Upcoming Events

Walking Together Through Grief: Healing Through Connection

An EFT-Informed Approach to Grief After the Loss of a Child

This session offers a gentle, relational space for parents and caregivers navigating the profound grief that follows the loss of a child. Grounded in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), the group emphasizes healing through connection—with ourselves and with our partners—rather than facing grief alone.

The session will begin with a brief introduction for any new participants, followed by a short recap of themes from the first meeting. Participants will be invited to share reflections from the previous session, including what felt helpful or what resonated most, as they feel comfortable.

The focus of the session will be on strengthening emotional connection during grief. Participants will explore strategies for enhancing communication by slowing down, tuning into emotional and bodily experiences, and responding to one another with comfort and care. Using the EFT relational cycle—Access, Share, Respond, and Bond—the session will highlight how partners can remain emotionally engaged, even when grief feels overwhelming or misaligned.

The group will also explore emotional regulation through the Window of Tolerance, with attention to common grief triggers such as birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries. These moments can pull individuals outside their capacity to cope, often in different ways or at different times. EFT invites partners to recognize these shifts and intentionally reach for one another, understanding that one person may have more capacity to offer support while the other needs care.

Finally, the session will address pathways for repair when grief has led to longer-standing disconnection. Participants will be guided in recognizing their shared negative cycle, reframing the cycle as the common enemy rather than each other, and deepening the understanding that emotional connection itself is regulating and healing.

This session honours the uniqueness of each grief journey while offering hope that healing can occur through compassion, presence, and connection.

https://evolvecounsellingyxe.com/team-member/jeremiah-palmer/

This session is for men experiencing grief, with an open invitation for partners to attend as allies to better understand and support men’s grief.

The group introduces a biological and relational framework to help participants move from automatic reaction to grounded response. Using concepts from Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory, participants will learn how the nervous system detects threat and shifts into social engagement, fight/flight, or shutdown states. We’ll explore how grief can activate these survival responses and how emotions function as internal alarms. Using the Emotions Wheel, participants will expand emotional vocabulary, identify primary feelings beneath anger or numbness, and practice non-judgmental tracking. The focus is building regulation skills and trying small grounding experiments that support autonomy and connection while navigating loss.

https://evolvecounsellingyxe.com/team-member/kim-duret/

This group explores how loss impacts both the structure and functioning of the brain. This presentation examines the neurological processes involved in grief, highlighting key brain regions activated during the grieving experience. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how grief affects thoughts, emotions, and behaviour, offering a compassionate and science-informed lens on the human experience of loss.

https://evolvecounsellingyxe.com/team-member/dalyce-mah/

Perinatal or child loss can be one of the most profound and life-altering experiences a parent can face. Grief is a natural, individual process with no set timeline. While the pain cannot be erased, healthy coping strategies can provide support, reduce isolation, and promote long-term healing. This group focuses on holistic ways of coping to help parents move alongside grief in their daily life, with emphasis on both mind and body. Participants will learn gentle somatic techniques for regulating the nervous system, and explore meaningful ways of honoring their loss. We will explore flexible coping strategies including mindfulness, self check-ins, and inviting support from others when needed, that foster resilience and support long-term and support long term adjustment in the grieving process. 

https://evolvecounsellingyxe.com/team-member/meghan-dalton/

Losing a child is one of the most heart-wrenching experiences a parent can face, and navigating the depths of grief—whether alone or with a partner—can feel overwhelming and isolating. But when your journey of mourning expands to include supporting your children through their own grief, it can feel like an impossible mountain to climb. Children grieve in ways that are deeply personal and often different from adults—they hurt, they question, they sometimes retreat or act out, and every emotion is intense and real.

In this raw and compassionate session, we will open our hearts to understand how children typically respond when they lose a sibling—their fears, their confusion, their silent tears. We’ll explore how you, as parents and supports, can become guiding lights amid their darkness, helping to nurture their healing and understanding. We’ll discuss what might hinder their grief—misunderstandings, silence, or misplaced expectations—and how aligning your parenting with empathy and patience can become a sanctuary for your children’s tender hearts.

Grieving rituals—meaningful, heartfelt acts—can serve as powerful anchors, helping children express their love, honor their sibling’s memory, and find comfort in their shared emotions. Together, we can embrace these rituals as vital tools in their journey of healing, offering hope and a guiding hand through the darkest days, toward the possibility of peace and understanding.