Sooner or later, everyone will grieve the loss of a relative or friend. The death of a loved one can make you feel alone and unsure of what to do.  Grief impacts individuals at various levels of intensities. Grief counseling can help you identify and manage your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors related to the loss. 

In a study of 33 recent widowers, researchers at Brandeis University were struck by poignant, emotion-filled metaphors of loss: “I feel I am in a long dark tunnel and have not found an exit yet.” “It was like a tsunami … like an enormous wave that crashes on your family and leaves you in a sea of silence.” “It’s like a hole that rips through your soul. 

Every person's grief journey is different. Psy of Relief Counseling is here to give you the support you need. grief support therapist grief counseling Houston.

COMPLICATED GRIEF

Intense sadness and waves of intense emotion are normal parts of the grieving process.  If more than six months go by with no improvement,  you may be suffering from complicated grief. The most common feature of complicated grief is intense, unremitting yearning and longing for the loved one. 

Symptoms include:

•  difficulty moving on 

•  numbness or detachment

•  intense sadness or emotional pain, including bitterness, guilt, anger, or blame 

•  persistent preoccupation with the deceased accompanied by intense emotional pain

•  feeling that one has lost a part of oneself 

•  a sense that life is empty without the deceased, and that the future holds no meaning

•  trouble accepting the death 

•  being on edge or agitated

•  social withdrawal 

•  significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational, or other important areas of functioning 

DEPRESSION

Grief is different from sinking into a clinical depression. Talk with a professional if you experience any of these other symptoms of bereavement-related depression:

•  suicidal thoughts

•  persistent feelings of worthlessness, which are common with depression but not with healthy  grief.

• hopelessness, helplessness 

• ongoing guilt 

• marked mental and physical sluggishness 

• persistent trouble functioning 

• hallucinations, other than occasionally thinking you hear or see the deceased. 

Every person's grief journey is different. Psy of Relief Counseling is here to give you the support you need.

Books on Grief

The Grieving Child: A Parent’s Guide

Helen Fitzgerald

(Touchstone, 1992)

Written by the director of a grief program in a community health

center, this compassionate guide leads parents of children

from toddlers to teens through one of the most difficult tasks a

parent faces. You’ll find practical advice, such as age-appropriate

language to use when speaking about death with your children

and suggestions for dealing with their varied emotional

responses. Includes a forward by Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

Healing Your Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas 

Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D. 

(Companion Press, 2001)  

This classic book is packed with thoughtful coping strategies described briefly and compassionately. The author, a psychologist and grief counselor, has written many more titles in this series, including Healing Your Grieving Heart for Kids, Healing Your Grieving Heart for Teens, Healing a Parent’s Grieving Heart, and Healing the Adult Child’s Grieving Heart 

It’s OK That You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a

Culture That Doesn’t Understand

Megan Devine

(Sounds True, Inc., 2017)

Devine, a grief therapist and widow, challenges the cultural

norm that grief is something to be fixed or solved. Instead, she

gives readers permission to fully inhabit their grief and to move

through it on their own terms. As she puts it, “Grief is simply

love in its most wild and painful form.”