Death and bereavement
The death of a loved one, a child, a friend, a colleague or someone whose role in your life was deeply significant.
When grief changes your world, you do not have to navigate it alone.
Grief therapy can offer space for the pain, love, confusion and change that follow loss—without asking you to forget, move on or leave behind what matters.
There is no single way to grieve.
Loss can affect your emotions, body, identity, relationships, routines and sense of the future. Some days may bring intense sadness; others may hold numbness, anger, guilt, relief, longing or moments of genuine connection. These experiences can coexist.
Grief is not a problem to solve or a straight line to complete. Therapy can help you make room for what has happened, understand your responses and find ways to remain connected to life and meaning.
Pet loss
The death or anticipated death of an animal companion and the bond, routine and sense of family connected to them.
Pregnancy and perinatal loss
Miscarriage, infertility, stillbirth, abortion, neonatal loss or grief connected to changes in hopes for parenthood.
Relationship and family loss
Separation, divorce, estrangement, changing family roles or the loss of a relationship that once provided belonging.
Health, identity and ability
Injury, chronic illness, diagnosis, disability, retirement, job loss or changes in independence and identity.
Ambiguous and collective loss
Missing people, displacement, migration, community tragedy and losses that may not be fully recognized by others.
Healing does not mean forgetting.
Grief therapy can support you in carrying your relationship with the person, pet, role or life you have lost in a way that feels less overwhelming. The goal is not to erase grief. It is to help your nervous system process what remains painful while protecting the memories, love and meaning you want to keep.
As grief shifts, many people notice more emotional flexibility, greater access to positive memories and an increased capacity to participate in life again.
Healing can change your relationship with grief while honouring the continuing bond.
Support for the many ways loss can be carried.
Your clinician can help you approach grief with compassion, curiosity and respect for your culture, relationships, beliefs and lived experience.
When grief feels traumatic
Therapy may address distressing images, circumstances of the loss, guilt, helplessness or the sense that your body remains caught in what happened.
When loss is ongoing
Anticipatory grief, caregiving, ambiguous loss and progressive illness can bring repeated changes without a clear beginning or ending.
When others do not understand
Disenfranchised grief can follow losses that are minimized, private, stigmatized or not recognized by the people around you.
EMDR-GRIEF
The EMDR Grieving Reconnection Integration & Enrichment Framework (EMDR-GRIEF©) was developed by social worker and therapist Krista Helman, who has trained clinicians around the world in this protocol, including clinicians at Trauma & Grief Institute. It is an adapted EMDR protocol designed to help people process grief and trauma, manage overwhelming emotions and find meaning after loss.
Drawing from EMDR therapy, attachment theory, neuroscience and contemporary grief research, the framework honours the natural grieving process while supporting the nervous system in processing what remains emotionally overwhelming.
During bereavement, some people have experiences they understand as After-Death Communication (ADC). These may include a vivid dream, a sense of presence, or a personally meaningful symbolic experience, and may occur within or outside the therapy space. ADC is not an expected outcome of therapy, and many people never experience it. If an experience does arise, it can be explored respectfully and without judgment, with the focus on what it means to you.
If your loss is recent, therapy may begin with stabilization, emotional support and restoring a sense of safety before deeper processing. Treatment is always tailored to your needs and readiness.
More About EMDR-GRIEFWhat grief therapy may support.
Your work will be shaped around your needs rather than a prescribed timeline or set of stages.
Making room for what is present
A safe therapeutic relationship can provide space for pain, numbness, anger, guilt, relief, love and the contradictions grief can hold.
Understanding mind and body responses
Learn how grief can affect sleep, concentration, energy, memory, identity, relationships and the nervous system.
Processing what remains overwhelming
When appropriate, approaches such as EMDR, EMDR-GRIEF, parts work or somatic strategies may help reduce emotional intensity.
Reconnecting with life and meaning
Therapy can support the gradual return of choice, connection, hope and engagement without asking you to abandon your bond or memories.
Questions about grief therapy.
There is no universal waiting period. When a loss is recent, therapy may focus on emotional support, practical coping and stabilization rather than deeper processing. Your clinician can help determine what feels appropriate.
Yes. Grief revisits with anniversaries, new life stages, relationships or unresolved traumatic aspects of the loss. Therapy can meet you where you are now, regardless of when the loss occurred.
Not in the sense of forgetting, letting go, or leaving someone behind. Contemporary grief therapy recognizes the importance of continuing bonds—the enduring connection we may hold through memory, love, and meaning. With some non-death losses, therapy may also help you identify what you want to carry forward and what you are ready to leave behind. The aim is not to sever a meaningful connection, but to help you find a way to carry your grief while continuing to live.
Yes. Grief and trauma can happen together, particularly when a loss is sudden, violent, complicated, or deeply distressing. Within all trauma lies grief, but not all grief is traumatic. Trauma often involves the loss of voice, choice, power, safety, or a sense of how the world once was. Therapy can address both grief and traumatic stress without treating grief as simply a set of symptoms.
Use TGI’s guided therapist-matching experience or review the team page. You can explore clinician training, fees, age ranges, appointment formats and booking options before deciding whom to contact.