Grief Counseling in Austin, TX

Grief doesn't follow the tidy stages you may have read about. It comes in waves—sometimes predictable, often not. You might be fine one moment and knocked sideways the next by a song, a smell, an empty chair at the table.

There's no right way to do this. But there is support for doing it less alone.

The heaviness of loss

When someone dies, the world keeps moving as if nothing happened. Bills still come. People expect you to be okay. After a few weeks, the casseroles stop arriving and everyone seems to think you should be getting back to normal.

But there is no normal anymore. The person who knew your whole story isn't here. The future you imagined has been rewritten without your consent. Even the small things—who you text when something funny happens, whose opinion you want on a decision—all of it has changed.

This is disorienting in ways that are hard to explain to people who haven't been through it.

What grief can look like

Loss affects everyone differently. You might experience:

• Sadness that feels bottomless

• Anger—at the person who died, at yourself, at God, at the unfairness of it

• Guilt about things said or unsaid, done or not done

• Relief, especially after a long illness, often followed by guilt about the relief

• Physical symptoms: fatigue, appetite changes, trouble sleeping, a pressure in your chest

• Difficulty concentrating, making decisions, or caring about things that used to matter

• A surreal feeling, like this can't really be happening

• Moments of forgetting, then the crash of remembering

All of this is within the range of normal grief. So is not feeling much at all, at least for a while. Numbness is the psyche's way of protecting you when the truth is too much to absorb all at once.

When grief gets stuck

Most people, with time and support, find their way through acute mourning into something that seems more bearable. The loss doesn't hurt less, exactly, but you learn to carry it differently.

For some, though, grief doesn't soften. Months or years later, the pain remains as fresh as day one. Daily functioning feels impossible. The world has lost its color and shows no sign of regaining it.

This is sometimes called complicated grief or prolonged grief disorder. It's not a failure of character or love. It often has identifiable contributing factors: a sudden or traumatic death, a complicated relationship with the deceased, limited support systems, or multiple losses piling up.

If this describes your experience, specialized grief therapy can help. The grief won't disappear, but you can learn to hold it in a way that doesn't consume your entire life.

How grief counseling helps

Therapy provides a space where your grief is welcome—all of it, not just the socially acceptable parts. You don't have to pretend to be okay or worry about burdening someone.

In our work together, we might:

• Create space for you to talk about the person you lost—their life, not just their death

• Explore the particular texture of your relationship and what their absence means

• Process any complicated feelings: anger, guilt, ambivalence, relief

• Identify what you need that you're not getting (and how to ask for it)

• Build coping mechanisms for difficult days, anniversaries, holidays

• Work with intrusive images or memories, if the death was traumatic

• Begin to imagine what a meaningful life might look like going forward

This isn't about "getting over" your loss. It's about integrating it—learning to carry the person with you as you continue living.

Losses beyond death

Grief isn't only about death. We grieve many things:

• The end of a relationship or marriage

• Estrangement from family

• Loss of health or physical ability

• Infertility and pregnancy loss

• Loss of a job, career, or professional identity

• The death of a dream or the future you planned

• Loss of faith or community

These losses often go unacknowledged—there's no funeral, no sympathy cards. But the grief is real, and it deserves attention.

Anticipatory grief

Sometimes grief begins before death does. If someone you love has a terminal diagnosis, you may already be mourning while they're still here. This creates a strange split: trying to be present and make the most of remaining time while also bracing for what's coming.

Therapy during this period can help you manage the emotional intricacy and make decisions you'll feel okay about later.

A note concerning timelines

Well-meaning people may suggest there's a timeline for grief—that after a year, or six months, or some arbitrary point, you should be "better." This isn't how it works.

Grief has its own schedule. It tends to soften over time, but it doesn't disappear. Decades later, something can still bring tears. This isn't pathological. It's the price of having loved someone.

What matters isn't whether you're still grieving. It's whether you're able to function, find meaning, and experience instances of bonding and even joy alongside the sorrow.