Healing for the loss and grief we can’t avoid
Our experienced grief therapist, Lindsey Gilbert, can help you navigate complicated grief, suicide death loss, sudden death loss, anticipatory grief, and more with gentle, compassionate counseling that meets you where you are.
Grief therapy can help you with:
Complicated grief
Suicide death loss
Sudden death loss (accidents, medical crisis, etc.)
Anticipatory loss (cancer, illness, Alzheimers/dementia)
Pet loss
Miscarriage or child loss
Children’s grief / parenting children through loss
And more
Goals and outcomes: What to expect in grief therapy
Grief and loss therapy isn’t for “moving on” and not missing or mourning anymore. Grief and loss therapy helps us form a new relationship with who or what we’ve lost, and move toward a deeper understanding of our experience that creates a more meaningful story of our lives. In counseling, our work is based on William Worden’s four tasks of grieving.
William Worden’s Four Tasks of Grieving
Accepting the Reality of the Loss- Processing the shock and disbelief while integrating the loss into the person's reality
Work Through the Pain of the Loss- Allowing the full expression of emotions including anger, sadness, guilt, regret, relief, etc. This also includes other manifestations of grief cognitively, physically, and spiritually (This includes developing a narrative of the death)
Adjusting to a World Without the Deceased- Adjusting to new daily tasks, roles, and identities. This refers to external, tangible changes, as well as internal changes in identity and orientation to this new world.
Finding an enduring connection to the deceased while embarking on a new life- Finding balance between finding ways to honor and stay connected to the deceased while finding ways to continue to live a full and meaningful life. (i.e reengaging in life).
Additional Focus:
Establishing and connecting with a well-rounded support system that will help you cope with the lifelong difficulties of grief, including working on healthy coping strategies, identifying and leaning on community and individual social resources, and preparing for the waves of grief that may revisit in the future
How we get there
Grief therapy can be approached with a variety of modalities. We combine multiple approaches so that we can meet clients where they are, and help them in the way that feels best for them. There’s no one size fits all approach, so our trained grief therapist, Lindsey Gilbert, has a background in multiple approaches. Here are a few ways we do this:
Psychoeducation involves teaching you about the emotional, cognitive, and physical responses to loss to help normalize your experience and support healthy coping.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy to help identify thoughts, feelings, body reactions, and behaviors related to grief, and develop new thinking patterns to support healthy processing
Somatic work to find safety in your own body and mind, including body scans, mindfulness exercises, visualization, grounding, and/or deep breathing
Narrative therapy work helps you formulate a story about the death - and its meaning in your life - that can change and flex as new realization and processing occur. Narrative therapy also helps facilitate these new realizations and processing without reframing or changing thinking about what happened, but by deeper exploration of the experience.
Allowing for processing Ambivalence, Ambiguity, and "Unfinished Business"
Using exploration of Post-Traumatic Growth, identifying resilience and positive outcomes as a result of the death (i.e. deeper meaning in relationships and life, desire to extend help and support to others, desire to live a life that honors the deceased and one's own grief journey)
Identify ways to remember and honor the deceased such as rituals, memorials, meaningful activities or routines that integrate the deceased and maintain an ongoing relationship with them
The therapist’s role in grief & loss therapy
Grief can be complicated for a number of reasons - whether the cause of death, the relationship with deceased, or other trauma that may be associated with the loss. In therapy, our job is not to fix grief.
Rather, the therapist’s job to sit with you in your pain and processing, acting as your guide through your grief process, and helping you come to terms with the loss in your own way.
About Lindsey
Lindsey Gilbert worked with Judi’s House in Aurora, Colorado for her grief therapy training. She understands that while grief is universal to human life, every experience of grief will be different whether due to duration, intensity, type of loss, or other complexity.
Grief is not linear and does not follow orderly or predictable stages - contrary to popular belief - and Lindsey can help you through your own unique grief process.
To get started, schedule a free consultation so that we can talk about what you’d like to work on and what you’re looking for.
The consultation will also include more information on our therapy and style, and can address logistics including scheduling, insurance, and location.