Grief Counseling in Washington, DC

What is grief counseling?

Grief counseling is therapy focused on helping you live with a loss. It gives you a place to talk about the person or thing you lost, make sense of what you're feeling, and find your footing again. It isn't about "getting over" a loss. It's about learning to carry it.

Can grief counseling really help?

Yes. Grief is a normal response to loss, and many people move through it with the support of friends and family. Counseling helps when grief feels stuck, overwhelming, or isolating, or when the loss is tangled up with guilt, anger, trauma, or unfinished conflict. Talking with someone trained in grief can ease the intensity and help you function again.

Grief counseling vs. grief therapy

The terms are often used the same way. "Grief counseling" usually means support through a recent or expected loss. "Grief therapy" usually means deeper work when grief has become prolonged or complicated, or is affecting your health, work, or relationships. We offer both.

What will it be like?

Your first session is a conversation about who or what you lost and how you've been since. There's no right way to grieve and no timeline you have to meet. Some sessions you may want to talk about memories. Others you may want help with the practical weight of daily life.

Losses we help with

• Death of a parent, partner, child, sibling, or friend
• Sudden, traumatic, or unexpected loss
• Loss after a long illness or caregiving
• Loss of a pet
• Divorce, breakups, or estrangement
• Job loss, retirement, or the end of an identity or role
• Anticipatory grief: grieving someone who is still living
• Grief that feels stuck years later

How we work

We draw on trauma-informed care, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and self-compassion work. For clients in DC, in-person Somatic Experiencing is also available when grief shows up in the body as exhaustion, tension, or numbness.

Frequently asked questions

Reviewed by Joseph W LaFleur, MSW, MBA, LICSW