Grief & Loss Counselling

We each experience grief and loss in individual, unique ways. Steadfast’s counsellors help you understand your own personal journey through these challenging emotions.

For many years, grief was considered a linear process. People moved through the stages of grief and came to acceptance. Now, we know it’s a bit more complicated. Grieving doesn’t happen in a straight line. We can move backwards and sideways. There may be times when we just don’t even want to think about our loss. All these states are perfectly natural parts of the grieving process.

Grief and loss counselling can’t take away those feelings, or give you a recipe for ‘getting over it’. Everyone grieves in an intensely personal way. But counselling can help you make sense of your own reactions and help you experience your loss with humanity and grace.

When grief is combined with regret, or anger we can become upset with ourselves, feeling as though our pain is in some ways a defeat or a betrayal that we shouldn’t have to bear. It can be very useful in a situation where you may be grieving for someone who has hurt you, such as an abusive or neglectful parent or other toxic relationship. By placing our emotions into context with the help of counselling, we also come to understand that our grieving process is our own personal experience. It doesn’t have to conform to a time frame or fixed set of stages.

Because we each go through the grieving process in our own ways, it can be hard to share those feelings with others who are sharing our loss. They may be experiencing their grief in a different way. In these situations, counselling is very valuable. You are able to address your grief without also having to deal with loved ones sharing your emotionally raw state. With help from Steadfast, you can communicate your feelings in a way that helps you come to terms with your loss, make sense of the grieving process, and move forward in your own life.

Grief and Grieving: Lessons in Loss

By: Kevin Rose

Life is synonymous with loss. Losses are part of life; in every moment something is shifting, being born, and passing away. We understand this philosophically, on an intellectual level, yet when we experience a deep loss we are suddenly faced with powerful, painful and often overwhelming feelings. We feel the pain of loss for many things: dreams, loves lost, relationships ended, missed opportunities. And grief is the process of coming to terms with and reconciling those losses in the context of our own continuing lives, of our own mortality… Read the rest

