Grief Counseling
Grief Counseling
Dr. Emily Keller offers grief counseling to help clients process loss so they can feel available to connect with life and the living. Dr. Keller has experience working at a large children’s bereavement center where she co-led groups for grieving parents. She also wrote a chapter about disenfranchised grief and the body for a book to be published in 2023. Dr. Keller is trained in sand tray therapy, which can help clients process feelings related to grief– feelings for which clients often say “there simply are no words.”
Different Types of Grief
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Grief related to a recent death
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Grieving currently something that happened in the past
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Ambiguous grief and loss
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Disenfranchised grief
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Grieving what could have been
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Caregiver and medical professional grief
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Ecological grief
How Counseling Can Help Grief
If grief is natural, why do I need help? Grief is a natural response to bereavement and loss. Grieving requires nurturing and support to move through the process and learn to make new sense and meaning of life. When we don’t receive that support, unexpressed grief often acts as leaves that sit and clog a river. We can feel stuck. Grief counseling offers the nurture and support we are needing to express thinking and feeling related to grief in order to make new meaning of life.
Grieving Children
For grieving children, experiences of a loss can change as they develop through the stages of childhood. As they grow, a loss can take on new meaning and require new layers of support and processing. Play therapy is a great way to offer grief counseling to children. Play therapy can help your child grieve in a way that honors their new intellectual and emotional awareness of a loss that occurred earlier in life. It can also be used to address loss that children never had an opportunity to grieve.
Religion, Spirituality, and Grief
Grief often brings up god, religion, and spirituality. Dr. Keller conducted her dissertation research on religion and spirituality in counseling. She is dedicated to cultural humility and learning about the world’s religious and spiritual paths so she can better honor and understand her clients’ worlds. Specifically, She is aware that religion and spirituality offer support to clients who are grieving. She also understands that some clients will question their faith when faced with grief. She makes space for holding all of her clients’ emotions and experiences during grief counseling.
Take the Next Step
Life doesn’t have to feel this way. Get the support you are needing to grieve and make new meaning of life.
Continuing Education
Learn to cultivate a sense of wonder in your therapeutic work. Sign up for play therapy and counseling CE training.
Group Therapy
Get in touch with your authentic self. Learn how to gain insight and clarity about how to create a meaningful connected life.