Grief + Loss Counseling
Grief is a tough journey, and one we are not often prepared to take. The counselors at our practice are here to help clients on their search for healing and wholeness, possessing a deep sense of longing to invite others into the truth of the mind, body, heart, and spirit connection within the healing journey.
Grief and loss can be experienced from the loss of a loved one (like a parent, child, partner, grandparent, or sibling) and the same symptoms can be applied to the loss of a marriage, a relationship or friendship, the loss of body functions via disability, chronic illness, or accident, grief over a relationship dynamic or an environment with a less than healthy dynamic, your aging or the aging of your parents or children, etc. There can be traumatic losses (shock loss), ambiguous losses (loss of a relationship while parent is still alive), complicated grief (the death of an abusive parent).
The depth of sadness and the haze of confusion, anger, and denial are truly surreal, and it is commendable to reach out for help when processing a loss; no matter how big or small, or when it occurred. Grief has a way of showing itself when there is support in place to help process it, and we are honored to walk alongside those experiencing a loss and offer our support and counseling in those times.
If you feel that grief counseling will help you to find some peace after the death of a loved one, reach out to our team and discover ways to manage the sadness, anxiety, and frustration that are so common when contemplating a loss.
Symptoms of Grief and Loss
While everyone experiences their grief and loss a little bit differently, here are some common symptoms of a loss:
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mental chatter, rumination and/or racing thoughts
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Fatigue (can be extreme)
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Lack of appetite and/or intense cravings
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emotional drained
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Floaty and dissociated
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sadness, tearfulness, emotional pain
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chest pain, heart pain, and body aches
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Confusion, disorientation, disconnection
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Feeling of being underwater, underground, and/or existing outside of reality
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a need to constantly move, be busy, and/or difficulty sitting still
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Lack of feeling all emotions or can't feel specific emotions
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Overwhelm along with feeling all emotions or with specific emotions
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Feeling disconnected from self and others
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hyper-vigilance (constant scanning and bracing)
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Under-aware (missing important details, clumsy, easily distractible)
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Environmental sensitivity to sounds, colors, textures, smells
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Avoidance and distraction of certain activities like sex, food, driving, working, completing regular tasks
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"out of nowhere" feelings of racing, panic, anxiety, sadness, shutdown, rage, anger, depression, and physical impulses
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Feeling powerless, unloved, stuck, hopeless, chronically fearful
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Focus and avoidance disorganization and sensitivity
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Tension and pain in the body
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Sexual issues like hypo-desire, erectile dysfunction, sexual trauma or ancestral sexual trauma
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Jittery, numb, spinning, nausea, stagnancy, ungrounded, floaty, disorganized
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Insecure, Avoidant, Ambivalent, and/or Disorganized Attachment experiences
Grief and loss can be experienced from the loss of:
• a loved one (like a parent, child, partner, grandparent, or sibling)
• the loss of a marriage
• the loss a relationship or friendship
• the loss of body functions via disability, chronic illness, trauma, or accident
• grief over a relationship dynamic
• grief over your aging or the aging of your parents or children
• grief associated to end of life
• loss over how your life has ended up
• Loss of a home and/or community in moves, natural disasters, life transitions
• Loss of your dream life
• Grief and loss due to rejection or separation from friends and family due to differences in beliefs, gender, sex traits, gender-identity, sexual-identity, sexual orientation, race, class, national origin, and ethnicity.
There can be traumatic losses (shock loss), ambiguous losses (loss of a relationship while parent is still alive), complicated grief (the death of an abusive parent) and also Pre-bereavement and bereavement of the long life of a beloved.
Grief Counseling can help you move through your loss
When grief and loss hits it can feel like driving down the road and your windshield is suddenly cracked, and caked with debris. You are seeing your life through this massive overlay. For some, your driving system computer is causing all the interior mechanisms to malfunction, your map keeps taking you in circles, and your gears keep going haphazardly between the different speeds. You can feel lethargic, guilty, confused and stuck one second, weepy the next, then totally numb for weeks, months, or even years at a time.
We use somatic, spiritual, collective, and indigenous practices to support the natural process of grief healing. We also use EMDR, Hypnotherapy, attachment work, and parts work to help integrate the loss. When the conditions are right, the healing, transformation, and lightening of the heart can begin.
We use Somatic Therapies because it is an incredibly effective approach to getting the body-mind-heart and spirit back into coherence, synchrony, and calm. By utilizing a mind-body frame, we are able to support the completion, discharge, re-embodiment, re-organization, and reclamation of a grounded, calm, and connected lived experience. This approach will work to cultivate the ability to sense into yourself and produce the change you want to experience in your life and relationships.
Compass Healing Project's Approach to Grief Counseling
Our team has personally and professionally traversed the underworld of grief and loss. We feel particularly passionate about the epidemic of unprocessed losses due to the American culture's avoidance of allowing time and space for losses. Much of the mental health issues that are driving the prescription use of SSRIs, non-prescription use of pain killers, and the tragically high rate of suicidality in our veteran and first responder community is a symptom of a culture that cannot hold the immense pain of grief and loss.
We seek to create a safe landing space for people that experience grief and loss. These losses can be integrated and digested so they aren't keeping us deadened, numb, and separate. We use somatic, spiritual, collective, and indigenous practices to support the natural process of grief healing. We also use EMDR, Hypnotherapy, attachment work, and parts work to help integrate the loss. When the conditions are right, the healing, transformation, and lightening of the heart can begin.
Begin Counseling at Compass Healing Project
You don’t have to live with the overwhelming impact of your losses. Grief therapy WORKS. Our Colorado and California counseling clinics have caring therapists who know grief and loss and know the path through it.
To start your counseling journey, follow these simple steps:
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Meet with one of our Specialized Therapists for a discovery call
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Start healing your heart, mind, body and spirit with Grief Counseling
More Therapy Options
Individual Therapy
All of the therapists work with individuals as a part of a larger system. Individual therapy is specialized, goal oriented, and open to meet you where you are. All genders, all peoples, all sexual expressions, all identities welcome.
Somatic Therapy
Somatic Therapy is a way to relieve the tension in your body and mind that comes with trauma. Our counselors use a variety of techniques to put you in touch with yourself.
Groups + Workshops
Throughout the year we provide an variety of offerings to specific parts of our community. Online, in-person, groups, retreats and workshops are announced and posted about HERE.
A Blessing for Your Journey
by John O'Donohue
May you know tender shelter and healing blessing when you are called to stand in the place of pain.
May the places of darkness within you be turned towards the light.
May you be granted the wisdom to avoid false resistance and when suffering knocks on the door of your life, may you be able to glimpse its hidden gift.
May you be able to see the fruits of suffering.
May memory bless and shelter you with the hard-earned light of past travail, may this give you confidence and trust.
Other Counseling Services at Compass Healing Project
We offer an integrated Somatic approach, along with EMDR, hypnotherapy, ketamine assisted therapy, Clinical Sexology, and embodiment to issues such as anxiety, depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, grief and loss, sexuality, and couples and/or relationship work. Find more info and get to know us on our Blog Counseling can help bring healing and transformation from a holistic perspective here at Compass Healing Project. Our Colorado and California practices have caring therapists who specialize in trauma resolution, emotional healing, and integrative therapy. Fill out this contact form and we'll help get you started.