Grief Counseling

At our counseling practice in the heart of Buckhead, Atlanta, we understand that grief is a profound and personal journey. Whether you are coping with the loss of a romantic relationship, navigating a life transition, mourning the death of a loved one or a cherished pet, or experiencing the pain of a lost friendship, we are here to support you through every step of your healing process.

Types of Loss We Support

Grief doesn’t require the death of a person to be real and deserving of care. Our therapists work with all forms of loss, including:

• Death of a loved one — family members, partners, close friends, and significant others
• Loss of a pet — a deeply felt loss that is often minimized by others but is no less real
• Relationship endings — divorce, breakups, and the grief of a future you once envisioned
• Life transitions — retirement, career change, relocation, and the identity losses that accompany them
• Pregnancy and infant loss — miscarriage, stillbirth, and infertility
• Estrangement — from a parent, child, sibling, or close friend
• Loss of friendship — the end of a relationship that shaped who you are

Types of Grief: Understanding Your Experience

Not all grief looks the same, and recognizing the form your grief takes can help you find the right support.

Acute grief is the immediate, intense response following a significant loss. It is painful and disorienting but tends to ease gradually over time as you adapt to the new reality.

Anticipatory grief occurs before a loss — when a loved one is terminally ill, when a relationship is ending, or when a major life change is approaching. The sadness, fear, and helplessness are just as real as grief that comes after.

Disenfranchised grief describes loss that is not publicly acknowledged or socially supported — the end of an affair, the death of a pet, pregnancy loss, or grief over estrangement. These losses can be isolating precisely because others don’t recognize them as losses.

Prolonged Grief Disorder (formerly called complicated grief) is a clinical condition recognized when grief symptoms remain severe and impairing for more than twelve months. Signs include persistent difficulty accepting the loss, intense yearning, bitterness, and inability to engage in daily life. Prolonged Grief Disorder is treatable with specialized therapy, and our clinicians are trained to identify and address it.

Grief and PTSD: When Loss Becomes Trauma

When a loss is sudden, violent, or involves witnessing death, grief can trigger full Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms — intrusive images, hypervigilance, avoidance of reminders, and emotional numbing. Our therapists are trained in trauma-focused treatment and can address both the grief and the trauma response concurrently. If you are experiencing intrusive memories, nightmares, or inability to think about the loss without panic, please reach out — this is treatable.

How We Treat Grief: Therapeutic Approaches at Sea Change

Our therapists draw from several evidence-based frameworks depending on what each client needs most.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) for grief helps you understand the different “parts” of yourself that respond to loss — the part that is devastated, the part that wants to keep moving, the part that feels guilty for laughing. IFS creates compassionate dialogue between these parts rather than suppressing or being overwhelmed by any of them.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is highly effective when grief is traumatic — when the death was sudden, violent, or witnessed, or when loss reactivates earlier trauma. EMDR helps the nervous system process the memory so it no longer triggers an acute stress response every time it surfaces.

The Dual Process Model, developed by grief researchers Stroebe and Schut, informs how we structure therapy. This model recognizes that healthy grieving oscillates between loss-oriented processing (directly engaging with the pain) and restoration-oriented activity (rebuilding life and identity). Therapy supports both directions rather than pushing you to “move on” or to stay focused on the loss.

Attachment-based grief work addresses how your early relational history shapes the way you grieve. Those with anxious attachment may be consumed by grief; those with avoidant attachment may shut down. Our therapists help you understand your grief style without judgment.

What Grief Therapy at Sea Change Looks Like

In your first sessions, your therapist focuses on understanding the nature of your loss — who or what you lost, the circumstances, and how it has affected your daily life. You are never pushed to talk about anything before you are ready.

As therapy progresses, sessions may involve processing specific memories, exploring the meaning the relationship held for you, working through guilt or unfinished business, and gradually building a sense of what a meaningful life looks like going forward. For many clients, therapy also includes learning to carry the relationship forward in memory — grief researchers call this “continuing bonds” — rather than being expected to detach or “let go.”

Our Grief Therapist

Tamalyn Meller, M.Ed. specializes in grief and loss alongside life transitions, trauma recovery, and identity work. She brings particular expertise in grief connected to illness and accident — sudden changes that alter the life you expected — as well as the losses that accompany major transitions like divorce, retirement, and estrangement. Her approach is trauma-informed and draws from IFS, attachment-based therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), helping clients process loss without being consumed by it. Tamalyn also has personal experience navigating significant life transitions, which informs the depth of her clinical work.

Sessions are available in person in Buckhead and virtually throughout Georgia.

Grief, Anxiety, and Depression

Grief and mental health are intricately linked. It is common for individuals dealing with grief to also experience symptoms of anxiety and depression — the uncertainty and sense of loss that come with grief can trigger or intensify these conditions, making daily functioning difficult. Grief can also lead to a lasting sadness, emotional numbness, or disconnection from others.

Understanding that grief can sometimes overlap with clinical depression or anxiety disorders is essential. When these conditions develop alongside loss, integrated treatment addresses both at once rather than treating them separately.

Grief Counseling in Atlanta

Sea Change Psychotherapy offers grief counseling in person in Buckhead and via telehealth throughout Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Colorado. Healing is not about forgetting the loss — it is about finding a way to live alongside it, with support. We invite you to reach out for a consultation.