Therapy for grief & loss can help you to process difficult experiences and to help you navigate adapting to losses in your life. Therapy for grief and loss may help you to work through role and identity transitions, relationship conflicts, feelings of sadness, anger, despair, or relief, and help you to envision moving forward in life with joy and purpose.
Types of grief and loss
Grief and loss can occur due to death or loss of someone close and/or meaningful in our lives or can be a reaction to disability, fertility challenges, job changes or losses, community or cultural disconnection or other major life changes.
Grief due to death or loss of a person may take on different forms such as anticipatory grief (due to imminent death or disconnection when a cared for person has dementia, or is in palliative care); disenfranchised grief (such as when one is not expected to have formed a deep connection to someone who has passed, including miscarriage); complicated grief (extended grieving period often accompanied by feelings of disbelief or inability to accept the loss); ambiguous grief (in the case there was no closure, may include the experience of infertility); or secondary grief (losses relating to a primary loss such as of relationships or identities tied to the loss) and more.
Loss relating to significant life changes or unrealized expectations may also cause an intense experience of grief and can be complex to navigate or to find resources to process from a grief informed perspective.
When or why you may seek out therapy for grief and loss
If you are seeking therapy to process grief and loss you may be feeling isolated, hopeless or overwhelmed. You may be experiencing a range of emotions including guilt or shame, anger, or you may feel completely disconnected or unable to engage in normal activities. You may be experiencing changes in your appetite, sleep, or physical comfort ex.somatic symptoms. There are many ways that people react to experiences of grief and loss. Having the opportunity to process the loss and what it meant to you and explore how the loss affected you is important and takes time and care.
Ways to explore grief and loss at Think Joy Drama Therapy
Individual Therapy:
Individual therapy gives you a place to process grief one on one.
In an individual talk-based therapy session one can work on expressing grief and loss experiences through verbal processing and focusing on key aspects of the challenges that come up in relation to the experience. This may be a more focused way to process experiences of grief directly.
In an individual Drama Play session the complexity of grief and loss may be worked through using creativity in a less focused way. Themes may shift in a drama play session to be about loss one minute and shifting roles or identity the next. There are many ways that grief plays out in our lives and we don’t always realize what grief and loss experiences may ‘attach to’ such as significant dates, times of year or life experiences. A drama play session allows this flexibility in processing the mind-body connection and subconscious material with fluidity. Drama play sessions usually involve a balanced flow of activity and reflection, whether verbal, written or creatively expressed.
In an individual poetry therapy session clients may reflect on poems, text, lyrics or quotes which speak to the experience of grief and loss. Using text as a jumping off point to discussing personal experiences accompanies invitations to reflect in writing on experiences of grief and loss which helps to clarify values, goals, difficulties, as well as to explore inherent or learned strengths.
Group Therapy:
Poetry Therapy Group This may be a good option as the theme of loss can often come up in groups. From time to time I may offer poetry therapy groups for grief and loss specifically as well.
Creative Processing Group This can be a good option to explore loss which affects identity and role changes. The experience of a group here can help to provide a sense of stability and community support while processing experiences of loss.
Limited Series: Hero’s Journey This can be a good option for those who aren’t inclined to openly discuss their experiences with loss but would like to process significant life changes in a supportive environment. Through creative engagement and journaling, participants can focus on individual concerns through creative engagement with a guide ‘character’, getting to the heart of deeper issues that may prolong the felt experience of grief or loss in the case of complex experiences.
Other resources for grief and loss:
