Grief Counseling

Our grief counselors in Cincinnati and Indianapolis are ready to help.

We Can Help You With Grief

Grief is what someone thinks or feels on the inside when they face the loss of someone they love. Unfortunately, every person experiences grief at some point in their lives. It is intense emotional distress that can feel like numbness, sadness, anger, guilt, irritability, disbelief, or in some cases relief. It can feel like there is a hole in the heart that will never heal. When grief is bottled up and suppressed, the process of healing will be stunted or perhaps never fully realized and can result in a prolonged grief disorder. This guide explains grief diagnoses and the treatments that can help you thrive

Grief Diagnosis

Uncomplicated Bereavement

  • Normal feelings of emptiness and loss 
  • Presence of emotional or behavioral symptoms that impairs self-care and interpersonal relationships
  • Symptoms occur in waves that tend to be associated with thoughts or reminders of the person or relationship
  • Symptoms do not impair functioning more than 12 months after the death/loss

Prolonged Grief

  • Death or loss of a loved one at least 12 months ago 
  • The development of a persistent grief response, preoccupations, or intense yearning for the person or relationship 
  • Identity disruption, disbelief, or feeling life is meaninglessness
  • Intense emotional pain, loneliness, or emotional numbness
  • Difficulty reintegrating into one’s relationships and activities 
  • Avoidance or reminders of the person or relationship

Effective Treatments for Grief

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

  • Explore grief reactions and symptoms, adjusting to your loss, and redefining your life goals
  • Reduce feelings of blame and guilt
  • Change your behaviors to decrease avoidance
  • Improve coping skills
  • Integrate the loss to discover new meaning

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

  • Learn to accept the reality of the loss and cope
  • Learn to focus on the present moment and act on what you value most

Emotionally Focused Therapy

  • Express and explore your feelings surrounding loss to develop emotional awareness and regulation skills
  • Heal attachment wounds by exploring underlying attachment-related issues
  • Develop the necessary tools to manage your grief journey

Take the Next Step with Support for Grief

We want to help you create an individualized roadmap (a ThriveMap!) to get CLEAR DIRECTION on how you can achieve your goals and overcome your challenges.

1

Understand the Problem

2

Choose Treatment Targets

3

Create an
Action Plan

Frequently Asked Questions About Grief Counseling

What is it like to work with our grief counselors in the Indianapolis and Cincinnati areas?

We believe the connection with your therapist and having clear guidance about the treatment and therapeutic process are critical for a great therapy experience, that’s why we promise our clients Remarkable Connection and Clear Direction. Your unique needs and expectations matter to us as we work together to help you accomplish your goals. Here’s a snapshot of the ThrivePointe experience.

1. Build a Strong Therapeutic Relationship

Team up with a therapist who strives to deeply understand your experience and expertly guide you through the process of making changes.

2. Understand the Problem

Develop a clear picture of your problem, including your personal history, symptoms, triggers, and the ways your life is impacted.

3. Create an Action Plan

Using evidence-based approaches, design an individualized plan to achieve your goals.

4. Implement New Skills & Solutions

Get the right balance of support and challenge to make life and relationship changes.

5. Track Your Progress To Do What Works

Make sure therapy is helping by monitoring improvements and refining your action plan.

6. Achieve Your Goals

Experience the Satisfaction of working hard to see positive changes and growth in your life!

 

Grief experiences look different for everyone, so Molly takes time to understand your loss and the ways your life is impacted. You’re invited to share about your relationship with the person you lost, and also share about your life overall so she understands the experiences that have shaped you as a person and the struggles you experienced before and after your loss. Our attachment system as relational human beings wires us to experience the loss of an important other as a loss of a part of ourselves. That’s profoundly painful! Molly guides you through a process that validates you as a person and helps you attend to the parts of yourself that feel frozen or overwhelmed by this experience.

What does grief therapy look like?

The 6 “R” Processes of Grief (Rando, 1993) provides a helpful roadmap for the grief journey.

Recognize the Loss

    • Acknowledge the death
    • Understand the death

React to the Separation

    • Experience the pain
    • Feel, identify, accept, and give some form of expression to all the psychological reactions to the loss
    • Identify and mourn secondary losses

Recollect and Re-experience the Loved One and the Relationship

    • Review and remember realistically
    • Revive and re-experience the feelings

Relinquish the Old Attachments to the Deceased and the Old Assumptive World

Readjust to Move Adaptively Into the New World Without Forgetting the Old

    • Revise the assumptive world
    • Develop a new relationship with the loved one
    • Adopt new ways of being in the world
    • Form a new identity

Reinvest

Want to Learn More About Grief Counseling
in Ohio or Indiana?

We want to make finding grief counseling in Cincinnati and Indianapolis easy.
To get started with a grief therapist just follow these three steps:

More ThrivePointe Counseling Services Near Cincinnati and Indianapolis

As a practice, we value treating the whole family’s needs. So, at our various ThrivePointe locations in Indianapolis, Greenwood, Blue Ash and Liberty Township, we can serve you. We provide adult counselingcouples counseling, child counseling and play therapy, teen counselingfamily counseling and Christian counselingOur team cares about you and wants to be a part of your thriving life. Learn more and call us today!

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