Grieving in Therapy: Making Space for What Still Hurts
Grief doesn’t follow a timeline. It can arrive suddenly or settle in quietly for years. It can rise after a death, a breakup, a shift in identity, or even a long-anticipated change. While many people associate grief with bereavement, therapy reveals a broader truth: we grieve many things—relationships that ended, childhoods we never had, or versions of ourselves we had to let go of.
At our North Sydney therapy practice, we offer individuals and couples a space to meet grief with care. Not to fix it or rush it—but to witness it as a meaningful and necessary part of healing.
What Is Grief, Really?
Grief is more than sadness. It’s the emotional response to loss, and it doesn’t always look the way you expect. It may come with:
Numbness or disconnection
Anger or irritability
Confusion and longing
Guilt or unexpected relief
Fatigue, restlessness, or emotional flatness
Grief doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means you loved, hoped, or invested deeply—and now you’re adjusting to the absence of what once mattered.
Types of Grief We Explore in Therapy
Therapy makes room for all forms of grief, not just the ones society tends to name. Some common types include:
Bereavement after the death of a loved one
Relational grief, such as divorce, estrangement, or breakups
Unacknowledged grief, like pregnancy loss, pet loss, or retirement
Developmental grief, which surfaces when we process childhood wounds
Anticipatory grief, such as when a loved one is ill or major change is coming
Collective grief, felt in response to cultural, environmental, or global events
Sometimes, grief shows up even when life looks “fine” on the outside. Therapy offers space for these quiet, unspoken losses.
Why Grieving in Therapy Matters
Many people come to therapy wanting to feel better. But grief cannot be rushed. What therapy offers is something rare: a space where your grief isn’t too heavy, too inconvenient, or too much.
In therapy, we help you:
Name and process the layers of your loss
Explore how grief shows up in your body, thoughts, and relationships
Hold space for unfinished conversations or lingering pain
Reconnect with the parts of you that are still loving, present, and alive
Make meaning, even when there’s no clear resolution
Grief doesn’t disappear—but it can soften. With support, it becomes part of your story without overwhelming it.
Couples Therapy and Shared Grief
Grief can either connect or divide. In couples therapy, we support partners who are navigating shared or parallel grief. This includes:
Understanding and respecting different grieving styles
Making space for both individual and shared emotional experiences
Preventing common misinterpretations, such as mistaking distance for indifference
Supporting each other without trying to “fix” the pain
When couples feel safe to grieve together, it often deepens emotional intimacy and trust.
North Sydney Therapy for Grief and Loss
Whether you’re grieving someone you lost, something that never came to be, or a part of yourself that is gone—you are not alone.
At The Embodied Mind Collective in North Sydney, we offer in-person and online therapy sessions to help you process grief in all its forms. We meet you where you are, without expectations or timelines—just compassion, presence, and space to feel what’s true.
Book a Session
You don’t need to grieve alone.
Reach out today to begin the process of healing—on your terms, in your time.
