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Coping With Grief and Loss
When it comes to challenges that we face in life, grief can be one of the worst. At first it may just feel like a heavy depression, but in time you often find yourself on an emotional roller coaster or in some cases, unable to feel a thing!
The problem is that everyone grieves in their own way, but you can navigate your grief to some extent if you have the right tools. At Craig Smardan therapy, we can give them to you, and help you to find healthier ways to process this tragic period in your life.
Let’s talk a little about grief and you can see what we mean – as feelings go, it truly is an odd beast.
Grief Doesn't Always Play by the Rules
It’s natural to feel sad when you lose someone, but sometimes the true impact of grief is much more severe, and it can manifest in many different ways. Here are a few examples of some common effects that can come with grief:
- Guilt
- Fatigue
- Anxiety
- Crippling depression
- Loss of appetite
- Mood shifts from depression to euphoria
- Productivity loss at work
- Muscle soreness
- Digestive issues
- Feeling cold or emotionless
- Insomnia
Getting the Tools You Need Can Help
As you can see, grief can take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, but the good news is that you don’t have to face this alone. At Craig Smardan Therapy, we can give you the tools to help you process your grief and to help you express yourself in healthy ways.
Cognitive behavioral therapy, for instance, can help you to reframe negative thoughts, and also to develop and use emotional management tools such as mindful thinking, breathing exercises, and more.
Therapy and grief counseling are available for individuals and for families and we take a holistic approach to this, treating the whole of each person rather than just focusing on individual symptoms. As everyone grieves differently, we find this to be the most effective way to help our clients in processing profound grief and loss.
Treatment Options Tailored to the Individual
Everyone has their own way to deal with loss, so there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution for grief. That’s completely normal and it’s okay – At Craig Smardan Therapy, we can make sure that your treatment is tailored to you.
Kids, for instance, often react well to drawing exercises that can help them to call out emotions that they might be bottling up to cope with their grief. How you think also is a huge part of how you grieve, and sometimes cognitive restructuring can help both adults and children to assess what they are feeling and help them to catch those points where grief is ‘stepping out of line’.
Grief isn’t about ‘letting go’ – It’s about acceptance of a new reality and learning to move forward, while still maintaining an enduring — but healthy — connection to your lost loved one. It’s time to start living your life again and Craig Smardan will be there with you every step of the way!
FAQ
When will my life get back to normal again?
Grief is not something that you ‘get over’, but rather it’s something that you learn to carry. It’s a process of adaption, more than anything, and unfortunately there is no set period of time that can be guaranteed for any single individual.
With therapy, you can gain insight into the many ways that grief can sneak up on you in your everyday life, so that you’ll be empowered to recognize and to help manage these times as you learn to process your loss. You can’t replace a loved one – our hearts don’t work that way – but you can learn to carry their memory with you and express your grief in positive ways.
How do I know if my children are coping with their grief?
Children express themselves very differently from adults. Depending on their age, a child may simply not have the words yet to express what they are feeling, but it will usually show in their behavior and health.
Losing interest in activities, complaining of stomach pains, loss or increase of appetite, or even showing no signs that they are grieving at all — all of these and more are completely normal as a child learns to process loss.
At Craig Smardan, we can help you to determine how your child is working through their grief and provide therapies and tools to help the process along.
Why should I choose Craig Smardan Therapy for grief counseling therapy?
At Craig Smardan Therapy, we use a holistically-driven approach, rather than treating individual symptoms. In this way, your therapy is custom-tailored to your specific needs. Grief can be terribly hard to manage, but we can empower you with a better, mindful understanding of what to expect and what you can do.
You’re not alone in this – Give us a call and we can get started on your journey of healing and building your new life today.