Grief comes in all different shapes, sizes, and forms. It can derive from the anticipation of loss, unmet expectations or hopes, or the actual experience of loss. Often times, a natural protective response to feeling our grief is to instead take on feelings of shame and guilt. Getting lost in shame and guilt prevents us (or from the body’s perspective, protects us) from accessing the pain and sadness that comes with grief. While it may feel more manageable, blocking access to the emotions that need to be felt and embodied, also blocks the ability to process through our experience and alleviate chronic mental and physiological symptoms.
You or your child may be experiencing:
Chronic fatigue
Fear of death and dying
Shame, guilt, sense of being alone
Hypervigilance
Insomnia and sleep disturbances
Large swings between heightened urgency and intensity to feeling shutdown and collapsed
Loneliness and isolation
Feeling disconnected from the body
Shortness of breath and chest tightness
Muscle aches and pains
Digestive disruption
Regressions in development (for children, e.g. bedwetting, thumb sucking, decrease in coordination, separation anxiety)
What does therapy for grief and loss look like?
Grief can be one of our hardest experiences as a human, because there anything to "do" to fix it. People are often wanting to find a solution for their pain to alleviate the distress they experience each day.
Therapy for grief focuses on creating space for the grief itself and processing the experiences that still feel stuck. We approach grief and loss in sessions from a body-based, holistic stance. This means we don't zoom in on symptoms and diagnose a disorder, and instead, we focus on processing the grief that is underlying those things.
Allowing yourself to show up in a safe, contained space helps put the grief somewhere, so you don't have to carry it with you all the time. Therapies like EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, activity therapy, animal assisted therapy, expressive arts, and sand tray therapy help client process their grief in their body and in their brain.
Therapy can help you or your child:
Improve your capacity to tolerate emotion and grief
Improve daily functioning
Process painful life experiences
Improve physical complaints of grief (stomachaches, headaches, poor sleep, struggles with eating, etc.)
Improve body awareness
Improve energy and overall mood stability
Decrease feelings of guilt, shame, and loneliness
Improve access to states of regulation and calm
Acclimate to life in the face of grief and loss
There is no timeline for how long it takes to feel better and reduce distress. Sessions are typically 50-60 minutes, and we do offer extended sessions for deeper processing and based on need. We offer holistic mental health services in-person at our office in Plano and virtually across Texas.