Therapy can move you past loneliness and isolation into healing.

You thought you could do it alone. Pick up the pieces, put it behind you, move forward – all those things that people say when it’s been a while and they just want you to be okay.

But the grief won’t let you go.

The hurt still surprises you with the pang of a suddenly-aching heart, a familiar smell or song, or a gasp for breath at the mention of a name too often.

The loss still stops your climb up the dark grief ladder, out of your loneliness and back into the world of more light, connection, and joy.

The isolation still sends you sliding back down to the floor before you ever even get a glimpse of the rung called “Acceptance.”

You tried to live by the adage, “Laugh and the whole world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone.” But it doesn’t seem right anymore. It’s been so long.

You know you’re stuck. You desperately want to feel better. But you don’t know what to do.

Grief and loss counseling gives you permission to seek support.

Perhaps you’ve done too good of a job at pretending to recover, at hiding what you truly feel. You know you need someone who understands to help see you through. Loneliness and isolation don’t have to compound your loss.

You may have discovered that your loved ones are uncomfortable with how you grieve, or how long they feel you’ve been grieving. They may be so distressed by the loss themselves that they are unable to support you. They may feel like you are completely unavailable to them because you are lost in your grief.

You may find that you need a place to work through your grief in your own way, and in your own time.

Counseling can help you improve your perspective by having a supportive witness who’s not locked into your pain. A good therapist can help you to find your way through your emotional turmoil.

Through counseling, you’ll likely find a person who “gets” your grief. You’ll be permitted to share without guilt, shame, or censure. You can start to shape a new view of your responses and expectations in light of what you learn.

Most of all, you are no longer alone in your pain. You are connected and counseled compassionately.

Grief and loss counseling helps equip you for change, choices, and challenges.

As you’ve tried to work through your loss on your own, you may have begun to realize how different or unfamiliar your life looks now. Realization may lead to fear, and fear to anxiety or feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. This can be overwhelming if you feel ill-equipped to face the future due the death or loss of a loved one, or the fallout from a major life change.

Much of managing the grief process is about effectively coping. Grief and loss counseling may help you develop or strengthen your coping skills as the depth of your loss settles in. It can give you the tools you need to communicate effectively with friends and family members who may or may not understand what you’re going through.

Grief and loss counseling can help you work through the serious issues of complicated grief.

According to The Center for Complicated Grief, “Complicated grief is an intense and long-lasting form of grief that takes over a person’s life…that takes hold of a person’s mind and won’t let go.”

Although everyone grieves differently, and at their own pace, if your grief has been producing acute mental and physical anguish for months, grief and loss counseling should seriously be considered. Your health and relationships are at stake.

“Stuck” or complicated grief interferes with your life so significantly that you may experience a range of responses, like clinical depression or anxiety disorders, that are not normal or productive.

The help of a therapist’s expertise is invaluable for effective and accurate diagnosis and treatment at this point. Seeking support can help you feel better, instead of increasingly worse.

If grief has left you feeling disconnected, misunderstood, invisible, or simply left behind, loneliness and isolation are in the way of your healing.

Seek help soon. Share your pain. Don’t do this alone anymore.

Let grief and loss counseling help you heal.