Grief Requires Space, Patience, and Support
The holidays often arrive with mixed emotions — soft lights, familiar songs, and celebrations that can feel warm for some and deeply tender for others. For many people, this season also brings up memories, longing, and grief. Whether you’re grieving a loved one, a relationship, a version of yourself, or a season of life, the holiday months can amplify emotions in unexpected ways.
At The Lotus Center, we honor grief as a normal, human response to loss rather than something to push past or “fix.” Instead, we offer spaces where grief can be witnessed, held, and gently supported through therapy, spiritual care, and community connection.
Why Grief During the Holidays Feels Heavier
This time of year can magnify grief for many reasons:
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Empty chairs where someone used to sit
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Traditions that feel changed or broken
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Memories that surface without warning
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Pressure to feel cheerful when your heart isn’t in it
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The contrast between inner heaviness and outer celebration
These experiences are extraordinarily common, and they don’t mean you’re doing anything wrong. Grief has its own rhythm, and during the holidays, it often asks for extra tenderness.
Therapy Can Support You Through Holiday Grief
Working with a therapist offers a safe, compassionate space to:
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name what you’re carrying
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explore your emotional landscape
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learn grounding and nervous-system tools
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understand your grief without judgment
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create boundaries or rituals that feel supportive
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reconnect to meaning, identity, or hope in your own time
We are honored to welcome three new trauma-informed therapists who are now accepting clients. They each bring a warm, client-centered approach to holding grief, anxiety, depression, trauma, life transitions, and more.
Therapy isn’t about pushing grief away; it’s about learning how to carry it with more compassion for yourself.
The Role of Spiritual Counseling in Grief
Our Clinical Chaplain, Jude, offers spiritual care for people navigating grief, loss, or life transitions — regardless of belief, background, or religious identity. Her work integrates ritual, reflection, meaning-making, and gentle presence.
Spiritual counseling can help you:
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explore the deeper layers of loss
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reconnect with purpose or hope
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create rituals for remembrance
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process existential or emotional questions
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feel grounded in community and compassion
This kind of support can be especially comforting during a season when emotions run deep. Learn more about our spiritual counseling program.
Medication Support When Grief Feels Overwhelming
While grief is not a disorder, it can sometimes overlap with depression, anxiety, sleep disruption, or emotional overwhelm. When this happens, meeting with a medical provider can offer clarity and support.
Our new APRN, Va Mounga, DNP — an integrative, culturally attuned medical provider — offers medication management grounded in whole-person wellness. She blends psychiatric care with functional and mind–body approaches to support emotional and mental health.
For some people, temporary medication support can create enough stability to navigate grief without feeling overtaken by it.
🕯️ December Grief Support Group
If you’re seeking community, our monthly Spiritual Grief Support Group welcomes you with tenderness. This circle offers ritual, reflection, and shared presence for anyone moving through loss — whether fresh or long-carried. Our Grief Group meets every second Thursday of the month at The Lotus Center. Learn more about our Grief Group.
You don’t have to move through this season alone. Managing grief during the holidays can be especially difficult, and we want to support you!
Check out this post on 64 Ways to Cope With Grief at the Holidays for more supportive ideas.
A Gentle Reminder
If the holidays feel heavy, you are not behind, broken, or failing.
You are human, and holding grief during the holidays is especially difficult.
You deserve support that meets you exactly where you are.
To schedule therapy, spiritual care, or medication support, call 385-272-4292.
