Grief and Loss Counseling in New Hyde Park, NY.

Experiencing loss can be one of the most devastating parts of the human experience . Pain, shock, denial, anger, depression, rage, and acceptance are some emotions you may experience. I am here to sit with you and hold your sadness, as you process whatever it is that you are mourning; the death of a loved on, the end of a love relationship, position or change in family. Grieving is a necessary step in processing what has just happened, in effectively processing, understanding and slowly rebuilding your life, adjusted to the changes. It would be my honor to join you on your journey in healing and rebuilding your new reality, with inner strength, health and courage.

The way that a person has learned to protect themself self from a traumatic event develops into a part of their character in adult life. Our clinicians are trained to help you understand all of your parts and show you that the scary experience is over. We help you truly feel that you got through it and you can protect yourself if you need to! With this approach, we invite the wise parts of you to care deeply for the parts of you who are hurting. You have the power to regain control over your life, move forward, and heal.

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 about loss and the threat of loss. The stronger the bond between us and the person we have lost, the more we will hurt both physically and emotionally. When we are torn from a family member or friend, a part of us dies as well. Our natural need for attachment gets severed, often bringing the return of childhood fears. The world feels like a more dangerous place. As a result, we may feel out of control. We ache to have the loved person back. We know in the rational part of our minds that the person is not coming back, but it also seems impossible to let him go. We will remain emotionally conflicted until we can release our loved ones. Because letting go is so difficult, we must do it slow....

Loss in the face of betrayal is both unique and universal. If you've been betrayed by someone's sexual addiction, you may feel like life has up-ended. Although your story is unique, there are universal qualities to betrayal trauma. Rage, shock, fear, unsafety, and mistrust are some of the common feelings betrayed partners experience. You may feel dysregulated and find it difficult to function. This is a normal response to betrayal trauma. Together, we will work to help you learn about sexual addiction and why it is not your fault! I will help you grieve the safety you thought you had and we will work to help you restore a sense of safety in your life and nervous system.

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.

We all experience loss at one point in our lives, but that doesn’t make it easier. Whether you’ve experienced the loss of a loved one, a relationship, a job, or something else meaningful to you, loss can leave us feeling alone, depressed, confused, and empty. I have extensive experience working with children and adults who have experienced loss and complicated grief. I provide a safe, gentle, and non judgemental environment and use a mix of trauma focused cognitive behavioral and insight oriented interventions. Through our work together you will begin to process your grief experience, learn coping skills to get you through the day, honor what you have lost, and to ultimately heal.

I provide services that support people in loss of previous life style, loss of their own ability due to a disability, and loss of someone they were close to or a colleague. Grief is different for everyone, but one of the most popular models arranges the 5 stages of grief as Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. People take different amounts of time to get through these stages of try to skip over them but they are natural. Since everyone’s grieving is specific to them, my method is adjusted to accommodate my clients. My hope is to support you through this process to build coping skills, listen and be an extra resource.

I teach my clients about the stages of grief. This often which helps to normalize what they are experiencing. It can be so overwhelming and isolating to lose someone you love. I give clients a safe place to explore all of their emotions around their loss. I work to help clients feeling grounded again and take the steps necessary to find a new normal.

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.

When we lose someone we love, it feels like we have lost a part of ourselves. Something within us has been torn out, leaving a hole that we easily imagine will never heal. The pain can be profound, the feelings of helplessness, or regret, or guilt overwhelming. Having a partnership where you can talk through these feelings can make a huge difference not only in how quickly and how well you are able to move through the process of grieving, but also how you ultimately are able to frame the experience and your memories of the person lost into the narrative of your own self and life as you move forward. What you carry with you afterward is just as important as surviving the hurt of the loss.

Grief and loss are the tragic feelings in life that can come on suddenly - from a shocking loss, or be long term, from a loss that occurred in the past or one that is ongoing. We never know how to handle the all-encompassing feelings experienced at this time, and we never think it will end. I will help guide you through these terrible times you might be experiencing by allowing you to fully express your feelings when you need to. At other times you may need guidance on how to just get through the day. As with all my clients, you will show me what you need at each moment, and I will do my best to get you through the pain of grief and loss.