Grief & Loss.
Making space for all forms of loss.
Grief doesn’t always look like what we expect. Maybe you’ve experienced a traumatic death, a breakup that shattered you, the loss of a beloved pet, or the disorientation of religious deconstruction. You might be grieving a future you thought you'd have, a version of yourself that no longer exists, or the toll that chronic illness has taken on your life.
There’s no wrong way to mourn what mattered.
Grief isn’t a problem to fix—it’s a profound and often painful response to losing someone or something you deeply cared about. It lives in the body as much as the mind. It can be disorienting, exhausting, and isolating. Sometimes it shows up in tears; other times in numbness, irritability, or a strange kind of fog. However it shows up for you, it's welcome here.
Traumatic Grief
Traumatic grief occurs when a loss overwhelms your capacity to process it—either because of how it happened or the meaning it holds in your life. It may follow a sudden death (such as suicide, accident, or overdose), a death after prolonged illness, or a death that brought unresolved relational pain.
Other forms of traumatic grief might include:
The death of someone with whom you had a complicated relationship
Witnessing or hearing distressing details of a death
Feeling like you had no time, space, or support to grieve
Experiencing loss within a broader trauma (e.g., abuse, war, collective tragedy)
This kind of grief can feel like a blend of sorrow, shock, confusion, anger, or numbness. It often lives in the body and can activate trauma responses like hypervigilance, panic, or shutdown.
Disenfranchised Grief
Disenfranchised grief is grief that society doesn’t always recognize or validate—but that doesn’t make it any less real. These are losses that often go unseen, unspoken, or unsupported. You may feel like you're “not allowed” to grieve, or that your pain is being minimized or misunderstood.
Examples include:
Divorce or breakup
Death of a pet
Estrangement from family
Loss of community (due to religious deconstruction, immigration, identity shifts)
Job loss or retirement
Living with chronic illness or disability
Fertility struggles
Grieving a future you thought you'd have
Disenfranchised grief can be especially painful because it often comes with shame, isolation, or self-doubt. You might be left wondering, “Am I overreacting?” or “Why does this hurt so much?” In our work, we’ll honor the depth of your experience—even if others didn’t.
How I Help
There is no right way to grieve. My approach honors the uniqueness of your relationship to who (or what) was lost, and the complexity of the emotions that come with it. Our work together will center around slowing down, holding space, and bearing witness—without rushing you toward acceptance or “closure.”
We may integrate a variety of approaches based on your needs, including:
IFS (Internal Family Systems) to connect with parts of you carrying pain, guilt, or fear
EMDR to help metabolize traumatic aspects of the loss
Ritual creation to honor your grief in a way that feels culturally and personally meaningful
Grief isn’t linear, and it isn’t one-size-fits-all. We’ll hold your experience in context—acknowledging your identity, culture, family history, and spiritual beliefs. In this space, you don’t have to justify your grief or make it smaller. It gets to take up space.