Grief extends well beyond bereavement. It lives inside many kinds of loss: relationship endings, diagnosis, pregnancy loss, ambiguous loss, and the life someone thought they were going to have. At the Center for Connection, we believe grief is not a problem to be solved but an experience to be accompanied. Our therapists work with adults, children, and families using a nervous system-informed, relationally grounded approach. We also support children using play therapy and work with parents to help them understand how grief shows up differently in kids. We serve clients across Pasadena, Duarte, and Santa Barbara.
A safe, non-judgmental space to bring the full complexity of grief, including the parts that feel unacceptable. Support in making meaning of loss rather than being required to move past it on a timeline. Reduced isolation, which is one of the most painful aspects of grief. For children, age-appropriate ways to process loss through play and relationship. For parents, guidance in supporting grieving children without having to have all the answers. A therapeutic relationship that can hold grief over time, without rushing toward resolution.
Grief doesn’t follow a timeline. It doesn’t follow stages in the order the books describe, or resolve itself at the point when people around you expect it should. And it isn’t limited to death, though death is certainly part of it. Grief lives inside many kinds of loss: the end of a relationship, a diagnosis that changes life’s shape, the loss of a pregnancy, a friendship that faded, the distance that has grown in a family, or the life you thought you were going to have.
If you’re carrying something that feels too heavy to carry alone, we’re here for you.
There is also what clinicians call ambiguous loss, the kind of grief that doesn’t have a clear object or a socially recognized mourning ritual. Grieving a relationship with a living parent who can no longer know you. Grieving a version of your child you had to let go of after a difficult diagnosis. Grieving who you were before an illness, or a betrayal, or a significant loss of ability. These losses are real. They deserve acknowledgment and support, not minimization.
In children, grief looks different than it does in adults. Kids often grieve in shorter, more intense bursts, and then appear to return to normal play. This can be confusing or even alarming to grieving adults around them. It doesn’t mean they aren’t affected. Children process loss through behavior, through play, through body, and through the quality of their relationships with the adults around them. They need the adults in their lives to be honest with them, in age-appropriate ways, and to show them that big feelings can be survived.
Key Insight
Grief is not a single emotion. It is a constellation of experiences that can include profound sadness, anger, guilt, numbness, relief, confusion, physical exhaustion, and moments of unexpected laughter or lightness. Sometimes those all show up in the same week, or the same hour. That is not a sign that something is wrong with how you’re grieving. It is how grief works.
We don’t try to move you through grief faster. We believe grief is not a problem to be solved, but an experience to be accompanied.
At the Center for Connection, our work with grief is grounded in the framework of interpersonal neurobiology. Grief is, among other things, a nervous system experience. The physical heaviness, the difficulty concentrating, the waves that come without warning, these are not signs of weakness. They are the body doing the work of loss. We work with that reality rather than around it.
Our therapists create a space where you can bring all of it: the parts that feel acceptable and the parts that don’t. The anger you’re not sure you’re allowed to feel. The relief mixed in with the sadness. The way grief is touching old losses alongside the new one. All of that belongs here.
For children, we use play therapy and expressive approaches to help them process loss at the level where they actually live, which is not primarily in words and insight but in experience, movement, and relationship. We also work with parents and caregivers to help them understand what they’re seeing and how to support their child without needing to have all the answers.
We also know that grief doesn’t exist in isolation. The people around you are often grieving too, and sometimes that creates connection. Other times it creates distance, when the people who share your loss are grieving differently and don’t quite know how to reach each other. We work with families navigating this together, and we can help you find language for what’s happening when grief is pulling people in different directions rather than toward each other.
We also support individuals and families navigating anticipatory grief, the grief that comes before a loss. Caring for a loved one with a terminal illness. Watching a relationship end in slow motion. Preparing for a transition you know is coming and dread. This is real grief, and it deserves real support.
Adults processing the death of a loved one, including unexpected or traumatic loss
Children and teenagers who have experienced the loss of a parent, sibling, grandparent, or friend
Families navigating grief together, when different members are grieving differently
Individuals experiencing anticipatory grief while caring for a dying loved one
People navigating ambiguous loss: estrangement, a loved one’s dementia, pregnancy loss, or the loss of a life they expected to have
Individuals whose grief has become complicated or feels stuck, even years after a loss
We serve clients across our Pasadena, Duarte, and Santa Barbara locations. If you’re looking for grief therapy in Pasadena, bereavement counseling in the Los Angeles area, or support for a grieving child in Santa Barbara, we would be honored to walk alongside you.
There is no right way to grieve. But you don’t have to do it alone. To get started, complete our short online form and we’ll be in touch.
The scientific lens that informs our work is interpersonal neurobiology, an exciting field of research about the neuroscience of change and of healthy, connected relationships.
We know that connected relationships matter and play a role in how our brains and lives change, so that's where we start.
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Neither. Some people come right after a loss because they need support navigating the immediate aftermath. Others come months or years later, when they realize grief is still shaping their life in ways they want to understand. Both are valid reasons to be here.
No. Grief isn’t something you get past. It’s something you integrate. Our work is about helping you carry what you’ve lost in a way that lets you live fully again, not about pretending the loss didn’t happen or shouldn’t still matter.
All of them. Death of a loved one, yes. Also ambiguous loss like the loss of someone to dementia or estrangement, loss of a relationship, loss of health, loss of identity after a major life change, pregnancy and infant loss. Grief shows up around many kinds of absence.
Yes, though their grief often looks different from adult grief. Kids may show grief through behavior, regression, or struggle in areas that seemed fine before. Our child and teen therapists work with grieving kids using developmentally appropriate approaches, including play therapy for younger children.
Yes. For some people, grief gets stuck in a way that makes it hard to function. We’re trained in approaches for prolonged grief, including the relational work that often needs to happen alongside any technique.
Friends are important, but they have their own feelings about your loss, and they can’t always hold space the way a trained clinician can. Grief therapy gives you an hour that’s entirely for your experience, with someone whose job is to help you make sense of it.
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