Grief Therapy
Diana offers virtual grief therapy for parents, caregivers, and individuals navigating anticipatory grief, child loss, medical diagnoses, foster and adoption-related grief, and the loss of the life you expected.
Grief is the emotional response to losing something or someone important to you. While many people think of grief only in terms of death, grief can also arise when life changes in ways you never expected. This may include receiving a medical diagnosis, adjusting to chronic illness or disability, infertility, miscarriage, the end of a relationship, or realizing that life looks very different than you once imagined.
Anticipatory Grief and Life-Limiting Conditions
For families facing progressive or life-limiting conditions, grief often begins long before a loss occurs. This anticipatory grief can involve living with ongoing uncertainty, balancing hope and fear, and carrying the heartbreaking possibility of outliving your child. Even while cherishing meaningful moments, many parents are also coping with profound sadness, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion.
Grief After the Death of a Loved One
Grief after the death of a loved one can feel overwhelming and deeply personal. There is no “right” way to grieve. You may experience sadness, anger, guilt, numbness, relief, or moments of peace and joy. Grief does not follow a timeline, and healing does not mean forgetting. It means learning how to carry your loss while continuing to move forward.
Grieving the Life You Expected
Many people grieve the life they expected to have. Parents of children with medical, developmental, or special needs often mourn the loss of the “normal” they once imagined for their family. Others may grieve changes in health, relationships, identity, or future plans. These losses are real and deserve to be acknowledged, even when others may not fully understand them.
Grief in Foster Care and Adoption
Foster care and adoption often involve layers of grief and loss for both children and parents. For parents, this may include infertility, unmet expectations, attachment challenges, ambiguous loss, and the emotional complexity of parenting a child with a difficult early history. Families may also grieve the loss of children who reunify with biological family members, move to another placement, or are adopted by another family.
For children and teens, adoption always begins with loss. Even when adoption brings safety, love, and permanence, many adoptees continue to grieve the separation from biological parents, siblings, culture, and the life they might have had. These feelings can resurface at different stages of development and may bring questions about identity, belonging, and self-worth. Families often work through these layers of grief while building trust, connection, and a lasting sense of safety and belonging.
Compassionate Support for Your Grief Journey
As a Certified Grief Educator trained by David Kessler, I offer a compassionate, evidence-informed approach that honors your unique grief experience. In our one-on-one therapy sessions, I provide a safe space to witness your story, help you make sense of your emotions, and support you in finding meaning and healing at your own pace. Whether you are grieving the death of a loved one, facing the anticipated loss of a child, navigating foster care and adoption, or mourning the life you expected, you do not have to carry it alone.
FAQs
Grief is a natural response to loss. While many people associate grief with the death of a loved one, grief can also occur after a medical diagnosis, chronic illness, infertility, miscarriage, foster care and adoption experiences, relationship changes, or when life does not unfold the way you expected.
Anticipatory grief is the emotional response to an expected loss. Parents of children with progressive or life-limiting conditions often experience grief long before a death occurs as they live with uncertainty, fear, and the possibility of outliving their child.
Yes. You may grieve changes in a loved one’s health, functioning, or future. This is common when caring for a child with a serious medical condition, a loved one with a degenerative illness, or a family member whose abilities have changed over time.
Absolutely. Receiving a diagnosis for yourself or your child can bring sadness, fear, anger, and grief about the future you expected. This is especially common for parents of children with chronic illnesses, developmental disabilities, or rare genetic conditions.
Sometimes grief is about the loss of hopes, plans, or expectations. You may be mourning the life you imagined for yourself, your child, or your family. This type of grief is very real and deserves support.
Yes. Foster and adoptive families often navigate infertility, ambiguous loss, reunification, attachment challenges, and identity-related grief. Children and teens who were adopted may continue to process the losses that occurred before adoption, even within a loving and stable family.
Grief therapy can help if your loss feels overwhelming, affects your daily functioning, impacts your relationships, or leaves you feeling stuck, anxious, numb, or isolated.
Yes. I work with children and adolescents who are coping with the death of a loved one, medical diagnoses, adoption-related losses, family transitions, and other significant life changes.
Yes. I specialize in supporting parents and caregivers, particularly those raising children with medical, developmental, and special needs, as well as foster and adoptive families.
Yes. I provide secure telehealth grief therapy for clients in Florida, California, Arizona, Illinois, and Utah.
