Grief Therapy in Austin, TX

People holding hands in support

What Is Grief Therapy?

Grief therapy in Austin, TX, offers compassionate support for those navigating the painful experience of losing a loved one. Grief is a natural process, a normal and deeply human response to loss. It can affect emotions, thoughts, and even daily functioning, often creating feelings of sadness, anger, confusion, or emptiness.

Grief counseling provides a safe and supportive environment where patients can express emotions, explore their grief process, and begin the healing journey. Whether you are dealing with complicated grief, anticipatory grief, or struggling to cope after a recent death, our therapists can help.

Our grief counselors in Austin, TX, understand that each person’s experience of loss is unique. Through individual counseling sessions, support groups, and a supportive community, patients are guided through a healing process that honors their pain and helps them build emotional stability over time.

A distressed man sits on a couch with his hands pressed to his face, appearing emotional or deep in thought, while a therapist sits across from him holding a clipboard, taking notes during a counseling session.

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Phase 1: History Taking

Before beginning EMDR, your trauma therapist will get to know more about your experiences and symptoms. This step is for you to share about events in your past that may be affecting your current mindset.

Phase 2: Preparation

This stage is about ensuring your readiness for EMDR. Even though EMDR therapy for trauma is completely safe, it can be problematic for individuals who commonly experience dissociation. As a safeguard, your trauma therapist will work with you to create your own “calm place” to concentrate on if you feel distressed.

Phase 3: Assessment

It’s now time to choose a target to be reprocessed during your next few sessions. In doing so, you’ll need to identify a vivid image related to the memory, a negative cognition about yourself associated with it, and emotions and bodily sensations that accompany both. Your therapist will then have you challenge that negative cognition with a cognitive one. They will have you rate how true your positive cognition feels and how much distress the target memory causes you on a scale from 1-10.

Phase 4: Desensitization

This is where Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing comes into play. When you feel ready, your therapist will guide you to process your negative feelings and memories using bilateral eye movements to facilitate the brain’s healing process. This will help to ground you and take more directed focus on the thoughts, feelings, and images associated with your target. Every minute or so, your therapist will check in on what you’ve noticed and ask you to rate how much discomfort you’re now feeling. When you no longer report distress related to your targeted memory, you move onto the next step.

Phase 5: Installation

Next, your attention will be brought back to the positive cognition you identified earlier. Your trauma/PTSD therapist will recheck how true this belief now feels. The goal is to get this belief to feel like it’s 100 percent true.

Phase 6: Body Scan

You will now be asked to check your body for any areas of tension in your body caused by the target memory. Are your teeth clenched? Is your chest tight? Any uncomfortable physical sensations will be reprocessed using the same procedure as before until you can think of the target memory without feeling any tension.

Phase 7: Closure

At the end of every session, your trauma counselor will make sure that you are leaving feeling more relaxed than when you arrived. If you are feeling agitated, they will lead you through self-calming techniques until you regain your sense of control.

Phase 8: Reevaluation

At the beginning of each subsequent session, your therapist will ask you questions to ensure your positive beliefs have been maintained. This will also help them to identify any new problem areas that may need to be targeted.

EMDR therapy for trauma is considered a success once you are able to bring up memories of trauma without feeling the distress that brought you to therapy. Your trauma therapist will also provide you with the techniques and skills you need going forward to deal with upsetting feelings.

What To Expect During Grief Therapy

During grief therapy, you’ll work with a trained therapist in a safe and supportive space to explore your feelings and experiences surrounding loss. Sessions are tailored to meet your individual needs and may include both in-person and virtual options to ensure ongoing support and accessibility.

Grief counselors help patients identify the symptoms of grief and depression, develop healthy coping strategies, and navigate moments of emotional intensity with compassion. By understanding the natural response to loss, you can begin to reconnect with your sense of self and your connection to life.

Through guided reflection, expression, and presence, therapy provides a place to process memories, explore emotions like sadness or anger, and develop strategies that help restore emotional stability. This approach helps patients cope with grief in ways that honor their loved one while allowing personal growth and healing to unfold.

Close-up of two people sitting at a wooden table, holding hands in a comforting gesture, symbolizing support, empathy, and compassion, possibly during a moment of grief or emotional support.

Phase 1: History Taking

Before beginning EMDR, your trauma therapist will get to know more about your experiences and symptoms. This step is for you to share about events in your past that may be affecting your current mindset.

Phase 2: Preparation

This stage is about ensuring your readiness for EMDR. Even though EMDR therapy for trauma is completely safe, it can be problematic for individuals who commonly experience dissociation. As a safeguard, your trauma therapist will work with you to create your own “calm place” to concentrate on if you feel distressed.

Phase 3: Assessment

It’s now time to choose a target to be reprocessed during your next few sessions. In doing so, you’ll need to identify a vivid image related to the memory, a negative cognition about yourself associated with it, and emotions and bodily sensations that accompany both. Your therapist will then have you challenge that negative cognition with a cognitive one. They will have you rate how true your positive cognition feels and how much distress the target memory causes you on a scale from 1-10.

Phase 4: Desensitization

This is where Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing comes into play. When you feel ready, your therapist will guide you to process your negative feelings and memories using bilateral eye movements to facilitate the brain’s healing process. This will help to ground you and take more directed focus on the thoughts, feelings, and images associated with your target. Every minute or so, your therapist will check in on what you’ve noticed and ask you to rate how much discomfort you’re now feeling. When you no longer report distress related to your targeted memory, you move onto the next step.

Phase 5: Installation

Next, your attention will be brought back to the positive cognition you identified earlier. Your trauma/PTSD therapist will recheck how true this belief now feels. The goal is to get this belief to feel like it’s 100 percent true.

Phase 6: Body Scan

You will now be asked to check your body for any areas of tension in your body caused by the target memory. Are your teeth clenched? Is your chest tight? Any uncomfortable physical sensations will be reprocessed using the same procedure as before until you can think of the target memory without feeling any tension.

Phase 7: Closure

At the end of every session, your trauma counselor will make sure that you are leaving feeling more relaxed than when you arrived. If you are feeling agitated, they will lead you through self-calming techniques until you regain your sense of control.

Phase 8: Reevaluation

At the beginning of each subsequent session, your therapist will ask you questions to ensure your positive beliefs have been maintained. This will also help them to identify any new problem areas that may need to be targeted.

EMDR therapy for trauma is considered a success once you are able to bring up memories of trauma without feeling the distress that brought you to therapy. Your trauma therapist will also provide you with the techniques and skills you need going forward to deal with upsetting feelings.

People in group therapy session sitting in a circle.

Who Is Grief Therapy Useful For?

Grief therapy is designed for anyone dealing with loss, whether recent or long past. It can be particularly helpful for adults experiencing prolonged or complicated grief that interferes with daily functioning or emotional well-being.


Below are some of the situations and symptoms grief therapy can help address:

  • Death of a loved one or family member
  • Anticipatory grief related to illness or expected loss
  • Depression and emotional pain linked to grief
  • Challenges with coping or maintaining daily functioning
  • Intense anger, guilt, or numbness after loss
  • Feelings of isolation and disconnection from community
  • Difficulty expressing emotions or finding support

What Grief Therapy Can Help With

Grief therapy in Austin, TX, offers compassionate care that supports emotional healing and mental health. By working with a grief counselor in Texas, patients receive guidance and tools to move forward in their healing journey.

Coping and Emotional Processing

Grief counselors help patients cope with intense emotions by teaching healthy coping strategies that support emotional regulation and relief. This process encourages self-care and the ability to manage emotional pain while moving through grief at your own pace.

Support Groups and Connection

Grief support groups in Austin, TX, provide a space to connect with others who are also grieving. These groups offer empathy and a sense of shared experience. Some free support groups are available, giving individuals the chance to join a supportive community.

Complicated and Anticipatory Grief

Therapists help patients dealing with complicated grief or anticipatory grief process their experiences. Through compassionate counseling, patients learn to express emotions and develop new coping strategies that promote healing.

Restoring Emotional Stability and Daily Functioning

Grief therapy helps patients manage the emotional weight of loss by supporting them as they re-engage with life. Therapists guide patients in developing tools to maintain emotional stability and rediscover a sense of hope and meaning.

Personal Growth and Continued Bonds

Healing from grief does not mean forgetting your loved one. Instead, grief counseling helps you find new ways to honor memories by supporting both healing and personal growth. Over time, patients begin to heal and connect more deeply with themselves, their families, and their communities.

Phase 1: History Taking

Before beginning EMDR, your trauma therapist will get to know more about your experiences and symptoms. This step is for you to share about events in your past that may be affecting your current mindset.

Phase 2: Preparation

This stage is about ensuring your readiness for EMDR. Even though EMDR therapy for trauma is completely safe, it can be problematic for individuals who commonly experience dissociation. As a safeguard, your trauma therapist will work with you to create your own “calm place” to concentrate on if you feel distressed.

Phase 3: Assessment

It’s now time to choose a target to be reprocessed during your next few sessions. In doing so, you’ll need to identify a vivid image related to the memory, a negative cognition about yourself associated with it, and emotions and bodily sensations that accompany both. Your therapist will then have you challenge that negative cognition with a cognitive one. They will have you rate how true your positive cognition feels and how much distress the target memory causes you on a scale from 1-10.

Phase 4: Desensitization

This is where Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing comes into play. When you feel ready, your therapist will guide you to process your negative feelings and memories using bilateral eye movements to facilitate the brain’s healing process. This will help to ground you and take more directed focus on the thoughts, feelings, and images associated with your target. Every minute or so, your therapist will check in on what you’ve noticed and ask you to rate how much discomfort you’re now feeling. When you no longer report distress related to your targeted memory, you move onto the next step.

Phase 5: Installation

Next, your attention will be brought back to the positive cognition you identified earlier. Your trauma/PTSD therapist will recheck how true this belief now feels. The goal is to get this belief to feel like it’s 100 percent true.

Phase 6: Body Scan

You will now be asked to check your body for any areas of tension in your body caused by the target memory. Are your teeth clenched? Is your chest tight? Any uncomfortable physical sensations will be reprocessed using the same procedure as before until you can think of the target memory without feeling any tension.

Phase 7: Closure

At the end of every session, your trauma counselor will make sure that you are leaving feeling more relaxed than when you arrived. If you are feeling agitated, they will lead you through self-calming techniques until you regain your sense of control.

Phase 8: Reevaluation

At the beginning of each subsequent session, your therapist will ask you questions to ensure your positive beliefs have been maintained. This will also help them to identify any new problem areas that may need to be targeted.

EMDR therapy for trauma is considered a success once you are able to bring up memories of trauma without feeling the distress that brought you to therapy. Your trauma therapist will also provide you with the techniques and skills you need going forward to deal with upsetting feelings.

Techniques in Grief Therapy

At Louis Laves-Webb, LCSW, LPC-S & Associates, we use a range of therapeutic techniques to support patients throughout the grieving process. Each approach is designed to create a safe and supportive environment where individuals can express emotions, find relief from emotional pain, and strengthen their coping strategies.

Therapist with clipboard listens to client in yellow sweater during a counseling session in a cozy office.

Grief Counseling Sessions

One-on-one grief counseling sessions provide personalized care that meets each person where they are in their journey. These sessions help patients explore the emotions that accompany grief, such as sadness, anger, and confusion, while learning to cope in healthy ways. With the guidance of a grief counselor, patients can process their pain and begin to rebuild emotional stability.

Grief Support Groups

Grief support groups in Austin, TX, offer a supportive community where individuals can connect with others who understand their experience. These groups allow participants to share stories, feelings, and memories in a supportive space. Joining a group can reduce feelings of isolation and promote healing through shared connection.

Mind-Body Awareness

Therapists may incorporate gentle body awareness techniques to help patients reconnect with themselves physically and emotionally. Recognizing where emotional weight resides in the body can support relaxation, balance, and a sense of presence during the healing journey. This process helps patients better manage symptoms of grief, such as fatigue, tension, or restlessness.

Cognitive and Emotional Processing

Grief therapy encourages patients to identify and understand their thoughts and feelings about loss. Therapists help individuals reframe overwhelming thoughts and find meaning in their experiences. This reflection promotes mental health and supports personal growth as patients develop a deeper connection with their inner world and the memories of their loved one.

Phase 1: History Taking

Before beginning EMDR, your trauma therapist will get to know more about your experiences and symptoms. This step is for you to share about events in your past that may be affecting your current mindset.

Phase 2: Preparation

This stage is about ensuring your readiness for EMDR. Even though EMDR therapy for trauma is completely safe, it can be problematic for individuals who commonly experience dissociation. As a safeguard, your trauma therapist will work with you to create your own “calm place” to concentrate on if you feel distressed.

Phase 3: Assessment

It’s now time to choose a target to be reprocessed during your next few sessions. In doing so, you’ll need to identify a vivid image related to the memory, a negative cognition about yourself associated with it, and emotions and bodily sensations that accompany both. Your therapist will then have you challenge that negative cognition with a cognitive one. They will have you rate how true your positive cognition feels and how much distress the target memory causes you on a scale from 1-10.

Phase 4: Desensitization

This is where Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing comes into play. When you feel ready, your therapist will guide you to process your negative feelings and memories using bilateral eye movements to facilitate the brain’s healing process. This will help to ground you and take more directed focus on the thoughts, feelings, and images associated with your target. Every minute or so, your therapist will check in on what you’ve noticed and ask you to rate how much discomfort you’re now feeling. When you no longer report distress related to your targeted memory, you move onto the next step.

Phase 5: Installation

Next, your attention will be brought back to the positive cognition you identified earlier. Your trauma/PTSD therapist will recheck how true this belief now feels. The goal is to get this belief to feel like it’s 100 percent true.

Phase 6: Body Scan

You will now be asked to check your body for any areas of tension in your body caused by the target memory. Are your teeth clenched? Is your chest tight? Any uncomfortable physical sensations will be reprocessed using the same procedure as before until you can think of the target memory without feeling any tension.

Phase 7: Closure

At the end of every session, your trauma counselor will make sure that you are leaving feeling more relaxed than when you arrived. If you are feeling agitated, they will lead you through self-calming techniques until you regain your sense of control.

Phase 8: Reevaluation

At the beginning of each subsequent session, your therapist will ask you questions to ensure your positive beliefs have been maintained. This will also help them to identify any new problem areas that may need to be targeted.

EMDR therapy for trauma is considered a success once you are able to bring up memories of trauma without feeling the distress that brought you to therapy. Your trauma therapist will also provide you with the techniques and skills you need going forward to deal with upsetting feelings.

Benefits of Grief Therapy

Patients who engage in grief therapy in Austin, TX, often experience powerful emotional and psychological benefits that support their long-term well-being.

A young man stands outdoors with his eyes closed and head slightly tilted up, appearing calm and reflective under a blue sky with clouds, symbolizing peace, healing, and emotional relief, possibly after grief therapy.
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Increased Emotional Awareness

Grief therapy helps patients recognize and process complex emotions with greater clarity. This awareness fosters understanding of the grieving process as a natural response to losing someone deeply important, allowing for more authentic emotional expression.

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Improved Emotional Stability

As patients learn effective coping strategies, they gain tools to navigate the ups and downs of grief with steadiness. This balance supports daily functioning and emotional stability, helping individuals gradually rebuild their sense of control and peace.

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Restored Sense of Connection

Through grief counseling and support groups, patients experience the power of community and shared understanding. Connection to others who are grieving provides comfort, normalization, and hope during a difficult time.

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Personal Growth and Healing

Grief is often a painful experience, but it can also open the door to deep personal growth. Therapy helps patients explore new ways of relating to themselves, their families, and their memories, allowing them to heal while continuing bonds with loved ones who have passed.

Frequently Asked Questions About Grief Therapy

What is grief therapy?

Grief therapy is a form of counseling that helps individuals navigate the grieving process after losing a loved one. It provides a supportive environment to explore emotions, process pain, and develop strategies to cope with grief while fostering healing and growth.

How is grief therapy different from support groups?

Grief counseling focuses on one-on-one therapeutic work with a licensed therapist, while grief support groups bring people together to share experiences in a community setting. Many patients benefit from participating in both, as therapy offers personalized care and groups provide ongoing support and shared understanding.

Who can benefit from grief therapy?

Grief therapy can help adults, families, and individuals dealing with recent loss, complicated grief, anticipatory grief, or prolonged sadness after death. It can also benefit anyone seeking mental health support and a safe space to express emotions related to grief.

Are there virtual options for grief counseling?

Yes. Louis Laves-Webb, LCSW, LPC-S & Associates offers both in-person and virtual options for counseling and group sessions. This flexibility ensures patients receive continuous support, whether they prefer meeting face-to-face or from the comfort of their home.

How do I begin grief therapy at Louis Laves-Webb, LCSW, LPC-S & Associates?

Getting started with grief therapy is simple. Schedule an initial consultation with one of our licensed therapists. During this first step, we’ll discuss your needs, symptoms, and goals. Together, we’ll create a personalized plan that may include individual counseling, support groups, or other strategies to help you heal at your own pace.

If you still have questions, please feel free to give us a call: (512) 914-6635

LGBTQIA+ Affirming Grief Therapy for Healing and Renewal

Grief touches everyone differently, and finding a supportive space that honors your identity can make all the difference. Our LGBTQIA+ affirming grief therapy in Austin, TX, provides a safe and supportive environment to express emotions, process loss, and begin your healing journey.

Start Your Grief Healing Journey

See What Our Patients Have To Say 

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"Louis is an incredible therapist.  His approach to patients is truly one-of-a-kind by first and foremost ensuring there is a gentle and safe environment to have an open conversation.  Louis has helped me through several issues I've faced throughout my life..."

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“Louis has been instrumental to a lot of my own personal growth and development. And the work he has helped me go through has impacted not only me, but everyone around me and the relationships around me.”

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“Robbie allowed me to soften and open up to an internal world that I didn’t even know existed.”

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“I’ve worked with therapists for the last 7 years and I’ve never had such a positive experience like I’ve had with Kalee. The perfect balance of feeling safe and cared for while also giving friendly and intelligent guidance to achieve my therapy goals.”

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“I’ve worked with therapists for the last 7 years and I’ve never had such a positive experience like I’ve had with Kalee. The perfect balance of feeling safe and cared for while also giving friendly and intelligent guidance to achieve my therapy goals.”

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"My time spent with Mr. Laves-webb has been a blessing. He and his staff are professional and informative. They listened when I spoke and help me decide what was best for me. I no longer feel lost in my own head and I know whom I can contact to help me sort through my life. Thank you All for what you have helped me with. I appreciate your time."

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"Very helpful and personable.  Been seeing him for couple's counseling for several years and he's helped us through some tough times."

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