Grief, Complex Grief & Depression Therapy
Emotional Processing • Nervous System Support
If you are seeking grief, complex grief, or depression therapy in Maple Ridge, our therapists offer a warm and evidence informed approach to navigating loss, emotional heaviness, numbness, and disconnection. Grief therapy helps you make sense of what you are experiencing, understand how loss can affect your emotions and nervous system, and find ways to move through grief without feeling like you have to leave your relationship with what you have lost behind.
Understanding Grief, Complex Grief & Depression After Loss
Grief can feel unpredictable. Some days you may feel deeply connected to your emotions, while other days you may feel numb, exhausted, angry, or completely disconnected. Your thoughts may become harder to organize. Everyday tasks may feel overwhelming. You may find yourself moving between sadness, longing, guilt, relief, anger, and moments when you feel almost nothing at all.
Grief is not something that follows a predictable timeline. When loss is especially significant, sudden, traumatic, or complicated by other circumstances, grief can become more persistent and difficult to integrate. Complex grief can affect your sense of identity, relationships, daily functioning, and ability to imagine life moving forward.
A heart that feels heavy. Sadness, numbness, longing, exhaustion.
Grief therapy does not ask you to “move on” or forget what you have lost. It helps you make space for grief while gradually finding ways to reconnect with yourself, your relationships, and your life. When grief and depression overlap, therapy can also help you understand the difference between a natural response to loss and patterns of depression that may require additional support.
Grief, complex grief, and depression therapy may be supportive if you experience:
Feeling numb, disconnected, or emotionally shut down
Intense longing for someone or something you have lost
Difficulty accepting or making sense of the loss
Guilt, regret, anger, or unresolved feelings
Low motivation or difficulty completing everyday tasks
Changes in sleep, appetite, energy, or concentration
Feeling disconnected from yourself or the people around you
Feeling like you are struggling to move forward
Difficulty imagining a meaningful life after your loss
Grief that feels increasingly isolating or difficult to carry
These experiences can be part of grief, depression, or both. They make sense in the context of what you have experienced. Therapy helps you understand them with clarity and compassion rather than expecting you to simply “get over” your loss.
How Grief & Depression Therapy Helps You Move Through Loss
Grief therapy supports you by helping you:
- Make space for grief without judgment or pressure
- Understand the emotional and physical impact of loss
- Process difficult emotions such as sadness, anger, guilt, and longing
- Recognize when grief may be overlapping with depression
- Strengthen emotional regulation and nervous system support
- Reconnect with yourself, your relationships, and daily life
- Develop ways to honour what or who you have lost
- Rebuild routines and meaningful activities at a manageable pace
- Explore changes in identity, relationships, and your sense of the future
- Find ways to carry your grief while continuing to live your life
Therapy helps you move through grief without treating your emotions as something that needs to be fixed or rushed. It provides space to process what has happened while gradually supporting reconnection, meaning, and steadiness.
Grief, complex grief, and depression therapy gives you practical tools and compassionate support as you navigate loss at a pace that feels right for you.
What Grief & Depression Therapy Looks Like in Session
Sessions are gentle, collaborative, and paced around what you are able to hold. You and your therapist may:
- Explore what your loss means to you and how it has affected your life
- Make space for difficult emotions without trying to rush through them
- Explore feelings of guilt, anger, sadness, longing, or numbness
- Identify patterns of withdrawal, shutdown, or emotional overwhelm
- Use CBT to work with unhelpful thoughts, self-blame, or depressive thinking
- Use DBT skills to navigate intense emotional experiences
- Work with nervous system strategies that support grounding and regulation
- Explore how grief has affected your identity, relationships, and sense of the future
- Build small and manageable steps toward reconnecting with daily life
- Develop ways to honour your loss while creating space for what comes next
Grief therapy is not about forgetting, letting go, or moving on before you are ready. It is about learning how to live alongside your grief while creating room for connection, meaning, and moments of steadiness.
Shawna creates such a welcoming environment. I always leave our sessions feeling lighter, more hopeful, and with a better understanding of myself. Her approach is thoughtful, compassionate, and incredibly supportive. I would highly recommend her to anyone considering therapy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a diagnosis to start grief or depression therapy?
No. You do not need a diagnosis or a referral. If you are struggling with a loss, feeling emotionally overwhelmed, disconnected, or unlike yourself, therapy can help you understand what you are experiencing and find support.
What does a grief therapy session feel like?
Sessions are gentle and collaborative. You can expect space to talk about your experience, thoughtful questions, practical tools, and guidance that helps you understand and navigate your grief without pressure to move through it quickly.
Will I have to talk about everything that happened?
No. You choose what you share and when. Grief therapy focuses on what feels important and manageable for you. Your therapist will not expect you to revisit painful experiences before you are ready.
How long does grief or depression therapy take?
Some people find short-term therapy helpful during a difficult period of loss, while others benefit from longer-term support. There is no fixed timeline for grief. The pace depends on your circumstances, goals, and what feels right for you.
Is virtual grief therapy effective?
Yes. Virtual therapy can be an effective and accessible option for grief and depression support. Many clients appreciate the comfort and flexibility of working with their therapist from their own space, particularly when grief has made leaving home feel difficult.