Grief Therapy
Virtual therapy across Ontario · In-person in Ottawa
Grief is not a problem to be solved. It is not a phase you move through in order, or a wound that heals on a schedule. It is a reorganization. It changes your nervous system, your language, your identity, your expectations for the future. It shows up in your marriage, your work, your closest relationships, long after the people around you assume you should be fine.
Sometimes grief is death. Sometimes it is the loss of a life you expected. The loss of safety. The loss of who you were before everything shifted. The childhood you didn't get. The marriage you thought you had. The version of motherhood you imagined. The business you walked away from. The self you slowly stopped recognizing.
Whatever the loss, if it mattered to you, it is worth grieving properly. Not alone. Not in the shower or the car or late at night with a pillow over your face.
With a witness.
What brings people to grief therapy
People come to grief counselling for many different kinds of loss. Some are grieving a death, including sudden loss, suicide, or a death that happened years ago but was never fully processed. Some are grieving the loss of a relationship, an identity, a sense of safety, or a version of their life that didn't unfold the way they had hoped.
You might recognize yourself in some of this:
You lost someone and the people around you have moved on, but you haven't
You appear to be functioning but feel hollow or disconnected underneath
Your grief keeps surfacing in your relationships as distance, irritability, or anxiety
You never fully grieved a loss because you were too busy taking care of everyone else
You lost someone to suicide and the grief feels different, more tangled, harder to name
You are grieving something that doesn't have a funeral: a relationship, a dream, a childhood, a sense of who you were
You have been told you should be over it by now
There is no grief that is too old, too complicated, or too small to bring into therapy.
What grief does to you
Grief is not only emotional. It changes the body. It disrupts sleep, appetite, concentration, and memory. It can show up as chronic tension, numbness, or a kind of exhaustion that a good night's sleep doesn't fix. It can turn into control, distance, over-responsibility, or a fear of getting close to anyone again.
When grief is not processed, it doesn't disappear. It gets carried. It shapes how you attach to people, how you respond to conflict, how much space you allow yourself to take up. It runs in the background of your relationships and your reactions, often without you realizing it.
Therapy creates the conditions to actually feel what was never fully felt, so it stops shaping your life from the background.
How I work with grief
I came to this work because grief has shaped my own life. I lost three family members to suicide. I have watched what unspoken grief does to families, to relationships, to children who step into roles that were never meant for them. I have carried grief I was not allowed to feel, and I have done the slow work of finally letting myself feel it.
That experience is not incidental to the therapy I offer. It is central to it.
My approach is grounded in attachment theory and trauma-informed care. I work with what was never fully processed, at a pace that your nervous system can tolerate. We look at where the grief lives in your body, your relationships, and your patterns, not just in your story. We make space for the losses that were never named or witnessed. And we work toward a life where the grief has a place without running everything.
Sessions are 50 minutes. I offer virtual therapy for adults across Ontario and in-person therapy in Ottawa at Maia Counselling Centre.
A note on suicide loss: I work with adults who have experienced the death of someone by suicide. This kind of grief tends to be complicated by shock, guilt, anger, unanswerable questions, and a silence that can harden inside families over time. It deserves specific, careful attention. If this is your experience, you are welcome here.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Individual sessions are $170 for 50 minutes.
As a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) in Ontario, my services are covered by most extended health benefit plans under psychotherapy. Please confirm coverage directly with your provider before your first session.
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Complicated grief, sometimes called prolonged grief disorder, occurs when the normal grief process becomes stuck. Rather than gradually integrating the loss, the person remains in acute grief for an extended period. It can involve intense longing, difficulty accepting the reality of the loss, bitterness, or a sense that life is meaningless without the person or thing that was lost. Therapy can help grief move again when it has stopped.
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Grief therapy specifically focuses on processing loss and the ways it has disrupted your sense of identity, safety, relationships, and future. It is not about learning coping strategies or managing symptoms. It is about creating the conditions to actually feel and integrate what happened, so the loss has a place in your life without dominating it.
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No. Many people come to grief therapy years or decades after a loss, because the grief was never fully processed at the time. Grief that was pushed down, carried silently, or managed around does not resolve on its own. It is never too late to grieve something properly.
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Yes. Virtual therapy allows you to do this work from your own space, without commuting or adding strain to an already difficult time. Secure video sessions are available for adults across Ontario.
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Most extended health benefit plans in Ontario cover psychotherapy services. As a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), my services typically qualify. Please confirm with your provider before booking.