Grief Counselling in London, ON: Support After Loss

Grief is a natural response to losing someone or something that matters deeply to you. It can change the way you think, feel, sleep, relate to other people, and move through your everyday life. And although grief is something most people will encounter at some point, there is no single way to experience it.

For some people, grief gradually becomes easier to carry with the support of family, friends, community, time, and their own coping resources. For others, the experience becomes overwhelming, complicated by trauma or other mental health concerns, or difficult to navigate long after the loss.

That is where grief counselling can be helpful.

Grief therapy provides a compassionate space to talk about what has happened, understand your reactions, and explore how you want to live with the reality of your loss. Counselling is not about erasing grief or forgetting the person, relationship, role, or future you have lost. Instead, therapy can help you find ways of adapting to a changed life while making room for the significance of what has been lost.

What Is Grief Counselling?

Grief counselling is psychotherapy that supports people who are experiencing bereavement or other significant forms of loss. The death of a partner, parent, child, family member, friend, or pet can lead to profound grief, but grief can also accompany other experiences such as divorce, estrangement, serious illness, disability, infertility, the loss of a career, or major changes in identity and circumstances.

Grief counselling is not about following a prescribed set of stages. Contemporary grief research does not support the idea that everyone moves through grief in a predictable sequence or on a particular timetable. Your relationship with the person or situation you lost, the circumstances surrounding the loss, your previous experiences, your support system, and many other factors can all influence how grief unfolds.

A grief therapist can help you put words to what you are experiencing, make sense of changes in your emotional and daily life, and develop ways of coping that fit your circumstances. Therapy can also provide a place to talk about aspects of grief that may be difficult to discuss with family or friends, including anger, guilt, relief, regret, loneliness, or conflicting emotions.

How Can Grief Counselling Help?

Grief can affect much more than sadness. You may find yourself having difficulty concentrating, sleeping poorly, feeling physically exhausted, withdrawing from people, questioning your identity, or struggling to imagine what your life is supposed to look like now.

Having somewhere to talk openly about these experiences can be valuable. A therapist can help you understand your reactions without assuming that every difficult emotion needs to be eliminated. Sometimes the work involves learning how to tolerate painful feelings rather than trying to make them disappear.

Counselling can also help when grief has begun to interfere significantly with everyday functioning. Research on grief-focused psychotherapy suggests that psychological interventions can reduce grief symptoms, particularly among people experiencing more persistent or impairing grief difficulties (Johannsen et al., 2019; Komischke-Konnerup et al., 2024).

For people experiencing Prolonged Grief Disorder, recent research provides particularly strong support for psychotherapy. A 2025 systematic review of 30 randomized controlled trials found that cognitive behavioural approaches were among the most consistently supported psychological treatments, while other approaches incorporating elements such as exposure, narrative reconstruction, social support, and meaning-making have also shown promise (Srivastava et al., 2025; Pleshka et al., 2025).

This distinction matters. Not everyone who is grieving needs therapy. Grief itself is not a disorder. Counselling becomes particularly important when distress is severe, persistent, or interfering substantially with a person's ability to function, or when additional concerns such as depression, anxiety, trauma, or suicidal thinking are present.

What Happens During Grief Therapy?

Your first grief counselling session will usually focus on understanding your experience rather than immediately trying to change it.

Your therapist may ask about the person, relationship, or situation you have lost, what happened, how your life has changed, and what has been most difficult since the loss. You may also talk about your support system, your emotional and physical wellbeing, and what you hope might be different as a result of counselling.

There is no requirement to tell your entire story at once.

As therapy continues, you might explore memories, difficult emotions, changes in relationships, fears about the future, feelings of guilt or regret, or the ways the loss has affected your sense of identity. You may also work on practical ways of managing difficult moments, navigating anniversaries and reminders, reconnecting with aspects of everyday life, or finding meaningful ways to remember someone who has died.

The specific approach depends on the person and the nature of the grief. Research supports several forms of psychotherapy for significant or prolonged grief, rather than one single approach that works for everyone (Hao et al., 2024; Pleshka et al., 2025).

Good grief counselling is collaborative. Your therapist should not decide what your grief is supposed to look like or pressure you to engage in an exercise that does not feel appropriate. Therapy should leave room for your own values, culture, relationship with the person who died, and understanding of what the loss means to you.

Do I Need Grief Counselling?

There is no specific point on a calendar when someone is “supposed” to seek grief counselling.

You might reach out shortly after a loss because the circumstances are particularly difficult or because you know you need additional support. You might seek therapy months or years later because something has changed, a significant anniversary has brought grief to the surface, or you have realized that you are struggling in ways you did not expect.

You might also seek counselling because you feel stuck, disconnected from other people, unable to return to important parts of your life, or overwhelmed by emotions that are becoming increasingly difficult to manage.

Research has identified a number of factors associated with more persistent grief symptoms, including pre-existing grief symptoms, depression, circumstances surrounding the loss, and other individual and relational factors (Buur et al., 2024). Having one of these factors does not mean that someone will develop Prolonged Grief Disorder. It simply reminds us that grief is influenced by more than the passage of time.

You do not have to prove that your grief is “bad enough” before asking for support.

What Is Prolonged Grief Disorder?

Most people experience significant distress following a death, particularly early in bereavement. Over time, many people gradually adapt to the reality of the loss, even though sadness and longing may continue.

For some people, however, grief remains persistently intense and significantly interferes with their ability to function. Prolonged Grief Disorder, or PGD, is a recognized mental health condition characterized by persistent, impairing grief symptoms.

It is important not to use the diagnosis simply because someone is still grieving months or years after a death. Continuing to miss someone, feel sadness on important occasions, or maintain a meaningful connection with someone who has died does not automatically indicate a disorder.

What matters is the overall pattern, severity, persistence, and impact on the person's life.

Recent systematic reviews have found that psychotherapy can significantly reduce symptoms of prolonged grief, with particularly strong evidence for grief-focused cognitive behavioural approaches (Komischke-Konnerup et al., 2024; Srivastava et al., 2025).

Grief, Depression, Anxiety, and Trauma Can Overlap

Grief does not always occur in isolation.

A significant loss can coincide with depression, anxiety, trauma symptoms, sleep difficulties, relationship problems, or substance use. In some cases, these concerns existed before the loss. In others, they emerge or become more difficult to manage afterward.

This is one reason it can be helpful to work with a therapist who understands grief as well as broader mental health concerns.

The goal is not to label every painful reaction as a mental health disorder. It is to understand the whole person and recognize when grief may be interacting with other difficulties that deserve attention.

For someone experiencing trauma-related grief, for example, therapy may need to address both the loss itself and the traumatic circumstances surrounding it. For someone experiencing significant depression alongside grief, treatment may need to address depressive symptoms as well as bereavement.

A comprehensive assessment can help determine what kind of support is most appropriate.

Grief Does Not Have to Be Something You “Get Over”

One of the most painful messages people can receive after a loss is the suggestion that they need to move on.

Moving forward does not necessarily mean leaving your relationship with the person you lost behind.

People may continue to remember someone through photographs, traditions, stories, objects, places, rituals, or other meaningful connections. Research on continuing bonds suggests that maintaining a connection with someone who has died can be comforting and meaningful for some bereaved people, although the experience is not the same for everyone.

The goal of grief counselling is therefore not to erase your attachment or convince you to stop caring.

It is to help you find a way of carrying what has happened while also making room for the life that continues.

Grief Counselling for Different Kinds of Loss

Grief counselling is not limited to the death of a loved one.

People can experience profound grief following divorce, separation, estrangement, infertility, the loss of health or independence, retirement, a major career change, or the end of an important chapter of life. Anticipatory grief can also occur when someone is facing the expected loss of a loved one because of a life-limiting illness.

These experiences can be particularly difficult when the people around you do not recognize the loss as something that should cause grief.

A therapist can provide space to acknowledge what has changed and explore what the loss means to you without minimizing it or assuming that there is a prescribed way you should feel.

When Grief Counselling May Not Be Enough on Its Own

Grief counselling can be an important part of treatment, but it is not a universal solution for every situation.

If you are experiencing severe depression, significant trauma symptoms, substance use concerns, suicidal thoughts, or another mental health condition, you may need a broader treatment plan in addition to grief-focused support.

If you are in immediate danger or are concerned that you may act on thoughts of suicide or self-harm, urgent crisis or emergency support is more appropriate than waiting for a routine counselling appointment.

A therapist can help you understand what kind of care may be appropriate and, when necessary, help coordinate additional support.

Grief Counselling at Authentic Living London

At Authentic Living London, we understand that grief is deeply personal. Our therapists approach grief counselling with compassion, respect, and an understanding that there is no single way to respond to loss.

Our grief therapists support people experiencing recent bereavement, longstanding grief, anticipatory grief, complicated family circumstances, and other significant losses. We also work with people whose grief intersects with concerns such as anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship difficulties, or major life transitions.

Our approach is collaborative. You do not need to arrive knowing exactly what you need from therapy. Together, you and your therapist can explore what has happened, what you are experiencing now, and what kind of support would be most helpful.

Authentic Living London offers grief counselling in London, Ontario, as well as virtual counselling for clients across Ontario. We provide a space where you can talk honestly about your loss without being told how quickly you should recover or what your grief should look like.

If you are looking for a grief therapist in London, Ontario, you can contact Authentic Living London at 226-224-0301 or info@authenticlivinglondon.com to learn more about counselling options.

Gabrielle Ferguson, RP, BA, MACP is the founder of Authentic Living London and provides keynotes speaking and workshops on grief, as well as individual virtual therapy.

Want to learn more about gried? Here are a few other grief related topics:

STUGS - Sudden Temporary Upsurges of Grief

Pet Loss

Dual Processing Model of Grief

References

Buur, C., Zachariae, R., Komischke-Konnerup, K. B., Marello, M. M., Schierff, L. H., & O'Connor, M. (2024). Risk factors for prolonged grief symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 107, 102375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2023.102375

Hao, F., Qiu, F., Liang, Z., & Li, P. (2024). Psychotherapies for prolonged grief disorder in adults: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 99, 104133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2024.104133

Johannsen, M., Damholdt, M. F., Zachariae, R., Lundorff, M., Farver-Vestergaard, I., & O'Connor, M. (2019). Psychological interventions for grief in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Affective Disorders, 253, 69–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.04.065

Komischke-Konnerup, K. B., Zachariae, R., Boelen, P. A., Marello, M. M., & O'Connor, M. (2024). Grief-focused cognitive behavioral therapies for prolonged grief symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 92(4), 236–248. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000884

Pleshka, A., Crawford, S., Wellsby, M., Bahji, A., O'Connor, C., Trieu, J., Beck, A., Faqiri, M., & Devoe, D. (2025). Treatments for prolonged grief disorder: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228251364716

Srivastava, T., Lee, K., Ehrenkranz, R., Cozzolino, P. J., Wise, F. A., Burns, M., McCormick, T., Yaden, D., Agrawal, M., & Penberthy, J. K. (2025). The efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions for prolonged grief disorder: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 380, 561–575. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.03.173

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