An active, empowering
approach to loss
Grief must be processed emotionally (through the heart) in order to find completion of the pain. Perhaps you’ve intellectualized your pain, dismissed it, replayed it repeatedly, or minimized it. Maybe you have numbed or distracted yourself, but your coping strategies are failing you now and you feel empty, sorrowful, or dull. It’s time to feel again.
Yes, it may get worse before it gets better, but with some new actions, it will get better.
The Grief Recovery Method
In addition to the skills and strategies learned in my graduate level training as a certified professional counsellor, I use The Grief Recovery Method ® – “an action-based, powerful, directed approach to healing from life’s deepest heartbreaks” that involves reading and writing assignments as outlined in The Grief Recovery Handbook. It has proven to be effective at helping grievers deal with the pain of emotional loss.
The GRM is just that – a method – a step by step process – an “action program” – for unlocking and respecting the emotional experience of our grief, both the immediate or presenting grief issues, and those that may have been holding us captive for years. Often, the most recent or presenting loss is actually made more difficult by related experiences from our past which were not recognized or addressed at the time, adding weight to that resulting from the current loss.
Is this a new therapy?
The GRM has been shared for over 40 years, on six of seven continents, with the book having been translated into over 20 languages over those years.
Do I need professional help?
The GRM is facilitated by a Grief Recovery Specialist, certified by the Grief Recovery Institute. These Specialists, are trained to deliver the GRM, and have experience in working with a variety of types of loss, and people from all walks of life.
Does it work?
The GRM is an evidence-based program, having documented statistically significant improvements in grievers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to grief.
When we work together you will find a pathway that
Normalizes grief and allows for open processing in a safe space
Scaffolds the learning, with activities that build toward emotional completion
Focuses on building meaningful relationships
Brings together body, mind, heart and spirit
Is action-oriented and encouraging
Focuses on reclaiming the life you lost
This is not a psychoanalytic counselling mode; it is active and solution-oriented, trusting you to gently work toward your recovery with compassionate support. It takes a positive, normalizing approach, believing that you are capable of working this through with help from others who have walked through grief.
Working together
"We are not promoting pain. If there were a softer, easier way, we would tell you about it. Grief is painful. It is supposed to be. Our experience shows clearly that approaching grief naturally has much more long-term benefit than any other option."
— JAMES and FRIEDMAN, The Grief Recovery Handbook