Grief & Loss Therapy in Chesterfield, VA
Grief is not something you simply move on from. It is something you learn to carry differently.
Loss has a way of dividing life into a before and an after.
Sometimes that dividing line is unmistakable: someone you love dies, a relationship ends, a diagnosis changes the future, or something you believed would always be there is suddenly gone.
Other losses are quieter and harder to explain. You may be grieving a relationship that still technically exists, the family you hoped to have, a version of yourself you no longer recognize, the childhood you deserved but did not receive, or a future that will never unfold the way you once imagined.
Whatever brought you here, grief does not always look the way we expect it to.
You may cry constantly, or you may wonder why you cannot cry at all. You may feel deeply sad one day and relatively normal the next, only to be overwhelmed by something seemingly insignificant. You may feel angry, guilty, relieved, numb, anxious, distracted, exhausted, or disconnected from the people around you.
Sometimes you may even question whether what you are experiencing “counts” as grief.
It does not need anyone else's permission to matter.
At Counsel Connect, I provide in-person grief and loss therapy in Chesterfield, Virginia for adults navigating bereavement, relationship loss, ambiguous loss, major life transitions, and the many forms of grief that can accompany becoming someone you never expected to have to become.
Internal Family Systems Therapy for Grief
Internal Family Systems, or IFS, is the primary therapeutic framework I use in my work with grief and loss.
IFS recognizes that grief rarely exists as one unified emotional experience. Different parts of you may have very different responses to what happened.
One part may desperately miss what was lost while another feels angry.
One may want to talk about the loss constantly while another avoids anything that might bring the feelings closer.
A part may feel guilty when you experience happiness.
Another may believe you should be “over this” by now.
One part may want to hold tightly to everything associated with the person or life you lost while another wants to remove every reminder because remembering hurts too much.
None of these responses need to be treated as the wrong way to grieve.
Through IFS, we can become curious about what each part is carrying and what it may be trying to protect you from.
Sometimes a part that avoids grief is not resistant to healing. It may be afraid that if you allow yourself to fully feel the loss, you will never come back from it.
Instead of pushing that part aside, we listen.
When your internal system begins to trust that grief can be approached without overwhelming you, there may be more room to experience the loss in ways that feel manageable and meaningful.
What Does Grief Therapy With Me Look Like?
I'm Britni Higginbotham, LPC, NCC, an Internal Family Systems Level II-trained therapist providing in-person psychotherapy in Chesterfield, Virginia.
My approach to grief therapy is grounded primarily in Internal Family Systems (IFS) and informed by trauma-focused, attachment-oriented, mind-body, and compassion-based approaches. When trauma is intertwined with a loss, EMDR may also be incorporated when clinically appropriate.
There is no predetermined timeline that you are expected to follow in our work.
Some sessions may focus directly on the loss. Others may focus on relationships, anxiety, identity, anger, parenting, work, or something seemingly unrelated. Grief often touches many parts of life, and therapy does not have to revolve around the loss every week for the loss to remain welcome in the room.
We may explore what you miss, what you regret, what changed, what was never resolved, and what parts of you are having the hardest time adjusting.
We may also explore what it means to continue living.
Not because continuing means leaving someone or something behind, but because eventually grief asks us to discover how the loss will become part of the life that remains.
In-Person Grief & Loss Therapy in Chesterfield, VA
Counsel Connect provides in-person individual grief therapy for adults in Chesterfield, Virginia, serving individuals throughout Chesterfield and the greater Richmond area.
I work with adults experiencing grief related to death and bereavement as well as relationship endings, attachment wounds, fertility and reproductive losses, family changes, ambiguous loss, major life transitions, and the loss of an anticipated future.
Standard psychotherapy sessions are 53 minutes, allowing clients to access ongoing treatment while maintaining compatibility with insurance benefits when applicable. Extended IFS sessions may also be available when additional time for deeper therapeutic work is appropriate.
I intentionally maintain an in-person practice because grief often involves experiences that are difficult to put into words. Being physically present allows space for silence, emotion, bodily responses, and the quieter moments that can become an important part of this work.