Grief Therapy and Online Counseling for Women

Holding Space for Loss, Whatever Shape it Takes

Grief isn't only what happens after someone dies. Grief is what happens after loss. And though our society rarely talks about it, loss takes far more shapes than most people are given permission to name.

You can grieve a relationship that ended or a job you were let go from. You can mourn the body you had before an injury changed what it could do. You can miss the life you thought you'd be living by now. All of it is loss, and all of it deserves space, not a hierarchy of what's "grief enough" to count.

What is Grief?

Grief, simply put, is the response to loss and disappointment. Many relate grief to death. But it can show up any time something you counted on, or hoped for, doesn't continue the way you expected.

That includes the loss of a relationship, whether through a breakup, divorce, or estrangement. It includes losing a job, especially when it was tied to your sense of purpose or identity. It includes the loss of a physical experience when an injury, chronic pain and illness , or body changes affect your ability to move and perform. It also includes grieving the version of your future you had been planning toward, even if nothing "went wrong" in a way others can see.

This is called disenfranchised grief. It describes loss that doesn't get socially recognized or supported the way death does, which often makes you feel like you don't have the right to grieve at all.

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How am I supposed to grieve?

There is no “supposed to.” Not in grief, loss, healing, joy, or life in general. And that is because grief does not move in a straight line. And it certainly doesn't move on anyone else's timeline. Some days it's quiet. Some days it's loud. Some days it doesn't show up at all, and then it arrives out of nowhere in a grocery store or a car ride.

My role as a licensed counselor isn't to assess whether you're grieving correctly. It's to hold space for whatever grief looks like for you right now, without rushing you toward resolution or asking you to perform recovery on a schedule.

This page is general information, not an assessment of where you are in your grief. If you're wondering whether what you're experiencing is grief, that question itself is a good reason to reach out and talk it through directly.

How I Help with Grief

My approach to grief work centers on presence over process. Rather than moving you through predetermined steps, we let the grief take its actual shape, and I stay with you in it.

This may look like:

  • Creating space where whatever you're feeling, including relief, anger, numbness, or nothing identifiable at all, is allowed to be there without judgment

  • Naming the loss specifically, even when it doesn't fit the losses people usually talk about out loud

  • Working at your pace, not a timeline borrowed from someone else's grief

  • Using mindfulness-based and client-centered tools to help you stay present with grief instead of bracing against it

  • Supporting you in carrying the loss forward, rather than expecting it to disappear

To learn more about Aligned Counseling’s virtual sessions, reach out! I am now accepting virtual patients from anywhere in Delaware and Tennessee.

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My Approach to Grief: Hold Space

Grief sessions often look less structured than people expect. There isn't a worksheet or an outline for this process. Some sessions are mostly talking. Some are mostly quiet. Both are working.

We might spend time naming exactly what was lost, since loss that doesn't get named clearly is harder to carry. We might explore what the future looked like in your mind before the loss, and what it's asking to look like now. We might simply sit with the fact that something hurts, without needing to fix it that day.

Grief that's held, rather than rushed, tends to soften its edges over time, even though it rarely disappears completely. That's not a failure of the work. That's what it means to carry a loss that mattered.

Grief FAQ

  • No. Grief is the response to any significant loss, including the end of a relationship, job loss, bodily autonomy and performance, wellness and good health, or the loss of a future you had been counting on. And even this is not a complete list. Grief happens when love, energy, and hope have nowhere left to go due change.

  • While there isn't a single correct way to grieve, I’d say the only “wrong” way to grieve is not grieving at all. Grief looks different for everyone, and it doesn't follow a fixed timeline or a required set of stages. As long as you are giving yourself permission to feel the weight of your loss, what happens next is normal, natural, and a path only you can walk. But you don’t have to walk it alone. Reach out for a consultation to see if we’d be a good fit to navigate this time of change in your life.

  • Disenfranchised grief refers to loss that isn't widely recognized or socially supported, such as grieving a job, a breakup, an injury, or a future that didn't happen. It's still grief, even without a funeral to mark it.

  • Grief doesn't move on a fixed schedule. It can shift in intensity over time, but there isn't a set timeline it's expected to follow, and grief can resurface long after a loss without that meaning something is wrong.

  • Virtual therapy has been shown to be comparably effective to in-person therapy for many people, and it can make it easier to reach out during a period when leaving the house or keeping a rigid schedule feels harder than usual.

  • If a loss or significant change is still taking up space in your day-to-day life, or you feel like you don't have anywhere to bring it, that's reason enough to talk to someone. You don't need to wait for it to get worse first.

Related Reading:

For additional grief-specific resources, What's Your Grief offers a wide library of articles that reflect a similar, non-linear view of loss.

Ready to Talk Through What This Could Look Like for You?

Loss doesn't ask permission before it changes things, and it doesn't owe anyone a tidy timeline. Whether this loss has a name everyone recognizes or one only you can see, it's real, and it deserves space.

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