Therapy for grief, loss and bereavement
Someone or something you cared about is gone, and the absence touches every part of your life. Grief is not only about death. It can follow the loss of a loved one, a relationship, a friendship, a job, or a future you imagined. It affects your sleep, focus, energy, relationships, and sense of who you are. You may feel disoriented or overwhelmed, but you are not losing your mind. You are grieving, and your way of grieving is uniquely your own. Therapy cannot remove the pain, but it gives you a steady place to make sense of it, honour what you lost, and slowly learn how to live with grief while still moving through life.
Understanding grief and bereavement
What grief actually is
Grief is the inner experience of losing someone or something that mattered. It includes the thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations that come with that loss. Bereavement refers to the period after a death, while mourning is how you express grief on the outside. Grief is not something to fix. It is a natural response to love and attachment, and its depth often reflects the depth of your connection.
How grief manifests
Grief affects your whole self. Emotionally, you may feel sadness, anger, guilt, relief, or numbness. Physically, it can cause fatigue, sleep or appetite changes, aches, and a heavy feeling in your chest. Your thinking may feel foggy, with trouble concentrating or memories that feel unreal. You may withdraw, change routines, avoid reminders, or search for meaning. All of these reactions are normal.
How common grief experiences are
Grief is a universal part of life. Every year in Canada, hundreds of thousands of families and communities experience loss. Many people navigate grief with support from loved ones, but a smaller number develop complicated grief that benefits from professional care. Therapy can help with both the intense early stages and the longer journey of learning how to live with loss.
Grief and bereavement
Data from international systematic reviews of prolonged grief disorder prevalence.Prolonged Grief Disorder Review (2024).
Different types of loss
Grief is not limited to death. You may grieve the end of a relationship, the loss of a job that shaped your identity, or changes in health that alter the life you expected. Infertility and reproductive losses involve mourning futures that will not happen. Moving away from familiar communities or becoming estranged from family can create a sense of loss even when people are still alive. Even positive changes, such as retirement or children growing up, can bring grief mixed with joy. All of these losses deserve recognition and care.
The impact of grief on daily life
Identity and sense of self
Major loss can unsettle your sense of who you are. Losing a partner, parent, job, or your health may change the roles and routines that once gave you stability. These shifts often bring secondary losses, such as changes in community or daily structure. Therapy helps you explore these identity changes and slowly rebuild a sense of self that includes the loss without being defined by it.
Relationships and social connections
Grief can change how you relate to others. Some people may pull away or say things that feel painful. You may feel isolated or frustrated when others seem to move on quickly. At the same time, grief can deepen connections with people who understand. You might withdraw, feel more sensitive, or need different support than before. These shifts are normal and often temporary.
Meaning and worldview
Loss can shake your beliefs about fairness, control, and purpose. You may question spiritual beliefs or feel that life no longer makes sense. Meaning-making becomes part of healing. Some people develop new perspectives, some reconnect with old ones, and others accept that not everything has an answer. Therapy gives you space to explore these changes without judgment.
How therapy supports the grieving process
Why grief therapy helps
Many people grieve with support from family and community, but therapy can help when the pain feels overwhelming, the loss was traumatic, or you simply need a space without pressure to be okay. A grief therapist offers a place to express feelings others may not know how to hold. They see your grief as a natural response to loss and help you adjust to life without what you lost while staying connected to what mattered.
Therapeutic approaches for grief
Grief counselling and support
This approach helps you understand your grief, express painful emotions, and find practical ways to cope. It normalizes your reactions and supports you through the early stages of loss without rushing or pathologizing your experience.
Complicated grief treatment
When grief feels stuck and overwhelmingly intense, this structured therapy helps you accept the loss, reduce avoidance, and imagine life beyond the pain while honouring the person you lost. It uses proven techniques rooted in grief and cognitive behavioural therapy.
Meaning reconstruction
Loss often shatters your sense of meaning. This approach helps you rebuild your life story, explore what the loss means to you, and create new forms of purpose or connection that support healing.
Trauma-focused approaches
When the loss was traumatic, therapy focuses on processing the trauma first so you can grieve. Approaches like EMDR or exposure therapy reduce intrusive memories and help you feel safer in your own mind.
Anticipatory grief support
When a loss is expected, therapy supports you through the emotional weight of waiting, caregiving, and preparing for life after the loss. It helps you find ways to say goodbye and care for yourself during an incredibly difficult time.
The grief therapy process
Assessment and understanding
Early sessions focus on understanding your loss, how you're coping, and what support you have. Your therapist explores the nature of your grief, screens for concerns like depression or complicated grief, and considers your cultural and spiritual views on loss. Together you identify what you need from therapy, whether that's emotional processing, coping strategies, or steady support through a painful time.
Active grief work
Therapy gives you space to express pain, revisit what happened, and work through the tasks of mourning at your own pace. You explore memories, navigate milestones and anniversaries, and address avoidance or intrusive emotions. Your therapist helps you balance honouring your grief with engaging in daily life, using practices like storytelling, letter writing, or rituals when helpful.
Integration and moving forward
Over time, grief becomes less overwhelming. Therapy supports you in carrying your loss while re-engaging with life, reconnecting with activities and relationships, and imagining a future that includes your grief but is not defined by it. You develop a continuing bond with what you lost and learn ways to return for support when anniversaries or new grief arise.
Find a therapist for grief and bereavement
Choosing the right therapist matters. Each province in Canada has its own regulations, which is why working with a recognized professional can make a real difference in your care. Stellocare takes the uncertainty out of the process by listing only verified therapists you can trust.
The right therapist for you
No therapists found with these specialties in Ontario.
Try selecting a different province.Resources and strategies
Canadian grief support resources
Canadian Virtual Hospice
Comprehensive information and support for grief, loss, palliative care, and end-of-life concerns. Includes resources for both those who are dying and those who are grieving. Access resources.
GriefShare
Faith-based grief support groups meeting across Canada. Weekly sessions with video content and group discussion. Christian perspective but welcoming to all who are grieving. Find a group.
What's Your Grief
Online resources, articles, and community support for all types of grief and loss. Practical, accessible information about navigating grief. Explore resources.
Hospice and palliative care services
Most communities have hospice organizations offering bereavement support groups and counselling. These services are typically free and available to anyone grieving a death, not just families of hospice patients. Contact your local hospice for information.
Books on grief and loss
It's OK That You're Not OK by Megan Devine challenges the idea that grief needs fixing. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion explores grief through memoir. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi addresses mortality and meaning. Option B by Sheryl Sandberg examines building resilience after loss.
Navigating grief day by day
Allowing and expressing grief
- Give yourself permission to grieve: there's no right way or timeline for grief. Feeling sad, angry, numb, or even experiencing moments of joy doesn't mean you're grieving wrong. All feelings are valid parts of the process.
- Express grief in ways that work for you: talk about the loss, write in a journal, create art, listen to music, or spend time in nature. Some people need to actively process; others need periods of rest. Both approaches are fine.
- Take grief in doses: you don't have to grieve constantly. It's healthy to take breaks through distraction, work, or activities you enjoy. This isn't avoidance; it's self-care that allows you to sustain grief work over time.
Taking care of yourself
- Maintain basic routines: grief is exhausting. Simple routines around sleep, eating, and movement provide structure when everything feels chaotic. Lower your expectations but try to maintain minimal self-care.
- Accept help from others: let people bring meals, help with tasks, or just sit with you. Specific requests help: "Can you walk my dog Tuesday?" or "Would you text to check on me?" Many people want to help but don't know how.
- Postpone major decisions: when possible, avoid making big life decisions during acute grief. Your judgment and priorities may shift as you adjust to loss. Give yourself time before deciding to move, change jobs, or make other irreversible choices.
Honouring loss and building connection
- Create meaningful rituals: light candles on significant dates, visit meaningful places, celebrate birthdays or anniversaries in ways that feel right, or establish new traditions that honour what's been lost.
- Talk about the deceased: say their name, share memories, and include them in conversations. Many bereaved people fear others have forgotten their loved one. Talking about them keeps their memory alive.
- Connect with others who understand: support groups, whether in-person or online, provide connection with people who truly understand. Shared experience reduces isolation and validates that you're not alone or abnormal in your grief.
What's Your Grief offers an app with grief support resources. Journaling apps like Day One provide private space for processing grief. Calm or Insight Timer have grief-specific meditations. Online communities like r/GriefSupport on Reddit provide peer connection, though be mindful of your emotional capacity when engaging.
Questions about grief and bereavement
How long does grief last?
There is no set timeline. Acute grief often softens over the first year or two, but significant losses stay with you in different ways throughout life. You don't "get over" a major loss—you learn to live with it. Waves of sadness can return during anniversaries or unexpected moments even years later. This is normal.
Should I be over this by now?
Probably not. Most people need far more time than our culture assumes. If you're still grieving deeply months after a major loss, you're reacting normally. If grief is preventing daily functioning, feels like it's getting worse, or includes thoughts of suicide, professional support can help.
What are the stages of grief?
The "five stages" were never meant to describe how everyone grieves. Modern research shows grief isn't linear or predictable. You may cycle through different emotions, feel several at once, or skip some entirely. Your experience is valid even if it doesn't match traditional stages.
Is it normal to feel relief or numbness?
Yes. Relief often follows a long illness or difficult relationship and doesn't undermine your love. Numbness is also common and helps protect you during acute grief. Feelings usually return gradually as your mind and body adjust.
When should I seek professional help for grief?
Therapy can help if daily functioning is difficult, grief feels intense and unchanging, you're feeling isolated, using substances to cope, or having thoughts of suicide. You don't need to reach a crisis point to seek support. If you're questioning whether you need help, it may be a good time to reach out.
Related concerns
References
- Statistics Canada. Deaths and mortality rates. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1310070801
- Lundorff, M., Holmgren, H., Zachariae, R., Farver-Vestergaard, I., & O'Connor, M. (2017). Prevalence of prolonged grief disorder in adult bereavement: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 212, 138-149. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28167398/
- Shear, M. K., Wang, Y., Skritskaya, N., Duan, N., Mauro, C., & Ghesquiere, A. (2014). Treatment of complicated grief in elderly persons: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry, 71(11), 1287-1295. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25250737/
- Neimeyer, R. A. (2001). Meaning Reconstruction and the Experience of Loss. American Psychological Association.
- Canadian Virtual Hospice. Grief and bereavement resources. Retrieved from https://www.virtualhospice.ca/
- What's Your Grief. Grief support and education. Retrieved from https://whatsyourgrief.com/
- GriefShare. Find a grief support group. Retrieved from https://www.griefshare.org/
- Canadian Mental Health Association. Mental health services. Retrieved from https://cmha.ca/
- Devine, M. (2017). It's OK That You're Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand. Sounds True.
- Worden, J. W. (2018). Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy: A Handbook for the Mental Health Practitioner (5th ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
關於 Stellocare
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Katherine Collins
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) (ON)
Vrushalee Nachar
Registered Psychotherapist (ON)
Rae Jardine
Registered Social Service Worker (ON)
Liv Noël Dakkak
Registered Social Worker (ON)
Melanie Zimerman
Canadian Certified Counsellor
Lesley Evans
Counselling Therapist (AB)
Kimia Taghavi
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) (ON)
Ed Chen
Registered Clinical Counsellor (BC)
Kaycee Bevans
Registered Provisional Psychologist (AB)
Mat Dean
Registered Psychotherapist (ON)
Jinny Hong
Registered Psychologist (ON)
Ekta Sehgal
Registered Psychotherapist (ON)
Katelyn Beveridge
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) (ON)
Michelle Lehoux
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) (ON)
Esha Jain
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) (ON)
Devyn Eadie
Registered Psychotherapist (ON)
Daniella Sanchez
Registered Social Worker (ON)
Harpreet Sahota
Registered Social Worker (ON)
Liz Hagerty
Registered Social Worker (BC)
Carol Ma
Registered Social Worker (ON)
Katherine Collins
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) (ON)
Vrushalee Nachar
Registered Psychotherapist (ON)
Rae Jardine
Registered Social Service Worker (ON)
Liv Noël Dakkak
Registered Social Worker (ON)
Melanie Zimerman
Canadian Certified Counsellor
Lesley Evans
Counselling Therapist (AB)
Kimia Taghavi
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) (ON)
Ed Chen
Registered Clinical Counsellor (BC)
Kaycee Bevans
Registered Provisional Psychologist (AB)
Mat Dean
Registered Psychotherapist (ON)
Jinny Hong
Registered Psychologist (ON)
Ekta Sehgal
Registered Psychotherapist (ON)
Katelyn Beveridge
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) (ON)
Michelle Lehoux
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) (ON)
Esha Jain
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) (ON)
Devyn Eadie
Registered Psychotherapist (ON)
Daniella Sanchez
Registered Social Worker (ON)
Harpreet Sahota
Registered Social Worker (ON)
Liz Hagerty
Registered Social Worker (BC)
Carol Ma
Registered Social Worker (ON)