Grief & loss
Grief is not something we get over. It's something we gradually learn to live alongside.
Grief can feel like the world has changed while everyone else carries on as though nothing has happened.
Some days the loss feels close enough to touch. Other days it catches you by surprise. A familiar song. A particular smell. Walking past somewhere you used to go together. Even years later, grief can suddenly make itself known.
People often expect grief to look like sadness.
Sometimes it does. Sometimes it looks like anger. Relief. Numbness. Guilt. Restlessness. Finding it difficult to concentrate. Laughing one moment and crying the next. Feeling disconnected from the people around you.
Life continues, but it no longer feels quite the same.
Grief isn't only about losing someone through death. It can follow the end of a relationship, infertility, losing your health, leaving home, becoming a parent, receiving a diagnosis, or letting go of the future you imagined for yourself.
Many losses are invisible to the people around us.
That doesn't make them any less real.
Loss changes us. Learning to live with it takes time.
Grief doesn't follow a series of neat stages. It moves in its own way.
Some days it feels quieter. Other days it returns with the same intensity as it did at the beginning. That doesn't mean you're moving backwards. It means you're human.
Grief also has a way of bringing other experiences to the surface. Old losses, childhood experiences, regrets, or relationships that never had the chance to heal can all become part of what you're carrying.
Many people feel pressure to move on, stay busy, or be strong for everyone else.
Therapy offers a different kind of space.
A space where grief doesn't have to be hidden, explained away, or rushed. Together, we can make room for whatever your loss looks like, understand how it has changed your life, and find ways of carrying it that feel less lonely.
Grieving isn't about forgetting.
It's about allowing life to grow around the loss while continuing to honour what mattered.
Therapists who work with grief & loss
James Sloane
Works with adults (18+)
Nichola Magner
Works with adults (18+)