Grief & Loss Counseling in Denver, CO
Trauma-informed grief therapy from a Certified Death Doula and experienced Spiritual Counselor.
Not all grief comes from a death loss. Not all loss impacts us the same way. Any ending or change creates space for grief — the end of a relationship, the loss of a job, the shift in identity that comes with a diagnosis, a move, a transition, or simply the slow realization that the version of yourself you used to be is gone.
Western culture doesn't give us much room for this. We're expected to "move on," to be "resilient," to stop talking about the loss after some imagined appropriate window. But grief itself isn't a problem to solve. It's an experience that often doesn't leave us — we simply learn how to carry it differently.
What is Grief Counseling?
Grief counseling is therapy that holds space for the full experience of loss. It's not about helping you get over what you've lost. It's about helping you find a way to live with what's gone, in a way that lets you also live with what remains.
At Enkindle Counseling, grief work is informed by Ryan's training as a Certified Death Doula and experienced Spiritual Counselor, alongside his clinical training as an LPC and his AASECT membership. This combination means our grief work integrates clinical methods, somatic awareness, and the spiritual and ritual dimensions of loss that secular therapy often overlooks.
Types of Loss We Work With
Grief takes many forms, and not all of them are recognized by the culture as "valid" loss. We work with all of them:
Death loss. Losing a parent, partner, child, friend, or other loved one. Sudden loss, anticipatory grief, complicated grief, traumatic loss.
Pet loss. A loss the dominant culture often minimizes, but which is profound for those who experience it.
Relationship loss. Breakups, divorce, estrangement, friendships ending, the loss of community.
Ambiguous loss. When someone is physically present but psychologically gone (dementia, addiction, profound mental illness), or psychologically present but physically gone (estrangement, missing persons).
Identity loss. The grief of transition — gender transition, religious transition, career transition, recovery, sobriety, immigration. The version of yourself you're moving away from is also a loss.
Loss of safety. After trauma, after assault, after diagnosis, after a major shift in your sense of the world. (See Trauma Therapy for trauma-specific work.)
Loss within the LGBTQIA+ experience. Family rejection, lost relationships from coming out, communities lost to AIDS, the grief of having to grieve your own identity formation.
Living loss. Watching someone we love change in ways that mean we're already grieving them while they're still here.
If your grief doesn't fit a named category, that's not because it isn't real. It's because the culture hasn't given it a name yet.
Our Approach
Grief work at Enkindle integrates:
Witnessing as core practice. Often, what grief most needs is to be seen and named without being rushed.
Somatic and body-based methods. Grief lives in the body — in the chest, the throat, the stomach. We work with how it's actually being held, not just how you talk about it.
Spirit and ritual. Drawing on Ryan's training as a Certified Death Doula and experienced Spiritual Counselor, we make space for the spiritual and ritual dimensions of loss when they're meaningful to you. This is not about imposing belief; it's about honoring whatever cosmology, ancestry, or meaning-making is part of how you're processing the loss.
A trauma-informed lens. Some losses arrive with traumatic features (sudden, violent, deeply unjust) and need trauma-specific work alongside grief support.
Decolonization-informed framing. Western grief norms — particularly around timing, expression, and the linear stages model — are cultural, not universal. We hold space for whatever your grief actually looks like.
Who We Work With
We work with individuals navigating grief of any kind, and with partners or relational systems where grief is being held collectively (the death of a child, the loss of a friend who was close to multiple partners, etc.).
Particularly welcomed:
LGBTQIA+ clients carrying losses the culture often refuses to recognize
Clients whose grief is complicated by trauma, ambiguous circumstances, or systemic injustice
Clients who feel their grief has gone on "too long" by the standards of others
Clients whose grief is anticipatory — grieving someone who is still here, or grieving a future that's slipping away
Clients whose loss is invisible to others around them
What to Expect in Sessions
The first session is a chance to talk about your loss, what kind of support you're looking for, and what hasn't been working in how you've been carrying it. There's no pressure to share more than feels right.
Ongoing sessions move at your pace. Some sessions are reflective and verbal; others involve somatic work or ritual elements if those resonate. Many grieving clients find that having a steady weekly space to bring grief — without time limits or expectations — is itself a kind of relief.
All sessions are virtual via secure video, available throughout Colorado.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does grief counseling take?
There's no fixed timeline. Some clients work through grief in 3 to 6 months; others find ongoing therapy meaningful for a year or more, particularly with complex or compounded losses. We'll talk together about what's enough and revisit as the work evolves.
My loss happened years ago. Is it too late for grief counseling?
No. Grief that hasn't been fully witnessed often waits. Many clients come to grief work years or decades after the loss itself, and find significant relief in finally having space to feel what wasn't allowed at the time.
I'm grieving something that wasn't a death. Is that still grief counseling?
Yes. Grief is a response to any significant loss, and our work treats it as such. The death-only framing of grief is a cultural artifact, not a clinical reality.
What if my grief feels too big to talk about?
That's common. Somatic and witnessing-based approaches don't require detailed narration of the loss. We can work with how grief is showing up in your body without forcing the story to come forward before it's ready.
Do you work with anticipatory grief — grief for someone who's still here?
Yes. Anticipatory grief is its own clinical territory and is often overlooked. Whether you're caring for someone with a terminal illness, watching a parent's cognition decline, or living with your own diagnosis, this is grief work too.
Begin Your Healing Journey
Whatever you've lost, however long ago, however the world has or hasn't acknowledged it — your grief deserves a space. Schedule a free 20-minute consultation and let's see if working together is right.