Healing the Loss

Navigating your way through...

Individual Grief and Loss Support

I offer support grounded in professional knowledge and lived experience. I hold space for you in your experience of loss in a non-judgmental, compassionate way.

I provide private one-to-one grief support online across Canada and internationally, or in person by arrangement in Nova Scotia, where you can share your grief authentically with someone who understands. I also offer practical tools to help you navigate the hardest moments and what comes next. It is my honour and privilege to do this work.


Grief is a normal response to loss.


Our society does not handle grief very well. So many expectations and restrictions shape how we are supposed to grieve. Well-meaning people may say some of the most hurtful things, often beginning with the words “at least.”

There are many types of loss. Death and divorce may be among the most recognized, but grief is in no way limited to those.

For Example:


Grief can follow many kinds of loss, including:

  • death of a child
  • death of a spouse or partner
  • death of a parent, sibling, family member or friend
  • sudden or traumatic death
  • multiple or cumulative losses
  • long-term illness in yourself or someone you love
  • anticipatory grief
  • death of a beloved pet
  • divorce or the end of a relationship
  • job loss or retirement
  • moving and other major life changes
  • empty nest
  • financial changes
  • loss of trust or betrayal
  • a loved one's addiction
  • natural disasters
  • unmet hopes, dreams, and expectations


 


 

When Grief Affects Everyday Life


Grief can affect far more than how you feel emotionally.

It can change how you think, sleep, concentrate, connect with other people, and move through your everyday life.


You may feel overwhelmed one day and numb the next. You may have difficulty concentrating or making decisions, feel exhausted, become more forgetful, or find that things you once managed easily suddenly take much more effort.


Relationships can change too. The people around you may not understand what you need, or they may expect you to be doing better long before you feel that way yourself. Sometimes even well-meaning support can leave you feeling more alone.


You may be functioning on the outside while privately struggling with a loss that has changed your life.


Grief can also be connected to your work.

You may regularly witness death, trauma, illness, or other people's losses through your profession, or find that your own grief is affecting your ability to work. Occupational grief and cumulative loss can be difficult to recognize and are also valid reasons to seek individual support.




Every person's loss is different, valid, and important to them. There is no value in comparing losses or believing that your grief is somehow less significant than someone else's.

You deserve a safe, compassionate, and non-judgmental place to talk honestly about your loss and what life looks like now, and how to navigate going forward.

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Support That is Individual to You

Grief impacts everyone in unique ways, and there isn't a single right approach to coping with it.


My approach is tailored to you, your unique loss, and your specific needs. Along with compassionate support and gentle guidance, I can provide practical tools and exercises to help you understand your experiences better and find what might be beneficial as you move forward.

Together, we may also decide to include the Grief Recovery Method®. A highly respected evidenced based program. This is always your choice, at your pace.


Recovery can be a confusing word when we talk about grief. We know that we carry our losses and grow around them. We incorporate and absorb our losses; we don't simply "recover" from them. The pain shifts and changes, as does our ability to carry it.

I prefer to think of this work as grief discovery. The unheard and unacknowledged losses in our lives can hold a narrative around our present loss, and sometimes that narrative may no longer be serving us in the best way.


What Individual Support Can Look Like


Grief support can provide a place where you can say what you are thinking and feeling without worrying about how it affects anyone else. It can help you understand why grief is affecting you the way it is, while offering practical support for getting through the hardest days, navigating relationships, dealing with other people's expectations, and learning to live alongside a loss that has changed your life.


Grief can have many layers. A profound and obvious loss may be what brings you to grief support, while other losses may have gone unnamed, unheard, or unacknowledged, or accumulated quietly over time. There may also simply be a heaviness you are carrying that you cannot quite name or understand.


Grief also doesn't happen in isolation. We bring with us what we have learned about loss from our families, our culture, and our society, including expectations about what grief should look like, how we should respond to it, and what we believe we are supposed to do with it.


Part of grief discovery can be naming and acknowledging both the big and small losses, while also looking at the beliefs and expectations surrounding them. Understanding more clearly what we are carrying can help us make sense of what we are feeling and experiencing now.


When Can I Reach Out?


There is no particular point when grief support becomes the "right" thing to do. Some people reach out soon after a loss, while others come months or even years later. You may know exactly what you want support with, or you may simply know that something feels heavy, difficult, or unresolved.

Wherever you are with your grief, we can start there.

Our sessions can be conducted via online video or in person by arrangement. Please do not let distance be a factor for getting support.

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