What is complicated grief?

Complicated grief (also called prolonged grief disorder) occurs when the normal grieving process gets ‘stuck’ — grief that remains intense and disabling long after the loss. Symptoms include intense yearning, difficulty accepting the loss, bitterness, and inability to engage in daily life. Therapy is particularly important for complicated grief.

How long does grief counseling take?

Grief doesn’t follow a fixed timeline, and neither does grief counseling. Some clients benefit from short-term support (8–12 sessions) during an acute loss. Others with complicated grief or multiple losses benefit from longer-term work. Holly meets you where you are and adjusts the pace accordingly.

Can grief counseling help with all types of loss?

Yes. Holly supports clients through many types of loss — death of a loved one, divorce, miscarriage, loss of health, loss of a career, and other significant life endings. All significant losses deserve care and attention.

Do you offer telehealth grief counseling in Arizona?

Yes. Holly offers HIPAA-compliant video therapy for grief clients anywhere in Arizona. Telehealth is often especially valued during grief, when the effort of traveling to an office may feel overwhelming.

Grief & Loss

Are You Struggling to Find
Your Footing After a Loss?

Grief counseling in Anthem & North Phoenix, AZ — a compassionate space to mourn, process, and find your way forward without rushing your healing.

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The Weight of Grief

Grief Doesn't Follow a Timeline or a Checklist

Does the grief feel like it has no end — waves that keep coming when you think they've passed?
Are you going through the motions while carrying an invisible weight no one else seems to fully understand?
Do you feel guilty for laughing, for moving forward, or for anything other than sadness?
Are you grieving something beyond death — the end of a marriage, a relationship, a career, or an identity?
Do you feel pressure from others to "be over it" before you're anywhere close?

Grief is not a problem to be solved or a timeline to complete. It is a profound human experience that deserves to be witnessed, held, and worked through — not managed away or outrun. Whether your loss is recent or years old, whether it's the death of someone you loved or the ending of a chapter you can't quite name, the pain is real and it deserves care.

Grief becomes complicated when it gets stuck — when the natural process of mourning is interrupted by guilt, shock, unfinished business, or the social pressure to keep moving. Complicated grief can look like prolonged numbness, intense yearning, difficulty imagining the future, or an inability to invest in life again. These are not signs of weakness — they are signs that the loss requires more support than you can provide for yourself alone.

Grief counseling in Phoenix AZ — support and healing

Grief Is Universal

Everyone Experiences Loss — But Carrying It Alone Makes It Harder

Grief is one of the most universal human experiences. Yet we live in a culture that is uncomfortable with mourning — one that often rushes people back to normalcy before they're ready and stigmatizes prolonged sadness. The result is that many people grieve in isolation, carrying something they were never meant to carry alone.

Grief counseling doesn't take your loss away — nothing can do that. But it gives you a space to be fully present with what happened, to work through the complex emotions grief brings, and to gradually find a way to carry your loss differently. With compassionate support, life after loss can hold meaning, connection, and even joy again — while still honoring what and who you have lost.

Compassionate Support

Grief Counseling That Honors Your Loss and Your Process

My approach to grief is grounded in Emotionally Focused Therapy — a model that understands loss as a profound disruption of attachment. When someone or something central to your life is gone, the emotional impact is not just sadness; it disrupts your sense of safety, identity, and purpose. EFT-informed grief work helps you access and express the full range of what you're carrying, rather than staying on the surface of what's safe to say.

When grief is tangled with difficult circumstances — sudden loss, violent death, deeply painful circumstances — I also draw on EMDR to process the deeply painful elements that may be preventing natural mourning from taking place. Sometimes the mind is so overwhelmed by how someone died that it can't fully mourn that they did. EMDR can help resolve that blockage.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) offers another dimension in grief work. Grief rarely shows up as one simple feeling — there are often parts of you that want to move forward, parts that feel guilty for doing so, parts that are angry, and parts that just want to protect you from more pain. IFS helps you slow down and get to know each of these parts with curiosity and compassion, rather than being overwhelmed by their competing voices. This can bring real relief, especially when grief feels complicated or contradictory.

In our sessions, there is no rush. There is no right way to grieve. We work at your pace, honoring what the loss means to you — including the complicated feelings of anger, relief, guilt, or numbness that don't fit the socially acceptable script. I've worked with bereavement, anticipatory grief, pregnancy loss, pet loss, and the grief that comes with major life changes — divorce, retirement, illness, and loss of identity.

Sessions are available in-person in Phoenix, AZ and via telehealth throughout Arizona.

Find a safe space to fully express your grief without judgment

Work through complicated feelings — guilt, anger, relief, numbness

Process difficult experiences that are intertwined with your loss

Develop a sustainable relationship with your grief — carry it rather than being carried by it

Reconnect with meaning, purpose, and the capacity for joy

Honor your loss while gradually re-engaging with your life

“I didn't know how to talk about what I was feeling without feeling like a burden. Holly gave me a space where nothing I said was wrong. I finally felt understood.”

— Verified Client

Common Concerns

Questions About Grief Counseling

How soon after a loss should I start grief counseling?

There is no "too soon" or "too late" for grief counseling. In the immediate aftermath of a loss, therapy can provide crucial support and help prevent grief from becoming complicated. Years after a loss, therapy can help when grief has become stuck or is still profoundly affecting quality of life. I've worked with clients in the first weeks of bereavement and with clients whose loss was a decade earlier. Whenever you come, you come at the right time for you.

What if I'm grieving something that doesn't seem like a "real" loss — a divorce, a friendship, a job?

All loss is real loss. Grief is the natural response to anything meaningful that is gone — a relationship, a version of yourself, a dream for the future, the life you thought you'd have. "Disenfranchised grief" — grief for losses that aren't socially recognized — is often more isolating precisely because others don't acknowledge it. In our work together, every loss you bring is taken seriously.

Won't talking about it just make me more sad?

This is one of the most natural fears about grief counseling. The truth is: grief that is suppressed tends to intensify and find expression in other ways — through physical symptoms, emotional numbness, relationships, or health. Giving grief a voice actually helps it move. Most clients find that after an initial deepening, working through grief in therapy gradually reduces its intensity and restores their capacity to be present in their lives.

You Don't Have to Grieve Alone

I offer a free 15-minute introductory call — a low-pressure conversation about what you're carrying and whether my approach might be right for you.

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Are You Struggling to FindYour Footing After a Loss?