Grief and loss counseling helps people grieve difficult losses including the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or the end of a relationship. It helps people navigate their grief process and eventually accept, understand, and move forward from their loss. Thriveworks grief therapists in Portage, MI have specific experience, training, and skills that enable them to best support grieving individuals.
If you have recently experienced an event like the death of a loved one, a breakup or divorce, the loss of a job, or another major life change, then you may want to seek grief and loss counseling. Grief can be caused by many experiences and events, so if you feel that you are having trouble moving on from a certain event or find that it is still impacting your life and functioning, grief and loss counseling can help you process it more effectively so that you can move on and once again find fulfillment and satisfaction in your life.
While the most obvious and intense feelings of grief are in response to the death of a loved one, grief can also be the result the loss of other things that were important to the individual, such losing a close friend, a home, a job, stability after a natural disaster, financial stability, etc. Life-altering events such as a move, a job change, or retirement can lead to feelings of grief and mourning for how life was before the loss.
There is no typical response to coping with loss, but being able to talk through your story with a therapist can help you find closure and discover how to move on with life after a difficult time. If you think you could benefit from grief counseling, reach out to Thriveworks in Portage, MI to get started.
How Grief Can Affect Your Life
Losing someone or something you love can be overwhelming. There are many different emotional responses to grief including the obvious extreme sadness, but other reactions can include shock, anger, and guilt. Everyone grieves differently, but it is important to allow yourself to feel grief and cope with it, as accepting the cause of the grief is a healthy and vital part of the healing process.
Grief can have emotional, physical, social, and behavioral impacts on one’s life. A person’s unique personality, family values, culture, and religious beliefs will all play a part in determining how they cope with and are able to handle grief and the implications of a loss. Immediately after a loss or traumatic event, many people report feeling numb, have trouble believing what happened, or even deny that the event happened at all. Many say they keep expecting the person they lost to show up or even feel their presence.
If you feel that the grief will never subside, or if your grief is getting worse, it may be a sign that grief has triggered a potential mental disorder, such as major depression. There is not a typical response to a loss, nor a normal timeline for grieving. If you do not feel any forward momentum day after day, you may be dealing with depression and may need to seek help from a professional grief counselor or therapist.
Schedule Grief Counseling at Thriveworks in Portage
A professional counselor can help guide you through the grief process and assist you in understanding and coping with the intense emotions you are feeling. It can be difficult to navigate grief alone and a trained professional can help you make sense of your feelings after a significant loss. Specifically, in talk therapy people are encouraged to come to terms with their emotional states during their grieving process. As with many other types of therapy, the goal isn’t to stop feeling the painful things, but to learn to cope with them in a healthy way.
Self-care is also important to the healing process. Steps such as seeking support from friends and family, keeping a journal, spending time in nature, and finding a positive outlet to focus on are all useful tools for managing grief. If you or a loved one is experiencing a significant loss, Thriveworks Portage Counseling can help you find your way toward a sense of peace and eventual closure. Reach out today to get started.
