Understanding Grief and Bereavement: You Don't Have to Navigate This Alone

Pamela Giarrizzo, Registered Psychotherapist | Discover Your Path Psychotherapy

What Is Grief?

Grief is defined in the clinical literature as the subjective experience associated with loss — most often the death of a loved one, though it can arise from any significant loss or major life change (Stroebe et al., 2007). It involves emotional, psychological, social, and even spiritual reactions that are deeply individual in nature.

Grief can be triggered by many kinds of loss

Whatever your loss looks like, it is valid. Grief does not require permission, and it does not follow a hierarchy.

Grief Is Not Linear — And the Research Confirms This

The five stages of grief model — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance — is widely known, but it was never intended to be a rigid roadmap. Contemporary grief research has moved significantly beyond this framework. We now understand that for most people, grief is non-linear, highly individual, and does not follow a predictable sequence (Stroebe & Schut, 2010).

Research shows that most bereaved people adapt over time — typically within the first six months to two years — though this varies enormously depending on the nature of the loss, the person's support system, and individual resilience factors (National Cancer Institute, 2024). Grief can be loud or quiet, sharp or diffuse. It can come in waves years after a loss, triggered by a song, a smell, or an ordinary afternoon. None of this is wrong. All of it is grief.

When Grief Becomes Prolonged

While grief is a normal and expected response to loss, a significant minority of bereaved individuals experience what researchers now formally call Prolonged Grief Disorder — a condition characterized by intense, persistent grief that significantly impairs daily functioning beyond what would be expected given the loss. It was formally recognized in the DSM-5-TR in 2022, reflecting decades of clinical research.

You may be experiencing prolonged grief if:

Grief Lives in the Body Too

Grief is not only an emotional experience. It has well-documented physical effects — research has shown that bereavement is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events, immune system changes, sleep disruption, and in some cases increased mortality, particularly in older adults who have lost a spouse.

People navigating loss commonly experience:

These are not signs of weakness. They are signs that you loved deeply — and that this loss matters.

What Does Evidence-Based Grief Support Actually Look Like?

A landmark 2025 systematic review found moderate evidence supporting the positive effects of psychotherapy on grief symptoms and depression — and moderate evidence that expert-facilitated support groups significantly improve grief outcomes. Moderate evidence means a clear, proven benefit. The weight becomes a little easier to carry. You may sleep better, feel less alone, and find that the sadness, while still present, no longer feels quite so heavy.

Research also shows that online bereavement support is effective — reducing grief intensity, depression, and isolation — with participant retention rates typically above 70%. This is particularly meaningful for Canadians in remote or underserved communities where in-person services are limited.

Research also shows that online bereavement support is effective — reducing grief intensity, depression, and isolation — with participant retention rates typically above 70% (PMC, 2024). This is particularly meaningful for Canadians in remote or underserved communities where in-person services are limited.

Grief in Couples: When You Are Both Hurting

One of the least discussed dimensions of grief is how differently partners can experience the same loss. Couples who have experienced the death of a child — one of the most profound losses a human being can face — often grieve on different timelines, in different ways, with different needs. One partner may want to talk about the loss constantly; the other may need silence and routine. These differences can create real distance at exactly the moment when closeness matters most.

This is not a sign that your relationship is broken. Research on bereaved parents confirms that the divergence in grieving styles between partners is common and does not reflect a lack of love or care for one another (PMC, 2025). It reflects the deeply personal nature of grief — even when it is shared.

Our couples grief bereavement groups in Barrie offer a rare, structured space for partners to grieve together — in community, without the pressure of holding each other up alone.

You don't have to grieve in the same way to grieve together. 

Our Approach: Heartfelt, Direct, and Grounded in Research

At Discover Your Path Psychotherapy, grief support is not about being told how to feel or being handed a checklist to work through. It is a space to slow down. To say the name of the person you lost. To feel what you feel, without editing yourself for the comfort of those around you.

Our approach is warm and direct. We will sit with you in the hard moments — and we will also gently challenge the patterns or beliefs that may be keeping you stuck. Grief work is not passive. It asks something of you. And it gives something back.

If grief is something you are carrying right now — whether it is fresh or something you have held for years — we are here to meet you, right where you are.

References

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). (2025). Interventions to Improve Care of Bereaved Persons. Systematic Review. AHRQ Publication No. 25-EHC010.

American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR, 5th ed., Text Revision).

National Cancer Institute. (2024). Grief, Bereavement, and Coping With Loss (PDQ). NCBI Bookshelf.

Nielsen, M.K., Sparle Christensen, K., Neergaard, M.A., Bidstrup, P.E., & Guldin, M.B. (2025). Grief trajectories and long-term health effects in bereaved relatives: a prospective, population-based cohort study with ten-year follow-up. Frontiers in Public Health, 13.

PMC. (2025). Prolonged grief disorder in bereaved parents: Exploring impacts and treatment pathways. Published online May 2025.

PMC. (2024). A rapid review of the evidence for online interventions for bereavement support.

Stroebe, M.S., Hansson, R.O., Schut, H., et al. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of Bereavement Research and Practice. American Psychological Association.

Stroebe, M., & Schut, H. (2010). The dual process model of coping with bereavement: A decade on. OMEGA — Journal of Death and Dying, 61(4), 273-289.