Anyone who has lost a loved one; did you try grief counseling and if so, did it work for you?

How do you view the subject of death? If you see it as a spiritual matter as well, you may want to, at the very least, confide in someone who shares aspects of your belief. A kind counselor can be a big plus. Time is always a factor to consider. If understanding a living person is hard,then how much more for a deceased loved one?

I hope you find healthy ways to cope and vent.

I did not. I found, though, that counseling that I did just for myself was helpful in processing grief when a loved one died several years later.

I did go to counseling, but not by choice – which is probably the reason that I didn’t find it helpful. Of course I was 11 years old (hence having no choice in the matter!) which probably added to my righteous indignation in the whole matter, and my lack of willingness to be cooperative. I feel like if I’d been able to choose it for myself, and choose the counselor myself, it would (or at least could!) have been helpful.

The trick is to find a therapist you click with. This is can be a long and exhausting process, but the right one probably saved my life.

I’ve been in and out of grief counseling for nearly 8 years, mostly because I find the process of digesting and understanding my grief (lost my parents 3 weeks apart at age 19, one in a plane crash, one from cancer) to be too overwhelming to process by myself. If anything, this whole thing has taught me that it’s ok to ask for help.

I wish you luck, and a stout heart. Ultimately the only answers are your own, but you might be able to find them faster with some help.

No. With something like that, I much prefer friends.

No. My dad died, and I dealt with it as best I could, and sometimes still do, but I’ve never sought professional help for this.
I might have, only I never really thought about it, and growing up in group homes, whenever someone suggested something like that to me, I was usually pretty distrustful of the idea.
It all worked out fine in the end though.