Grief is a natural part of the human experience. Most everyone has lost a loved one, a friend, or a beloved pet. There is no set period where grief will take hold and then disappear. Some people find themselves recovering from grief within a few days. Others spend years never truly overcoming their loss.
Seeking out bereavement support groups in NYC can be helpful. Sharing your emotions with others who have gone through similar feelings can be cathartic. In other cases, formal grief counseling can be beneficial.
If you are dealing with grief, there is value in searching for professional grief counseling in NYC.
Grief is a multifaceted issue. Most people naturally associate grief with death. It is true that grief often results from the death of someone close to us. However, there are countless other sources of grief.
Grief and loss can come from losing a job, a broken relationship, or being diagnosed with a life-altering disease. Regardless of the cause, grief can often feel debilitating.
People often speak about working through their emotions when confronting grief. What they mean is unpacking that emotional baggage, facing it, sitting with it and learning to cope with it. Grief counseling is not about suppressing or avoiding your feelings but coming to terms with them.
The power of grief therapy is working through your emotions with the support of a professional. A grief counselor often utilizes psychotherapeutic techniques to help you deal with the natural grief experienced with loss with the aim of moving toward acceptance.
Seeking out professional help for grief is eventually about working on letting go and reframing the loss. Again, it is not about suppression or forgetting.
For example, your therapist may help you reframe those intense feelings of loss by allowing your mind to focus on something other than unhelpful thoughts and looking at what you remember fondly about that person.
In other words, by learning to accept that loss, you focus on the good times and what made that person or time of your life special.
Throughout one-on-one therapy sessions, you will have the opportunity to discuss any emotions or feelings you are experiencing as part of the grieving process. Grief counseling is there to help you restore normality in your life.
Nothing can make up for your loss, but therapy can empower you to move forward healthily.
Your grief counselor will concentrate on where you are in the grieving process. The most common model is the five stages of grief.
There is no roadmap on how long it might take to negotiate the five stages of grief or how long you may remain in each stage. Everybody is different, but counseling can help if you get stuck.
Typically, most people seek treatment during the fourth stage of grief, “depression,” as it tends to be the most challenging step to overcome. However, you may also seek treatment far earlier. Sometimes the steps can come in any order.
Here’s what each stage of this model of grief means:
Not everyone will require grief therapy. Many people are adept at moving past their losses without bottling up their feelings inside. Furthermore, every loss will hit somebody differently. Someone may experience few problems overcoming the loss of a cousin but may spend years grieving over losing a beloved family pet.
Grief can come out of nowhere. Here are some of the most common symptoms of and responses to grief and loss:
You may discover that the above symptoms and behaviors resolve themselves in time. Others may find their grief-triggered depression becoming a chronic issue. There is no handbook for grief. If you are worried about how you feel or believe there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, searching for “grief counselors near me” could be the right move.
Grief therapy is one area of psychology that has been studied continuously over many generations. It is a constantly evolving branch of psychotherapy incorporating various techniques tailored to the person in question.
Everyone experiences grief differently, and no set roadmap is suitable for everybody. When searching for a grief therapist, you will come across different types of grief therapy in NYC, including in individual and couples’ grief counseling settings.
Let’s run through some of them.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy/Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the most common approach therapists take in helping their patients confront and overcome their emotional pain. Therapists specializing in CBT seek to reduce the frequency and intensity of a client’s emotional episodes. In particular, it focuses on the suffering and self-defeating behaviors many people dealing with grief suffer with.
CBT focuses on four distinct areas, including:
CBT is certainly not a cure-all, but it is the foundation of successful grief counseling. However, it is not the only type of grief therapy a counselor may employ.
Regular CBT sessions confront many aspects of life you may struggle with. Continuing CBT treatment can continue for as long as you need it and find it beneficial.
Every one of our patients is different, and you’ll receive the tailored treatment plan you require for confronting grief and loss. REBT is a form of CBT.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) came into being after CBT. ACT is often used to build on the progress made during CBT sessions.
The point of ACT is to empower you to learn how to drop the struggle you have with any negative thoughts you may have. Rather than trying to suppress or throw them away, ACT teaches you how to build distance between yourself and your emotions, thus allowing symptoms to decrease in time naturally.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy was initially developed to help individuals diagnosed with different personality disorders in order to help them with distress tolerance and emotional regulation. Subsequent studies have demonstrated that it can be effective in various settings.
These therapy sessions concentrate on one-on-one therapy, group training, consultations, and phone coaching. Five functions make up this form of treatment. They all concentrate on enhancing the patient’s capabilities, desire for change, and expressing those gains on a large scale.
If you are struggling to carry on after a traumatic loss in your life, you should talk to a specialist immediately. Don’t sit there thinking that these feelings will eventually pass. Untreated symptoms of grief can soon morph into chronic depression, risky behaviors, and disengagement from the things you love the most.
Withdrawing from work responsibilities and social commitments is a natural reaction to loss, but it should not become the norm.
At Citron Hennessey Therapy, we are committed to helping you when you need it the most. By utilizing one-on-one in-person or online sessions, you will have the opportunity to work through your grief with quality support from our team of professional therapists.
No matter where you are in your grief journey, our team provides talk therapy sessions that are confidential, non-judgmental, and inclusive. We offer some of the best therapists for grief in the New York area.
If you’re ready to come to terms with loss and deal with your emotions head on, contact Citron Hennessey Therapy for grief counseling in NYC today.
