Grief Therapy · Michigan
Grief therapy
For the losses that are hard to name and the ones nobody talks about
When most people think of grief they think of losing someone to death. But some of the heaviest grief has no funeral. No casseroles dropped off at the door. No bereavement leave from work.
Grief is also the childhood you never got to have. The relationship that slowly took pieces of you. The diagnosis that changed everything. The person you thought you would become.
One of the most painful parts of certain kinds of grief is the feeling that it does not count. That you should be over it. That other people have it worse. That there is nothing to point to, nothing to explain, nothing that makes sense of why you are still carrying this.
You are allowed to grieve this
Your grief counts. All of it. Even the kind you cannot fully name yet.
Loss of a loved one
The death of someone you loved changes everything. Grief after loss is not linear and it does not have a timeline. We work at the pace your nervous system needs, not the pace the world expects.
Ambiguous grief
Grieving someone who is still alive — an estranged parent, a relationship without closure, a family member lost to addiction. This grief is isolating because the world does not always recognize it as real loss.
Relationship and divorce grief
The end of a relationship carries its own grief — for the future you imagined and the version of yourself you lost along the way.
Childhood and family of origin loss
Grieving the childhood you never got to have. This grief is often the quietest and the longest carried — and one of the most important to finally put words to.
Chronic illness grief
Grieving the body you had before. The life you planned before the diagnosis. This grief is ongoing and often invisible to everyone around you.
Disenfranchised grief
Grief that others do not recognize — miscarriage, pet loss, job loss, a dream that did not come true. If it mattered to you, it deserves space.
What grief therapy looks like here
Grief work here is not about moving on. It is not about stages or timelines or finding the silver lining.
Grief work here is not about moving on. It is not about stages or timelines or finding the silver lining.
We work at the intersection of attachment, nervous system regulation, and somatic awareness to help your body and mind process what words alone sometimes cannot reach. Depending on what you bring we might explore the story of your loss, work with the feelings that live in your body, or simply create a space where your grief does not have to be managed or performed.
This work is gentle. It is steady. And it moves at your pace.
You do not have to perform your grief here
Many people who come to grief therapy have spent years managing how their grief looks to others. Staying strong. Keeping it together. Not wanting to burden anyone.
Here you do not have to be okay. You just have to show up.
Grief therapy may be a good fit if you:
Are navigating the death of a loved one and feel stuck or overwhelmed
Are grieving someone who is still alive — a parent, partner, or family member
Carry grief from your childhood or family of origin that has never had space
Are processing the end of a relationship or marriage
Are grieving a diagnosis, your health, or the life you had before chronic illness
Feel like your grief does not count or that you should be further along by now
Have never had a space where your loss was fully witnessed and held
Whatever you are grieving — named or unnamed, recent or long carried — it belongs here.
Grief
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes. Grief is a response to any significant loss — and loss takes many forms. The childhood you never got to have. The relationship that slowly took pieces of you. The future you planned before a diagnosis changed everything. The parent who is still alive but has never truly been present. These losses are real, and the grief they produce is real — even when the world does not always recognize it that way.
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Ambiguous grief is grief for someone who is still alive but emotionally absent, estranged, or changed. This might be grieving a parent with whom you have cut contact, a family member lost to addiction, a relationship that ended without closure, or a partner whose personality shifted after illness. It is one of the most isolating forms of grief because it lacks the social recognition that typically accompanies death — there is no funeral, no casseroles, and no clear moment to begin healing.
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Grief for a childhood you did not get to have does not follow a timeline, and it often surfaces in adulthood when you are finally in a safe enough place to feel it. For many adults who grew up in emotionally immature or neglectful family systems, there was no space to grieve what was missing — survival required moving forward. Therapy creates the space that was never available then.
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There is no timeline for grief. The idea that grief follows stages and eventually ends is not how most people actually experience it. Grief changes over time — it becomes less sharp, less constant, more integrated — but it does not disappear on a schedule. If your grief feels stuck, complicated, or like it is interfering with your daily life, that is a reason to seek support, not evidence that something is wrong with you.
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Disenfranchised grief refers to losses that are not recognized or validated by the people around you — a miscarriage, the loss of a pet, the end of a friendship, job loss, or the grief of infertility. Because these losses are not met with the same social recognition as a death, the grief can feel invisible and isolating. Naming it as real grief — and having it witnessed — is often the first step toward healing.
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Grief therapy goes deeper than retelling the story of a loss. It works with the nervous system, attachment patterns, and the way grief lives in the body — not just the mind. For many people, grief that has been suppressed or minimized for years requires more than conversation. The work here draws on somatic awareness, attachment-informed approaches, and a pace that follows what your nervous system can hold rather than what the world expects.
Begin grief therapy in Grand Haven, Michigan
I offer grief therapy for adults across Michigan including Grand Haven, Grand Rapids, Traverse City, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Lansing, and surrounding communities.
You have carried this long enough alone. Let's make space for it together.