. We will work to find comfort in the positive memories of and with your loved one. We will utilize these memories to reconnect with that person as well as to find some acceptance of your loss.

Loss, separation, and good-byes are all a part of life. These times can be forced upon us such as times of death, illness, and loss of employment. At other times it can be more of a celebration, as when we move to a new job, house, or school. Yet, all are times of reflection, remembering, loss, and permanent change; times that elicit a variety of emotional responses. If recent “good-byes” are heavier than you want, and would like someone to walk with you, to create a safe place to share your loss and reexamine your level of grief, please allow my Family Life Counseling to support you during this heavy time of change.

You can grow from grief. I can help you build the skills to better manage your loss. Grief has no infinite definition. There is grief associated with death. The death may be sudden, or it may be due to a long term illness. There is grief associated with relationship loss. This may be due to separation, divorce or loss of friendship. Catastrophic loss may be loss of a job, financial status, accident or medical illness. You can move on and grow from your experience.

Grief affects our lives in many different ways. Often we are not aware of its impact physically, emotionally or spiritually or how a loss has impacted us even years later. REACH Counseling Services offers support that encompasses all these dimensions and understand that grief and loss can be healed and that life can move forward with hope and healing. We use a variety of approaches to help you deal with loss and grief.

If you have recently lost a loved one, or find yourself still suffering from a past loss, therapy can help. Because grief is different for every person, you may find yourself feeling alone with your own emotions and thoughts about your loss. We will work together to understand what grieving means to you. We believe that grief and loss do not mean that you need to let go of the person and move on, rather that you need to find and understand your new relationship with the person that has died. During therapy you will share your memories, express your feelings in an empathetic environment, and learn how to cope with the challenges of losing a loved one.

The loss of someone we love is one of the most difficult experiences we go through in life. When children loose a loved one at a young age, they have tons of questions of what death is. Parents often times struggle to respond in a way that is developmentally appropriate. In working with grief and loss, I help your child process the emotions around death in an age-appropriate way. They're able to have the space to understand what happened, while also learning that death (and the grief that comes with it) is a natural part of life that we must learn to cope with. After working with me, your child will be able to understand and cope with death in a healthy and meaningful way.

I create a safe, warm, caring atmosphere so that you can share the painful, feelings of grief and loss you are experiencing. Sometimes these feelings are quite normal and sometimes traumatic. They can even generate feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. My clients learn to shift their perceptions and attitudes and see the profound opportunity for healing, growth, transition and change. They learn to choose peace over conflict, forgiveness over grievances and light over darkness. In addition to safety and caring I offer you a wide variety of therapeutic tools and techniques (cognitive, emotional, behavioral, energetic, relational and spiritual) to greatly accelerate your healing pro

Grief and loss is a normal part of human experience. We can too often rush to pathologize and/or attempt to get rid of the feelings of loss and grief, something to stay away from. However, letting our grief be, or letting ourselves simply experience grief, making it a normal experience can help us not only heal from loss but move forward and grow from our painful experiences.

Grief and loss does not only look like dealing with death, but grief and loss may accompany any major change, such as the end of a relationship, a move or the end of a relationship. Regardless of what may be going on, its very important to honor your feelings so that you can move through them in a healthy manner, otherwise it can result in maladaptive behaviors. Together, I will help you process your emotions, and move through the stages of grief in a healthy manner so that you can feel closure and freedom from the loss.

The benefit of my approach for someone who is grieving and who has suffered a great loss is that I actively teach you how to accept things that cannot be changed. Only by achieving real acceptance can the individual carry on in life despite the loss. Acceptance in REBT does not mean liking or even denying the loss. Acceptance in REBT means to acknowledge that a great loss has occurred and to feel healthy negative feelings of sadness, even great sadness. The benefit that results is that one can still have some degree of enjoyment in life. One can function without guilt and do well in life despite having suffered a great loss. This is leverage over the loss, the thing that cannot be changed.

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.

Loss is a natural part of life. Grief therapy is a recognition that individuals vary in how they perceive and react to the loss of a person, pet, job, relationship, health, or something else of importance. Grief can express itself in many ways and intensities including sadness, depression, anger, relief, anxiety, as well as maladaptive behaviors such as substance abuse, self-harm, or denying the loss occurred. In Grief Therapy we recognize that while there is no one way, or length of time, to deal with loss, when our reactions continue to be problematic the assistance of a therapist in resolving the issues which prevent us from moving through the grief can help us to live satisfying lives.

Grief and loss therapy should be more involved than just holding hands with a client. Grief and loss are actually forms of trauma. They can be treated actively by using techniques like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) that focuses on the traumatic event itself, and processes it until it becomes just a memory, rather than a trauma trigger. A recent client had flashbacks of holding her dying mother in her arms. After using EMDR techniques, she moved swiftly to the memories of how she helped her mother at the end of her life and her positive personal memories of their time together. Her friends were amazed how quickly she moved from painful thoughts to positive memories.