You don’t have to navigate grief by yourself. When you’re going through the complex, at times overwhelming, experience of grief, a mental health professional can provide support. This doesn’t mean that your grief is a mental illness; rather, it means that a therapist is equipped to help you move through it more easily.

Someone who provides grief counseling near you can offer:

• Coping mechanisms to help you manage difficult moments, so that you can see yourself through waves of grief and other intense feelings more comfortably
• A safe place to discuss your thoughts and feelings privately, so that you can share how you’re really feeling with a compassionate person in confidence
• Connections to resources like peer support for grief, so that you can speak with others privately and build important emotional connections

They can also provide treatment for an underlying mental health condition, like anxiety, depression or PTSD. To learn more about Lightfully’s mental health treatment, visit our FAQs page.

How should you choose grief counseling?

When you look for a professional to discuss grief with, there are several important qualifications to consider. To get started:

• Take a look at their availability and coverage.

It’s best to get the practical things out of the way first, so you don’t have to worry about them. When does a therapist provide treatment? Do they accept your insurance? You can find a therapist with flexible scheduling at Lightfully. Making care accessible when and where it’s needed is one of our goals. We are in network with many insurance companies.

• Learn about their experience with grief counseling.

When you find a therapist who has the right availability and insurance coverage, how do you know whether they can help you? You can speak with them about the details of their experience with grief counseling. Perhaps they have helped clients who went through a loss similar to yours. They may have studied a related topic professionally, giving them additional insight.

• Think about your connection with your therapist before you commit.

You and your therapist may build a connection initially; this connection may be the foundation for successful treatment. But what if building a relationship with your therapist takes time, or you need a different therapist? What if something isn’t working, and you need your therapist to redirect treatment? At Lightfully, we’re open to these conversations and adjustments.

Learn more about grief

People who work in psychology, therapy and counseling see clients experiencing grief frequently. Everyone’s grief looks and feels different, and none of it is wrong — there is no right or wrong way to experience grief.

When grief becomes overwhelming, a clinician may use the term “prolonged grief disorder.” In adults, symptoms must persist for at least 12 months after the death, and they must cause significant distress or impairment. This describes an experience of loss that:

• Persists longer than a client and treatment provider may expect
• Intensifies over time instead of becoming easier to live with
• Causes rumination with little ability to focus on anything else
• Leads to intense numbness, longing, pain or sorrow
• Provokes avoidance of things that trigger you or remind you of loss
• Brings your focus toward reminders to a distracting or disruptive degree
• Moves you to behave in ways that you ordinarily wouldn’t

If you’re experiencing prolonged grief disorder, a therapist at Lightfully is ready to help you move forward.

Lightfully offers a Virtual Partial Hospitalization Program (vPHP)

You may be experiencing something that requires more than an occasional therapy appointment. When grief is all-consuming, you may need more intensive support. That’s why we offer a vPHP with support five days a week. You can participate from home anywhere in the state of California.

Our vPHP includes weekly therapy. It can include weekly psychiatric care if that is necessary. Additionally, so that you can work through grief with the people important to you, it features biweekly family meetings. These meetings can help your family, too.

Our vPHP also features hours of daily peer support group meetings. You can meet with other people living with grief or mental health conditions, share your perspectives, and offer support. A clinician is trained to facilitate each group meeting.

Our individual and group treatments are evidence based, drawing from recent research data in psychology or psychiatry. Additionally, we’ll tailor care to you as a whole person — not just one experience or condition — with our unique clinical model of care.

Change is possible. When you’re ready to take the first step, reach out to our Admissions Concierge Team. We’ll take the next steps together, toward the fullest, brightest version of you.