Grief and Loss Therapy in Orange County, California

Loss takes many forms. Some losses are visible and acknowledged. Others are quieter, harder to name, and often overlooked by the people around you.

• Death of a parent, spouse, partner, child, or close friend
• Caring for aging or dying parents and the grief that comes before, during, and after (see also Life Transitions)
• Anticipatory grief: mourning someone who is still here but fading
• Loss of a relationship through divorce, estrangement, or growing apart (see also Couples Counseling)
• Loss of identity: who you were before the illness, the caregiving, the career change, or the empty nest
• Miscarriage, infertility, or reproductive loss
• Loss of health, independence, or physical ability
• Loss of safety after trauma, betrayal, or abuse (see also Trauma & PTSD Therapy)
• Pet loss and the grief that others may not fully understand
• Ambiguous loss: when someone is physically present but emotionally or cognitively absent

If your grief is layered with caregiving exhaustion, you are not alone in that. Many clients come to therapy carrying both loss and burnout at the same time.

Sometimes grief does not ease with time. It intensifies, or it gets stuck. You might feel frozen in the loss, unable to reengage with daily life, or caught in loops of guilt, anger, or replaying what you could have done differently.

Complicated grief can also happen when the relationship itself was complicated. Losing a parent you had a difficult history with, or grieving someone who caused you harm, creates layers that simple condolences cannot touch. You may feel grief and relief at the same time, and not know what to do with either.

Therapy can help you hold the complexity. There is no requirement to feel one "correct" thing about your loss.

Grief lives in the body as much as the mind. My approach honors both. We work at the pace your system can handle, not the pace the world expects.

I use somatic awareness to help you track what grief feels like physically, so you can stay connected to yourself instead of shutting down or pushing through. Internal Family Systems (IFS) helps us understand the parts of you that carry the grief and the parts that try to manage or avoid it, so we can work with your whole system rather than just the surface.

When grief is tangled with trauma history, or when a loss reactivates old wounds, we can integrate trauma-informed care to stabilize the nervous system first: Trauma & PTSD Therapy.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) tools can also help with the practical side of grief: sleep disruption, decision fatigue, returning to work, and managing the daily tasks that feel impossible when you are carrying something this heavy.

You do not need to grieve alone, and you do not need to have it figured out before starting therapy. Many clients come in not knowing what they need. That is a fine place to begin.

• Processing the pain, anger, guilt, or numbness that comes with loss
• Making space for grief when life demands you keep going
• Navigating family dynamics around loss, caregiving, and end-of-life decisions (see also Family Therapy)
• Rebuilding daily routines and finding stability after a major loss
• Working through anticipatory grief while caring for someone who is declining
• Addressing grief that others minimize or do not understand
• Finding your way back to yourself after loss has changed how you see the world
• Reducing anxiety, depression, or physical symptoms connected to grief (see also Anxiety Therapy or Depression Counseling)

I work with adults and teens navigating grief and loss at every stage. Some clients are in the raw early days of a loss. Others come months or years later, realizing the grief never fully landed. Both are valid.

Many of my clients are professionals and caregivers in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who are managing loss alongside careers, family responsibilities, and the quiet realization that grief has changed them in ways they did not expect.

If grief is affecting your relationship, couples work can also provide support. When the whole family is processing loss differently, family therapy may help.

Sessions are 50 to 60 minutes. There is no agenda you need to prepare. Some sessions are quiet and heavy. Others involve storytelling, tears, laughter, or practical problem-solving. Grief is not one thing, and therapy does not need to be either.

We may focus on emotional processing one week and practical coping the next. If your grief is connected to caregiving or family conflict, we can work on boundaries, communication, and self-preservation alongside the deeper emotional work.

Grief and loss therapy is available in-person in Mission Viejo. Clients often come from Rancho Santa Margarita, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, and Aliso Viejo.

Online sessions are also available across California through secure telehealth. If you are caregiving and leaving the house feels difficult right now, online therapy can make it easier to get support without adding another thing to coordinate: Online Therapy.

• Private pay practice
• Superbills available for out-of-network reimbursement
• Free 15-minute phone consultation

If you are grieving and wondering whether therapy could help, a free 15-minute phone consultation is available. We will talk briefly about what you are carrying, what feels hardest right now, and whether this is the right fit. You do not need to have the words yet. Just reaching out is enough.