Grief & Loss Counseling

Are you grieving the loss of a loved one?  Perhaps you are in a major life transition and struggling to move forward? Do you feel a deep sense of loss but aren't sure why? Maybe you've always felt sad or brokenhearted?

Grief is the conflicting feelings caused by any change in a familiar pattern of behavior.

There are many kinds of grief and loss, such as divorce, loss of trust, loss of health, loss of finances and lifestyle, loss of career, and even loss of a dream; all count as legitimate grief.

Widely Believed Misconceptions about Grief

John James, co-founder of the Grief Recovery Method with Russell Friedman, challenged much of the conventional wisdom about grief. Beliefs such as:

• "time heals all wounds,"
• "be strong"/"stay strong for the family"
• "Replace the loss" (have another baby, find a new partner, get a new pet)
• "Grieve alone"(don't burden others with it)
• "Just give it time"

These well-meaning words suppress the grieving process rather than help it—which is partly why people get stuck.

About the Five Stages of Grief

You may have heard of the "five stages of grief," which come from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's interviews with terminally ill patients and her observations of dying patients coming to terms with their own mortality. These 'stages'- Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance - were never meant for people grieving someone else's death. However, they were popularized (and oversimplified) as a universal grief map.

Grief is not linear, and treating it as prescriptive risks implying there is a right way to grieve. But there isn't. We are all different, with different life experiences, and we will feel the way we do and must be compassionately respected for it.

I t is good to talk about your grief with a compassionate listener. When you work with me, you will have that — and so much more. I use EFT Tapping and other techniques to help you move through the layers of emotions that keep you stuck in a loop. You feel less overwhelmed and able to think more clearly again. Whenever we have a great loss or trauma, we will feel it in our bodies, because we are body/mind and spirit. Anything going on in our head or our heart will always affect our body.

How I Help?

I'm Gail Mae. I've spent over 15 years helping people recover from emotional pain, not only by talking through it, but by working with the body's nervous system and the subconscious to heal emotional pain, grief, and trauma.

I use an integrated approach using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Matrix Reimprinting. We work with your nervous system so you can stop just surviving and feel more alive again. EFT gently stimulates the body's meridian points while we process the emotions and memories connected to the grief and trauma. 

This sends a calming signal to the nervous system and helps the brain reprocess the experience. As we tap, we free your nervous system from stuck patterns.

I know this work from the inside, not just as a practitioner, but as someone who had complex PTSD and grief for years before finding the techniques that finally set me free.

When we work together, I'll hold you in a safe space. We go at your pace. Nothing is forced. And my clients often feel a positive shift from the very first session. When we feel safe to grieve at our own pace, with love and acceptance, we have an easier path to healing.