Individual Counseling For Grief And The Holidays

Individual counseling can help you learn to cope with your grief during the holidays. This time of year is especially difficult when you have experienced a loss. For most of us, the holidays seem to magnify the pain of the passing of a loved one, the end of a relationship, a debilitating illness, employment termination, or the loss of a home.

Family and friends often make getting through the holidays while grieving even more difficult. They either want you to go on with all of your traditions and festivities as if nothing has changed or they want to change everything in an attempt to cheer you up. The reality is that when we have suffered a significant loss recently (or even many years later sometimes), we don’t really want to cheer up. Nor should we. In individual counseling, we learn to work through our feelings, not hide them away or bottle them up.

“No” is a complete sentence.

It is perfectly fine and normal if you are not feeling the holiday spirit. You are not obligated to be social if you don’t feel up to it, and you don’t owe anyone an explanation. Despite what anyone may tell you, it is okay for you to cancel your holiday festivities, either partially or entirely. Remember that you will not always feel your grief this powerfully, and the holidays will always come back around.

Seek out support that feels comfortable.

Community support and companionship are important for healing, but if holiday events feel like too much, look for ways to be with friends and family that don’t require you to hold a conversation like movies and music. It is important not to isolate yourself in your grief, but there is no reason to torture yourself. 

Make a plan and leave when you want to.

If you do choose to attend holiday gatherings, give yourself an exit strategy. You can give yourself a specific time or just a particular emotional cue that tells you it’s time to go home. Individual counseling is extremely helpful for learning to check in with yourself and honor your needs in the moment.

Honor your loss in your holiday festivities.

If you are grieving a loved one, you can feel closer to them by talking about them, telling stories with family members, and recreating traditions that were important to them. If you are unable to continue old traditions due to illness or other circumstances, create new traditions to fit your new reality. Incorporating your grief these ways can be bitterly painful, but allow you to feel sweetness and nostalgia at the same time. Remember that grief is only love wearing a heavy coat.

Individual Counseling At Take Charge, Inc.

At Take Charge, Inc. Terri Dichiser, a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in Kansas and Missouri, offers individual counseling both in person and through teletherapy using video that is available on a phone, laptop, or tablet. It is important to know that you are not alone, and getting the help you need to cope with your grief is one of the most valuable self-care opportunities you can give yourself, especially during the holidays.

For more information or to make an appointment, click here or call (913) 239-8255.