If you are looking for English speaking grief counseling in Berlin (or online) you came to the right place. One could say that grief counseling is not the usual form of therapy. How come? Because grief is not a psychological unease, but rather a natural response to loss.

It is an emotional suffering you feel when someone you love is taken away. While grieving you can experience all kinds of difficult and unexpected emotions, from shock or anger to disbelief, guilt, and profound sadness. The pain of grief can also disrupt your physical health, making it difficult to sleep, eat, or even think straight. While very painful, emotionally consuming and stressful, it is a human’s way to deal with the loss. Sometimes we can grieve with help from a family and friends and sometimes we need a guidance and support in our grief process from grief counselor.

In case you are looking for some relieve through reading, here is my list of books about grief.

In case you feel you might need psychological support in the grieving process, feel free to contact me through this form.

There are many models and theories about grief, but in general, all models agree that experiencing grief will take you through some or all of the following emotions:

• Shock and disbelief, feeling numb, even denial that the loss occurred
• Sadness, despair, loneliness, feeling empty
• Guilt, regret, shame
• Anger, feeling resentful
• Anxiety, helplessness, insecurity, fear
• Physical symptoms like fatigue, nausea, sickness, weight loss or gain, aches and pains, night sweats, heart palpitations, feeling faint or lightheaded, insomnia.

With time, it’s normal for feelings of sadness, numbness, or anger to gradually ease. However, if you aren’t feeling better over time, or your grief is getting worse, it may be a sign that your grief has developed into complicated grief.

What is complicated grief?
The sadness of losing someone you love never goes away. However, if the pain of the loss is so constant and severe that it keeps you from resuming your life years after the loved one died, we are talking about complicated grief.

Symptoms of complicated grief include:

• Intense longing and yearning for your deceased loved one
• Intrusive thoughts or images of your loved one
• Denial of the death or sense of disbelief
• Imagining that your loved one is alive
• Searching for your deceased loved one in familiar places
• Avoiding things that remind you of your loved one
• Extreme anger or bitterness over your loss
• Feeling that life is empty or meaningless

If your loved one’s death was sudden, violent, or otherwise extremely stressful or disturbing you might not only experience (complicated) grief but also Post-traumatic stress or trauma. One of most common symptoms of PTSD are flashbacks to the event itself, screams, someone breaking the news to you, funeral etc.