Complete Grief Support Guide: Professional Help and Resources for Loss

Grief is not a problem to solve or a timeline to complete. It’s the natural response to losing someone you love, and it changes everything about how you experience the world. There’s no “right way” to grieve, no schedule you should follow, and no point at which you’re “supposed to be over it.” Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t understand grief.

Memorial Merits created this comprehensive grief support guide to provide professional resources, practical strategies, and compassionate guidance for people navigating loss. Whether you lost someone yesterday or years ago, whether you’re supporting a grieving friend or helping a child process death, these resources connect you with licensed therapists, crisis support, and evidence-based approaches to healing at your own pace.

Why Professional Grief Support Matters

Grief is normal, but that doesn’t mean you have to navigate it alone. Professional grief counseling provides specialized support from therapists who understand the unique challenges of bereavement including complicated grief, traumatic loss, anticipatory grief, disenfranchised grief, and the difference between depression and grief. Licensed grief counselors help you process emotions without judgment, develop coping strategies for overwhelming moments, and navigate practical challenges like returning to work or explaining loss to children.

Many people resist therapy because they think grief counseling means “getting over” their loved one or “moving on.” That’s not what grief therapy does. Good grief counseling helps you carry your loss in ways that allow you to continue living, honoring your loved one’s memory while also taking care of yourself. It’s not about forgetting. It’s about learning to live with absence.

This guide provides both professional therapy resources and practical guidance for common grief challenges. You’ll learn what to expect in early grief, how to support others who are grieving, and where to find immediate help during crisis moments when grief feels unbearable.

The Complete Grief Support Resource Collection

1. Understanding Grief: The Early Weeks After Loss

The first weeks after someone dies are disorienting, exhausting, and often frighteningly unpredictable. You might feel numb one moment and overwhelmed the next. You might forget your loved one died and then remember with crushing force. You might function perfectly well during funeral arrangements and then collapse when everyone goes home. This resource explains what’s normal in early grief including the physical symptoms of grief (exhaustion, appetite changes, sleep disruption, brain fog), emotional waves and triggers, the myth of grief stages, why you might feel relief or anger instead of sadness, and when grief responses signal you need professional help. Understanding that your experience is normal provides comfort when everything feels unbearable.

Read: Understanding Grief: The Early Weeks After Loss →

2. Supporting Someone Grieving: How to Help a Friend

When someone you care about is grieving, you want to help but don’t know what to say or do. Most people default to clichés that hurt rather than help, or they avoid the grieving person entirely because they’re uncomfortable with pain. This resource provides practical guidance for supporting grieving friends including what to say (and what never to say), how to offer concrete help instead of vague offers like “let me know if you need anything,” how to show up consistently weeks and months after the funeral when most people disappear, understanding that you can’t fix their grief or make it better, and how to recognize when your friend needs professional help beyond what friendship can provide. Supporting someone through grief is one of the most meaningful things you can do, and this guide helps you do it well.

Read: Supporting Someone Grieving →

3. Navigating Grief in Daily Life: Work, Relationships, and Special Occasions

Grief doesn’t pause for work deadlines, relationship challenges, or holidays. You’re expected to function normally while processing profound loss, and the gap between what you’re experiencing internally versus what you’re showing externally can be exhausting. This resource addresses practical grief challenges including returning to work while grieving (when to return, how to handle coworkers, requesting accommodations), relationship strain when partners grieve differently, navigating the first year of holidays and anniversaries without your loved one, managing social situations where people don’t know how to respond, and the long-term challenge of integrating loss into ongoing life. Grief changes you permanently, and learning to navigate daily life with that change is an ongoing process this resource supports.

Read: Navigating Grief in Daily Life →

4. Professional Grief Therapy: Licensed Counselors and Online Support

Professional grief counseling provides specialized support from licensed therapists who understand bereavement, trauma, and the unique challenges of loss. Memorial Merits has vetted online therapy platforms that connect you with grief counselors offering flexible scheduling, text or video sessions, and specialized expertise in loss and bereavement. These services provide immediate access to licensed therapists without wait lists, often at lower cost than traditional in-person therapy:

• TalkSpace Grief Therapy: Licensed counselors specializing in grief and loss, text/video sessions available
• Online-Therapy.com: Comprehensive grief support with licensed therapists and cognitive behavioral therapy tools
• Calmerry Online Therapy: Grief-focused therapy with personalized counselor matching
• Innerwell Grief Support: Compassionate psychiatry and counseling for complex grief

Online therapy isn’t a replacement for in-person counseling in all situations, but it provides accessible, affordable options for people who can’t access traditional therapy due to cost, location, scheduling, or mobility challenges.

5. Helping Children and Teens Process Grief

Children grieve differently than adults, and their needs change dramatically by age and developmental stage. A preschooler needs different support than a teenager, and both need age-appropriate honesty rather than euphemisms that create confusion. This resource provides comprehensive guidance for supporting grieving children including how to explain death honestly by age group without causing additional trauma, recognizing grief in children’s behavior including regression, anger, or withdrawal, supporting children through funerals and memorial services, when children need professional grief counseling, and age-specific approaches that help children understand and process loss in developmentally appropriate ways.

Read: How to Talk to Children About Death (Age-Specific Guidance) →

Beyond initial conversations about death, ongoing grief support helps children cope with loss over time as their understanding deepens with development. Learn strategies for helping young children navigate the emotional challenges of grief, support them through difficult moments like holidays and anniversaries, and recognize when professional intervention becomes necessary.

Read: Children and Grief: Helping Young Ones Understand and Cope →

6. Anticipatory Grief: Coping When Your Loved One Is Dying

Anticipatory grief is the profound sadness, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion that begins before someone dies, during terminal illness, hospice care, or progressive diseases like dementia or ALS. You’re grieving the person while they’re still alive, mourning the future you won’t have together, watching them suffer, and carrying impossible emotional weight while simultaneously trying to be strong for them. This resource addresses the unique challenges of anticipatory grief including guilt about grieving before death, caregiver exhaustion and burnout, navigating hospice care decisions, how to be present during someone’s final weeks or days, supporting children through a parent’s terminal illness, and understanding that anticipatory grief doesn’t make the actual death easier. You’ll learn coping strategies for this prolonged emotional state, when to seek professional support, and how to care for yourself while caring for someone who is dying.

Read: Anticipatory Grief: How to Cope When Your Loved One Is Dying →

7. Crisis Resources: Immediate Help When Grief Feels Unbearable

Some moments in grief are crisis moments where you need immediate professional support, not scheduled therapy appointments weeks away. If you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts, overwhelming panic, or acute distress that feels unmanageable, crisis resources provide 24/7 support:

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 for immediate 24/7 crisis support
• Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 for 24/7 crisis counseling via text
• SAMHSA National Helpline: 1-800-662-4357 for mental health and substance abuse referrals
• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): 1-800-950-6264 for mental health support and resources
• The Dougy Center: National support for children and families after death
• GriefShare: Faith-based grief support groups nationwide

These resources exist because grief can become acutely dangerous, and getting help during crisis moments can save your life. You’re not weak for needing help. You’re strong for asking.ng for asking.

How to Use This Grief Support Guide

If you’re in early grief (first few weeks or months after loss), start with Resource #1 (Understanding Grief) to normalize what you’re experiencing, then explore Resource #4 (Professional Therapy) if you need additional support beyond what friends and family can provide. If you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts or acute crisis, go directly to Resource #7 (Crisis Resources) for immediate 24/7 help.

If you’re supporting someone else who is grieving, Resource #2 (Supporting Someone Grieving) provides practical guidance for showing up meaningfully. If children in your life are processing loss, Resource #5 (Helping Children Grieve) offers age-appropriate approaches.

For long-term grief challenges like navigating work, relationships, or anniversaries, Resource #3 (Navigating Daily Life) addresses practical situations where grief and normal life collide uncomfortably. If grief feels overwhelming or complicated months or years after loss, Resource #6 (Complicated Grief) helps identify when professional intervention becomes necessary.

Grief is not linear. You might need different resources at different times, and that’s completely normal. Use what helps when it helps.

Additional Memorial and Remembrance Resources

Beyond grief counseling, Memorial Merits provides resources for honoring your loved one’s memory including our Memorial and Remembrance Directory featuring:

• Spirit Pieces Memorial Jewelry for keepsake remembrance
• Pulvis Cremation Jewelry for ash-infused memorial pieces
• Free Digital Memorial and Obituary Platform for sharing your loved one’s story

Creating meaningful memorials and rituals can be part of healthy grieving, providing tangible ways to honor your loved one while processing loss.

You Don’t Have to Grieve Alone

Grief feels isolating, but professional support and community resources exist specifically to help people navigate loss. You’re not weak for needing help. You’re not broken because grief is hard. You’re experiencing a profound human response to losing someone you love, and support is available when you’re ready.

Our AI assistant Solace is available 24/7 to answer questions about grief, connect you with professional resources, and provide compassionate guidance during overwhelming moments. You don’t have to figure this out alone.