Grief therapy in Thunder Bay. Make room for what you have lost.
You can miss someone deeply and still want help finding your footing.
Grief can change the ordinary shape of a day. It can bring love, anger, guilt, numbness, relief, longing, or feelings you cannot quite name. At BelMind Therapeia, grief counselling offers room to understand what you are experiencing and find ways to live with a loss without being asked to forget it.
You do not need a diagnosis, a crisis, or years of suffering to seek support. We offer Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), specialized therapy for prolonged grief, and EMDR when traumatic experiences are part of the loss.
In-person in Thunder Bay · Secure virtual therapy across Ontario
Support for grief at any stage. No deadline. No prescribed way to feel.
Grief does not need to become a disorder before it deserves care.
Grief is a response to losing someone or something that matters. Bereavement refers specifically to the experience of a death. Grief can also follow separation, a miscarriage, the death of a pet, a change in health or identity, or a future that will not happen as imagined. The circumstances and meaning of a loss are personal.
Some people have strong support from family, friends, faith, culture, or community. Others want an additional place where they do not need to protect anyone else’s feelings.
Counselling can help during ordinary grief, including soon after a loss, without labelling that grief as an illness. A 2026 systematic review found that individual psychotherapy can improve grief-related outcomes in bereaved adults, while noting limitations in the wider evidence. [1]
You may want to talk about the person who died, face a difficult anniversary, untangle guilt, rebuild routines, explore what the relationship still means, or simply have someone listen. Therapy can be useful for any of those reasons.
There is no requirement to progress through fixed stages. Feelings may come and go, overlap, or reappear unexpectedly. Your therapist works with the grief you actually experience, not a timetable. [2]
Moving forward does not have to mean moving away from the person, relationship, or life that mattered to you.
There are many ways a loss can stay with you.
These experiences do not, by themselves, mean that something is wrong. They may be reasons you would value support.
Missing them in ordinary moments
A quiet house, a familiar road, an empty chair, or a message you can no longer send brings the absence sharply into focus.
“What if I had done something differently?”
You replay conversations, decisions, the final days, or words you wish you had said. Self-blame can become exhausting.
Trying to work, parent, sleep, or connect
The practical parts of life still need attention, even when motivation, concentration, and energy feel very different.
Feeling sad, angry, relieved, or nothing at all
Loss can bring contradictory feelings. Numbness, moments of enjoyment, or relief after a long illness do not measure how much you cared.
What brings you here may not look like anyone else’s grief.
We can explore grief after the death of a parent, partner, spouse, child, sibling, friend, or another significant person. Support can also address the following experiences without assuming they are all the same.
Sudden or traumatic death
Accidents, suicide, overdose, violence, and other unexpected deaths may leave both grief and distressing memories that need attention.
Anticipatory grief
Fear, sadness, exhaustion, and changes in connection while someone is seriously ill or nearing death.
Miscarriage and infant loss
A loss may include the person, hopes, plans, identity, and future you were beginning to imagine.
Disenfranchised grief
The loss of a pet, an estranged loved one, or a relationship others may not recognize or understand.
Life and identity losses
Separation, serious illness, migration, or changes in ability may require grieving what was familiar.
Multiple losses
Repeated losses, caregiving, family strain, and past trauma can change what is possible to carry at one time.
Important distinction: Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) refers to a specific clinical condition following the death of a person. The specialized PGT research discussed below should not be assumed to apply equally to every kind of loss listed here.
Counselling and a collaborative assessment can still be appropriate for other losses.
ACT for grief: making room for pain while moving toward what matters.
Making room for pain. Making choices about the life that is still here.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) does not ask you to approve of what happened or feel at peace with the loss.
Acceptance means practising a different relationship with feelings and memories you cannot simply switch off, rather than spending all your energy trying not to have them.
In ACT-informed grief therapy, we may explore what happens when you fight difficult feelings, how to notice a painful thought without treating it as the whole truth, and how to make space for sadness while still responding to what matters to you.
Acceptance without resignation
You can wish the death had never happened and begin acknowledging the reality you are living in. Acceptance is not agreement or forgetting.
Stepping out of the struggle with thoughts
Thoughts such as “I should be over this” or “If I enjoy myself, I am betraying them” can be noticed and explored without letting them dictate every decision.
Values and committed action
We might identify small actions connected to love, family, friendship, creativity, spirituality, or daily care, without treating a return to activities as a test of recovery.
ACT has a developing grief-specific evidence base. A systematic review of bereaved partners after palliative care found only two eligible studies and described preliminary benefits, especially for accepting emotions and reducing distress. It did not establish ACT as a proven standalone treatment for Prolonged Grief Disorder. [3]
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for grief.
Understanding the patterns that can make difficult days harder.
Grief can affect what you think about yourself, what happened, and what the future might hold. CBT explores how thoughts, feelings, bodily reactions, and actions influence one another.
It is not about arguing you out of sadness or replacing grief with positive thinking.
If you are caught in guilt, harsh self-judgment, withdrawal, or avoidance, CBT may help you examine the beliefs and behaviours involved and try responses that feel more workable.
Sometimes that means gently examining responsibility in hindsight. Sometimes it means gradually reconnecting with a person, place, or activity you have been avoiding.
Explore the difference between what you knew then and what you know now, without dismissing the importance of what happened.
Choose manageable steps toward people, reminders, routines, and activities when avoidance is keeping life narrow.
Work on practical patterns affecting rest, concentration, activity, and the demands of daily life.
Grief-focused CBT has substantial evidence for prolonged grief symptoms. A 2024 meta-analysis pooled 22 randomized studies involving 2,602 bereaved adults and found meaningful symptom reductions, while cautioning about variation across studies. [4]
A separate randomized trial found that grief-specific CBT and supportive present-centred therapy both helped participants, with some differences in outcomes and follow-up findings. [5]
Prolonged Grief Therapy (PGT) and Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy (PGDT).
Focused care when grief continues to feel intensely painful, consuming, or difficult to integrate into daily life.
Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) is the name of a diagnosis. Prolonged Grief Therapy (PGT) is the name used by Columbia University’s Center for Prolonged Grief for its specialized treatment, developed from earlier work called Complicated Grief Treatment.
Vimal Thomas, MSW, RSW, lists Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy among the approaches he offers at BelMind Therapeia. We use the terms carefully because the diagnosis and the therapy are not the same thing. [6]
PGT is structured and personalized. It helps people acknowledge the reality of the death, work with painful emotions and reminders, maintain a meaningful connection with the person who died, and engage with parts of life that have become difficult.
It does not ask you to stop loving the person or leave them behind.
Six areas addressed in the PGT model
Understand and accept grief
Learn about grief and begin acknowledging what has changed, while finding ways to manage emotional pain.
Imagine a future
Explore hopes, goals, and possibilities without making them compete with the person you miss.
Strengthen connections
Reconnect, where possible, with people, relationships, and sources of support.
Tell the story of the death
Approach the reality and circumstances of the death in a planned, supported way when appropriate.
Live with reminders
Reduce unhelpful avoidance of places, objects, or situations connected with the loss.
Connect with memories
Make room for a fuller relationship with memories of the person, beyond only the most painful ones.
These six areas paraphrase the healing milestones described by Columbia University’s Center for Prolonged Grief. Specific exercises and pacing depend on assessment and the treatment plan. [6]
What does the research actually show?
Research on the treatment previously called Complicated Grief Treatment includes randomized clinical trials.
A 2005 study found better outcomes than interpersonal psychotherapy in the participants studied. [7]
A 2016 trial involving 395 bereaved adults found higher response with the targeted therapy plus placebo than with placebo and clinical management alone: 82.5% versus 54.8% under that study’s response definition.
Adding citalopram did not significantly improve the grief treatment response, although it helped co-occurring depressive symptoms.
These are results from particular research samples, not an expected success rate or guarantee for BelMind clients. [8]
PGT is not automatically appropriate for someone experiencing recent, expected, or non-death grief.
An assessment can help determine whether supportive counselling, ACT, CBT, PGT, trauma-focused treatment, or a combination fits the presenting concerns.
What is Prolonged Grief Disorder?
PGD describes grief following a death that remains intensely distressing, is difficult to adapt to, and substantially interferes with life beyond what is expected in the person’s cultural and social context.
Someone may experience persistent yearning or preoccupation with the person who died, alongside difficulties such as disbelief, avoidance, emotional pain, numbness, identity disruption, intense loneliness, or feeling that life has lost meaning.
Grief alone, including grief that lasts for years, is not enough to establish a diagnosis.
The DSM-5-TR requires that at least 12 months have passed since the death for adults, or six months for children and adolescents, alongside further symptom, impairment, and cultural-context criteria.
ICD-11 uses a different description with a minimum of more than six months and emphasizes the individual’s cultural and social context.
These are diagnostic thresholds, not waiting periods for counselling. [9]
Some experiences of grief may overlap with depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but they are not interchangeable.
A thoughtful assessment considers what is happening rather than using the length of time since the loss as the sole measure.
You can seek support before any diagnostic time threshold.
If a death happened last week, three months ago, or many years ago, you can talk with a therapist about what you are facing.
You do not have to wait for a diagnosis to access grief counselling.
EMDR for grief and traumatic loss.
When distressing memories make it hard to be with the loss itself.
Sometimes bereavement includes a frightening or disturbing experience: witnessing the death, discovering a loved one, a medical emergency, an accident, or intrusive images about what happened.
Other times, the loss connects with earlier experiences of violence, abandonment, or repeated trauma.
The grief and the trauma may need different but coordinated attention.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured psychotherapy that can help people process distressing memories.
When clinically appropriate, a therapist may use EMDR to address trauma-related memories, intrusive images, or distressing beliefs linked to a death.
This is not about erasing memories or eliminating the bond with the person.
Traumatic bereavement
Target distressing memories of the event or its aftermath, with attention to preparation, safety, and the grief that remains.
Complex grief experiences
When loss intersects with earlier trauma, multiple bereavements, or painful relationship histories, we explore what is connected before choosing any memory work.
“Complex grief” is descriptive here, not a separate diagnosis.
Therapy at your pace
EMDR involves assessment, preparation, and collaborative decisions about whether and when to process memories.
You can pause or change direction.
EMDR is an established recommended treatment for PTSD, but its evidence specifically for grief and PGD is more limited.
A small 2016 randomized study of 19 grieving people found improvement after both EMDR and an integrated CBT intervention.
It is too small to establish that EMDR is superior or a first-line treatment for PGD. [10] [11]
What research says about grief therapy.
No single approach fits everyone, and no study can promise an individual outcome.
Here is how we describe the evidence for the treatments on this page.
Grief counselling and psychotherapy
A 2026 systematic review assessed 169 randomized trials of bereavement interventions and found moderate-strength evidence that individual psychotherapy improves grief disorder, grief, and depression symptoms.
It also identified substantial risk of bias and limited evidence for some populations and approaches. [1]
Grief-focused CBT
A 2024 meta-analysis of 22 studies found reductions in prolonged grief symptoms.
A randomized trial reported improvement with both grief-specific CBT and present-centred therapy, with some advantages for CBT at specific assessment points and outcomes.
These studies concern bereavement and PGD, not every form of loss. [4] [5]
Prolonged Grief Therapy
Targeted treatment has support from multiple randomized studies, including trials using its earlier name, Complicated Grief Treatment.
It is specifically designed for persistent, impairing grief after a death. [6] [7] [8]
ACT and EMDR for grief
Both may contribute to individualized care. ACT-specific bereavement research remains comparatively limited; EMDR-specific grief research also includes small studies.
EMDR’s established evidence for PTSD should not be confused with an equally established evidence base for PGD. [3] [10] [11]
What happens in grief counselling?
You do not need to decide between ACT, CBT, PGT, and EMDR before the first session.
We can discuss the options based on your goals and what you are experiencing.
Tell us what brings you here
Share as much or as little as is useful about the loss, your concerns, your support, and what you hope might change.
A free 15-minute consultation is available before booking ongoing therapy.
Choose an approach collaboratively
Your therapist may suggest supportive grief counselling, ACT, CBT, specialized PGT, or EMDR when appropriate.
We discuss the rationale rather than prescribing a technique without context.
Review what helps
We can revisit your goals, whether the pace feels manageable, and what is changing in daily life.
There is no predetermined schedule for how long you are allowed to grieve.
What if I only want to talk?
That is a valid starting point.
You do not have to agree to memory processing, structured exercises, or a diagnosis to have a conversation about your loss.
Your therapist can explain what each option involves and work with your preferences.
Grief counselling with the BelMind team.
Our therapists provide individual psychotherapy in Thunder Bay and virtual support across Ontario.
The specialized prolonged grief approach is offered by Vimal Thomas.
You can also explore general grief counselling and EMDR with Miguelle Ouellet.
Registered Social Worker and psychotherapist.
Works with grief and loss using approaches that include ACT, CBT, EMDR, and Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy.
Ask about the treatment that fits your situation.
Read Vimal’s profile
Offers grief and loss support grounded in a strengths-based, trauma-informed approach.
Her listed modalities include ACT, CBT, and EMDR. She also works with trauma and life transitions.
Read Miguelle’s profile
Grief counselling in Thunder Bay, or from home anywhere in Ontario.
BelMind Therapeia provides a private space for in-person counselling in Thunder Bay.
Secure virtual therapy is also available for clients elsewhere in Ontario, including people in Northwestern Ontario who may find travel difficult.
Your therapist can discuss whether a virtual format is suitable.
Suite 405, 101 North Syndicate Avenue
Thunder Bay, ON P7C 3V4
Grief therapy, answered.
Questions are welcome whether your loss is recent or happened a long time ago.
Can therapy help with normal grief, even without a diagnosis?
Yes. You can seek grief counselling to talk through emotions, make sense of changes, explore relationships and memories, and find support while adjusting to a loss.
Therapy is not reserved for people with Prolonged Grief Disorder.
How soon after a loss can I start grief counselling?
There is no required waiting period for supportive grief counselling.
Your therapist can respond to what is most useful now, whether that is listening, practical coping, or another kind of support.
The diagnostic time thresholds for PGD are not waiting periods for all grief care.
What is the difference between grief counselling and Prolonged Grief Therapy?
Grief counselling can support a wide range of losses and goals.
Prolonged Grief Therapy is a more focused, structured approach developed for persistent, impairing grief following a death.
A conversation and assessment can help determine what is appropriate.
What is the difference between PGD, PGT, and PGDT?
PGD stands for Prolonged Grief Disorder, a diagnosis.
PGT stands for Prolonged Grief Therapy, the treatment name used by Columbia University’s Center for Prolonged Grief.
PGDT is used here for Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy, the term appearing on Vimal Thomas’s BelMind therapist profile.
The diagnosis and the treatment are not interchangeable.
Is grief still normal after one or several years?
Yes. Missing someone for years is not itself a disorder.
A PGD assessment considers the particular symptom pattern, the degree of distress or impairment, duration, and social and cultural context.
It does not diagnose based on the calendar alone.
Support remains available whether or not diagnostic criteria are met.
Does ACT mean I have to accept that what happened was okay?
No. ACT distinguishes acknowledging what is real from approving of it.
The goal is to reduce the exhausting struggle with unavoidable feelings and help you take steps connected to your values, including honouring the person who died.
Will CBT tell me that my grief is irrational?
No. Grief itself is not a faulty thought.
CBT may help you explore patterns such as self-blame, impossible expectations, avoidance, or withdrawal while respecting the loss and your feelings about it.
Can EMDR help with grief after a sudden death or suicide?
It may be considered when the loss includes intrusive or traumatic memories, especially if PTSD symptoms are present.
EMDR is supported for PTSD, while evidence specific to treating PGD is less established.
Your therapist can help distinguish the grief from any trauma-related symptoms and discuss options.
Can you help with grief after losing a pet, relationship, or pregnancy?
Yes. Grief counselling can address these experiences without minimizing them.
Specialized PGT trials focus on grief after a person’s death, so we do not claim that their results automatically apply to other kinds of loss.
Do you offer grief therapy online throughout Ontario?
Yes. BelMind Therapeia offers in-person counselling in Thunder Bay and secure virtual appointments across Ontario.
The appropriate format and treatment can be discussed with your therapist.
What happens during the free consultation?
It is a free 15-minute conversation to briefly share why you are seeking support, ask questions about the therapist’s approach, and discuss next steps.
You do not have to tell the whole story of your loss during that call.
Read the research behind this page.
Primary studies and established clinical resources are linked below so you can examine the evidence and its limitations directly.
- Care of Bereaved Persons: A Systematic Review. (2026). PubMed study and abstract . Evidence review of 169 randomized trials, with quality limitations.
- National Health Service. Get help with grief after bereavement or loss. NHS patient guidance . Notes variation and non-linear grief experiences.
- Jones K, et al. A systematic review of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for grief in bereaved spouses or partners. (2022). Read the review . Only two eligible studies. Conclusions preliminary.
- Komischke-Konnerup KB, et al. Grief-focused cognitive behavioral therapies for prolonged grief symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis. (2024). PubMed . Twenty-two studies and 2,602 bereaved adults.
- Grief-Specific Cognitive Behavioral Therapy vs Present-Centered Therapy: A Randomized Clinical Trial. PubMed . Trial of 212 adults with PGD.
- Columbia University, Center for Prolonged Grief. Prolonged Grief Therapy and its six healing milestones. Treatment overview and evidence . Treatment procedures and milestones .
- Shear MK, et al. Treatment of complicated grief: A randomized controlled trial. (2005). PubMed .
- Shear MK, et al. Optimizing Treatment of Complicated Grief: A Randomized Clinical Trial. (2016). PubMed . Four treatment arms. 395 participants.
- American Psychiatric Association. Prolonged Grief Disorder: Symptoms and diagnosis. Clinical overview . ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR diagnostic comparison .
- Meysner L, Cotter P, Lee CW. Evaluating the Efficacy of EMDR With Grieving Individuals: A Randomized Control Trial. (2016). Published study . Small sample of 19 participants.
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center for PTSD. Overview of Psychotherapy for PTSD. Clinical guideline summary . Supports EMDR for PTSD, not an equivalent claim for PGD.
You can carry the memory and ask for support.
Whether you are grieving a recent death, facing a difficult anniversary, living with a complex loss, or looking for specialized treatment for prolonged grief, a conversation is a place to begin.
In-person grief counselling in Thunder Bay and secure virtual psychotherapy across Ontario.