Grief can touch every stage of adulthood and take many forms. You may be grieving the loss of a loved one, navigating divorce or the end of a relationship, adjusting to an empty nest, experiencing a career or life transition, or mourning a version of yourself or the future you once imagined.

For women in midlife, grief can be especially complicated when it occurs alongside other significant changes. You may be caring for aging parents while adjusting to perimenopause or menopause, experiencing changes in your relationships or career, becoming an empty nester, approaching retirement, or simply questioning what you want the next chapter of your life to look like.

Grief can also intersect with identity, relationships, and the experience of navigating a world that doesn’t always reflect or accommodate who you are. I welcome LGBTQIA+ and neurodivergent adults and provide an accepting space to explore loss, identity, relationships, and the many emotions that can accompany significant life changes.

Grief Is More Than Losing Someone

Grief doesn’t always follow a death. We can experience grief whenever something meaningful changes or ends.

You may be grieving:

• The death of a parent, partner, family member, friend, or other loved one
• Divorce, separation, or the end of an important relationship
• Infidelity or a significant change in a relationship
• Changes in family roles or becoming an empty nester
• Career changes, burnout, job loss, or retirement
• Changes in health, identity, independence, or abilities
• Caregiving responsibilities or the loss of a previous way of life
• A significant move or change in your community
• Unfulfilled expectations, dreams, or plans for the future
• A former version of yourself or uncertainty about who you are becoming

You don’t have to minimize your grief simply because someone else might consider your loss “less significant.” If it matters to you, it matters.

A Safe Space to Unpack the Layers

Grief counseling begins with creating a relationship where you feel safe, heard, and understood. We move at your pace and make room for the complexity of what you’re experiencing.

Together, we may explore:

The losses you’re experiencing:
We’ll identify the losses—both obvious and less visible—that may be contributing to your grief and emotional distress.

How different parts of your life intersect:
Grief doesn’t happen in isolation. We may explore how loss interacts with relationships, family responsibilities, work, identity, aging, caregiving, hormonal changes, or other life transitions.

Your individual experience:
There is no single “right” way to grieve. Some people experience intense sadness, while others experience anger, anxiety, guilt, numbness, relief, confusion, or a combination of emotions that changes from day to day.

What healing means for you:
Together, we’ll identify what you need—not to erase your grief, but to help you move through it while reconnecting with your values, relationships, sense of identity, and future.

Practical Tools for Your Healing Journey

Grief affects more than your emotions. It can influence your thoughts, relationships, sleep, energy, concentration, and ability to manage everyday responsibilities.

Our work may incorporate evidence-based approaches and practical tools tailored to your needs, including:

• Processing difficult emotions: Using approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to work through guilt, anger, anxiety, sadness, uncertainty, and difficult thoughts.
• Regulating your nervous system: Using mindfulness, grounding, and somatic techniques to help you manage emotional and physical responses to grief and stress.
• Navigating relationships and boundaries: Exploring changes in family and relationship dynamics and developing healthier ways to communicate your needs and establish boundaries.
• Working through identity changes: Supporting you as you explore who you are and what matters to you after a significant loss or life transition.
• Reconnecting with meaning and purpose: Identifying values, interests, relationships, and goals that can help you create a meaningful path forward.
• Honoring what you’ve lost: Finding meaningful ways to remember people, experiences, relationships, or chapters of your life while making room for what comes next.

Special Considerations During Midlife

Midlife can bring multiple transitions at the same time. A loss may occur alongside changes in your body, family, career, relationships, or sense of identity.

For women, perimenopause and menopause may add another layer to an already difficult period, particularly when changes in sleep, mood, energy, or anxiety occur alongside grief and other responsibilities.

You may also find yourself caring for aging parents while supporting children, navigating divorce or relationship changes, considering a career change, preparing for retirement, or wondering what you want your life to look like moving forward.

Therapy can provide a place to step away from the expectations and responsibilities you carry for everyone else and make space for your own experience.

Your Grief Does Not Have to Follow a Timeline

Grief isn’t linear. You may feel okay one day and find yourself unexpectedly overwhelmed the next. You may experience moments of sadness alongside moments of laughter, relief, gratitude, or hope.

These experiences don’t mean you’re doing grief “wrong.”

Our work together isn’t about forgetting, rushing through your grief, or forcing yourself to move on. It’s about learning how to carry what you’ve experienced while gradually creating space for healing, meaning, connection, and a future that feels authentic to you.

You Don’t Have to Carry It Alone

Whether you’re grieving a person, a relationship, a role, a dream, or a chapter of your life, therapy can provide a supportive space to process what has changed and explore what comes next.

You don’t have to have everything figured out before you begin. We can start exactly where you are.