Grief and Loss
Grief and Loss Therapy in Washington State
Grief doesn't follow a schedule, and it rarely looks the way people expect. Maybe you're three years out from a loss and still catching your breath at odd moments. Maybe the loss hasn't even happened yet, but you're already grieving what's coming. Maybe the people around you keep saying "at least" — at least you have other kids, at least the pet was old, at least it wasn't a "real" relationship — and it's made you feel like your grief doesn't count.
It counts.
At Freesia Therapy Collective, we work with people across Washington State who are carrying loss in all its forms — the losses that come with a funeral and a casserole brigade, and the losses nobody sends a card for. Grief isn't a problem to fix or a phase to rush through. It's a response to love, and it deserves space, patience, and real support. Our therapists help you understand what you're feeling, find language for it, and figure out how to keep living alongside it — not by "getting over it," but by learning to carry it differently.
What does grief therapy actually help with?
Grief therapy isn't about erasing sadness or hitting some finish line where you're "done" grieving. It's about:
- Making sense of overwhelming or confusing emotions, including guilt, anger, numbness, or relief
- Working through intrusive thoughts, sleep disruption, or physical symptoms tied to loss
- Rebuilding a sense of identity when a loss changes your role (partner, child, parent, pet owner)
- Reconnecting with people and routines without feeling like you're betraying the person or thing you lost
- Finding a way to hold grief and still build a life that has room for joy
Some people come to us weeks after a loss. Others come in years later, when they'd assumed they should be past it by now. Both are welcome here.
Is anticipatory grief a real thing?
Yes — and it's one of the most misunderstood forms of grief. Anticipatory grief happens when you know a loss is coming: a parent's declining health, a terminal diagnosis, the slow fade of a relationship or a pet's final months. You're grieving the future you expected while still trying to show up for the present.
This kind of grief often comes with a particular kind of guilt — like you're not allowed to feel sad yet because the person or animal is still here. Therapy can help you:
- Separate anticipatory grief from anxiety, so you can address each one directly
- Stay present with the people or pets you love, rather than pulling away to protect yourself
- Prepare emotionally without feeling like you're rushing toward the loss
- Process the grief that starts before, during, and after the loss itself
What our approach to grief looks like
There's no single roadmap for grief, so we don't force one. Depending on what you're working through, your therapist might draw on:
- Grief-informed talk therapy to help you process emotions and build language for what you're carrying
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to work through intrusive thoughts, guilt, or anxiety tied to loss
- Somatic approaches to address the physical toll grief takes on the body — the exhaustion, tension, and dysregulation that talk alone doesn't always reach
- Meaning-making work, helping you find ways to stay connected to what you've lost while still moving forward
What is disenfranchised grief?
Disenfranchised grief is loss that doesn't get publicly recognized or supported — grief that falls outside what our culture treats as "legitimate." It shows up after:
- The end of a relationship that wasn't formally recognized (an affair, a situationship, an estrangement)
- The death of an ex-partner or someone you'd become distant from
- Losing a friendship, a job, a home, or a version of your future you'd been counting on
- Grieving someone who is still alive — due to addiction, dementia, incarceration, or estrangement
- Loss experienced by someone whose relationship to the deceased isn't socially acknowledged, including many LGBTQIA+ clients navigating unrecognized partnerships or chosen family
When grief doesn't come with permission slips from the people around you, it can turn into isolation on top of the loss itself. Therapy gives you a place where the grief doesn't need to be justified — it just needs to be felt.
Can therapy help with pet loss?
Absolutely. Pet grief is real grief, and we treat it that way. For a lot of people, a pet is a daily source of routine, companionship, and unconditional connection — sometimes more consistent than any human relationship in their life. Losing that can be disorienting, especially when the people around you expect you to move on quickly.
We support clients through:
- The death of a pet, whether sudden or through a planned euthanasia decision
- The guilt that often comes with end-of-life decisions for an animal
- Grief that feels "too big" for a pet, and the shame that can come with that comparison
- Adjusting to an empty house, a changed routine, or the fear of loving another animal again
If a coworker's response to your loss was a shrug and yours wasn't, that gap is worth talking through with someone who won't minimize it.
How does grief therapy address pregnancy loss?
Pregnancy loss — miscarriage, stillbirth, termination for medical reasons, infertility-related loss, or infant loss — carries a specific kind of grief that's often compounded by silence. Many people navigating this kind of loss haven't told extended family or friends they were even expecting, which leaves them grieving largely alone.
Our therapists support clients through:
- Processing grief tied to a pregnancy or infant loss at any stage
- Navigating the physical and hormonal experience alongside the emotional one
- Working through grief connected to fertility treatment, including failed cycles or difficult decisions
- Rebuilding a sense of safety around future pregnancies, if and when that's part of your path
- Supporting partners, who often grieve differently and can feel overlooked in the process
You don't need to wait until you "should" be over it, and you don't need to minimize the loss because it happened early, or because others haven't experienced it the way you have.
Why clients trust Freesia with their grief
Our clinicians hold graduate-level training and Washington State licensure or supervised licensure. We've supported clients through the death of parents, partners, children, pets, and relationships — as well as the quieter losses that don't come with a name.
Grief work at Freesia is:
- Individualized. We don't apply a five-stages checklist to your experience. Your grief gets treated like yours.
- Judgment-free. Whatever kind of loss brought you here, you won't be asked to justify why it hurts.
- Flexible. We offer telehealth therapy across Washington State, so support fits into your life instead of adding to the load.
- Collaborative. You set the pace. We follow your lead on when you're ready to talk, and when you just need to sit with it.
If grief has been sitting heavy and you're ready for somewhere to put it down for an hour, we're here.
Our Therapists Specializing in Grief & Loss
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Frequently Asked Questions
...on Grief & Loss
Yes. This is called anticipatory grief, and it’s just as valid as grief after a loss. Therapy can help you process what’s ahead while staying present with the time you have left.
No. Grief itself isn’t a diagnosis, and you don’t need one to seek support. Many clients come in simply because a loss — recent or long past — is affecting their daily life, relationships, or sense of self.
Freesia accepts several insurance plans, and all sessions are offered via telehealth across Washington State. Reach out through the consult form or call 206-814-1919 to confirm coverage for your specific plan.
There’s no fixed timeline. Some clients come in for a few months around a specific loss; others return years later when grief resurfaces around an anniversary, a milestone, or a new loss that reopens an old one. Your therapist works at your pace, not a preset schedule.
Yes. Grief doesn’t run on a set timeline, and it’s common for it to resurface around anniversaries, holidays, or life transitions long after the loss itself. If grief is still affecting your daily functioning, that’s a reason to seek support, not a sign you’re grieving “wrong.”