Grief and Loss Counseling in Wharton, TX.

Grief and loss are experiences that can affect everyone. The pain of losing a loved one, a relationship, or a job can happen at any stage of life. Grief can affect not just individuals but also couples, families, and communities. My approach to counseling grief and loss involves acknowledging your pain, providing a space for you to mourn, honoring the process of living with grief, and collaborating with you on defining what life looks like after your loss.

The hole you are feeling inside you is understandable and expected. It is hard to keep going, and you've talked with your family and friends so much it's hard to feel like that isn't all you talk about. Let me guide you through this time. I will listen and help you come to terms with this loss. There is no reason to continue to isolate and feel alone.

As an experienced Christian Counselor and ordained pastor, I’ve supported many men through the grief process. If you’re grieving, I will provide a supportive space for you to process your emotions. Because grief is a normal part of being human, I can’t take it away or rush you through it. However, I can help you identify barriers to grief, and help you prevent the grief process from becoming stuck. I know grief professionally. But I also know grief personally. Losing one of my best friends and my beloved grandparents was hard enough, but facing the untimely death of my father was, and is, a uniquely painful experience. If given the chance, I would be honored to help you process your grief.

I will hold space, provide resources, and support clients through this difficult process. I believe there is no time limit on how long it takes someone to move through the grief and loss process. I will support and meet my clients where they are and help guide them towards healing in the process. Encouragement to re-engage with life will provided but not in a forceful and or dismissive manner.

You may experience grief from any significant loss including loss of a person, divorce, job loss, loss of health, loss of a friend who has moved, or loss of the familiar when you move. Each kind of loss affects each person in a different way. Common feelings include numbness, not feeling yourself, anger, depression and anxiety. Our focus is on helping you recover from the loss and move through the grief process without getting stuck. Everyone grieves in their own way. Our approach is as a supportive guide, helping you make the transition by understanding and coping with your feelings and reactions, developing self-care, support, and compassion and helping you reach a stage of acceptance.

Grief is hard. Grief is natural. Animals grieve. Grief is something we feel deep in our bodies and can be disorienting and destabilizing. Grief brings up questions about who we are, the world, the existence or goodness of God, and purpose and futility of life. Dealing with grief, especially when the loss is traumatic and unexpected, requires a slow and tender space to allow the grief to move through our body and to settle in our hearts with warmth and memory. I am here to help you grieve the loss of your loved one, experience, health , future or even your beloved pet. .

We tend to only think of grief as being associated with death. But allowing yourself to grieve is an important part of healing from any loss. Some of the biggest losses are losses of ideals, beliefs, or what you thought you had. The loss of the belief that you had an honest and open marriage, for example, can be devastating and traumatic. Talking about this, instead of holding in your pain, is the only way to heal. I'd be honored to join you in this painful journey to help you find hope.

The loss of a loved one can be a life-shattering experience. It can be difficult to carry on with daily life. You are probably reading this because you are living through this difficult time. There may be times of day that are more difficult than others. You may have troubling memories or images. Or, your heart may be so broken that you don't know what to do. Traumatic death loss has additional challenges...you may be experiencing "secondary trauma". I have extensive experience in providing support for loss and trauma for both children and adults. You are welcome to call me to schedule a time for you to receive compassionate, respectful support.

In Grief & Loss Therapy, I'll give you a safe and accepting place to work with the complex emotions that come with loss. Together, we'll work on creating coping mechanisms for handling your loss, avoiding problems, and recognizing the legitimacy of your feelings. Our sessions will also emphasize on your communication abilities so that you may better explain your needs and feelings to others who are supporting you. Also, I want to help you regain meaning and purpose in your life after experiencing loss by providing you with new views and insights. I believe that by going through this, we can find a way to assist you to get past your grief and accept the possibility of a fulfilling future.

I am trained as a Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy (PGDT) provider by the Center for Complicated Grief at Columbia University. The structured protocol addresses "stuck grief" that is marked by an attachment fissure that causes rumination, excessive guilt, loss of former interests and hopelessness 6 months and longer (sometimes many years) after a significant loss. PGDT is evidence-based and has a over a 70 percent efficacy rate for movement into adaptive grief.