Have you experienced a loss that changed your life, but feel as though everyone else expects you to have moved on?
Grief can follow the death of someone you love. But it can also emerge after an estrangement, betrayal, illness, identity change, relocation, or realization.
Sometimes grief arrives all at once. Other times, it remains beneath the surface until another loss or life transition brings it forward.
At Hayfield Healing, Dr. Maria Niitepold offers trauma-informed grief therapy for adults whose loss feels complicated or isolating. Body-based therapy can help you process what happened without asking you to forget. Sessions are available in person in Gulf Breeze, near Pensacola, and virtually throughout Florida, New York, and participating PsyPact states.
Grief Doesn't Always Follow A Death
What Are You Grieving?
Grief doesn’t only follow a death. It can happen whenever you lose someone or something that mattered to you: a person, relationship, role, place, future, or sense of safety. Grief can occur whenever your life no longer looks the way you believed it would.
Are you grieving the end of a relationship? Rejection from your family or community? A future that’s no longer possible because of a serious illness or disability? A sudden move from your home country? There is no hierarchy of loss. You do not have to prove that your grief is serious enough to deserve support.
Support For All Types Of Grief
When Trauma & Grief Overlap
Grief and trauma are not the same, but trauma can develop when the circumstances surrounding your loss leave you feeling overwhelmed, lost or unsafe. Trauma-focused grief therapy can help you process both the loss and the nervous-system responses surrounding it.
01
Grieving the Childhood You Needed But Didn't Receive
Healing from childhood emotional neglect, abandonment, or developmental trauma often includes intense feelings of grief. You might grieve the love, protection, guidance, or emotionally attunement you deserved but never received.
You might also mourn the years where you didn’t fully understand what happened to you as a child. Grief is a part of acknowledging what happened so you can relate to yourself differently in the present.
03
Grieving After Betrayal or Narcissistic Abuse
The end of an abusive or manipulative relationship can bring relief and grief at the same time. If you’ve experienced betrayal or narcissistic abuse, you may grieve the relationship you hoped you had, the future you were promised, or the person you believed your partner or family member could become.
05
Grieving After Illness or Major Changes to Your Body
Illness and injury often creates losses that other people do not always see. You may grieve your health, independence, mobility, fertility, energy, financial stability, or self-trust. Or perhaps you underwent a treatment that itself was painful. Therapy can help you process both what your body has endured and the life changes that followed.
02
Grieving a Relationship With Someone Who Is Still Alive
Not every loss has a clear ending. A parent may still be alive but unable to offer a safe relationship. A loved one may be physically present while changed by illness, addiction, dementia, or mental health struggles.
You may have ended contact with someone you loved because maintaining the relationship was harming you. Therapy offers a place to acknowledge what was lost without pressuring you to reconcile, forgive, or return to an unsafe relationship.
04
Military and Veteran Grief
Veterans and service members may carry grief related to the death of fellow service members, but also changes you in ways that civilians struggle to understand. Maybe you even are grieving the way you see the world itself. As a Marine veteran, Dr. Niitepold brings both clinical training and lived perspective to therapy for veterans and military members.
06
Cultural Grief Following Immigration or Displacement
For immigrants and first-generation Americans, grief can also be accompanied by guilt, pressure to succeed, or the feeling that you are caught between cultures. Moving away from your country, community, and family is a profound loss. Therapy can create space for both gratitude and grief without forcing you to choose between them.
How we work
Grief Therapy at Hayfield Healing
Grief therapy helps you carry that connection with what you lost without remaining chronically overwhelmed by the most painful parts of what happened.
Grief therapy helps you carry that connection with what you lost without remaining chronically overwhelmed by the most painful parts of what happened.
Comprehensive Resource Model
FOR LAYERED TRAUMA FROM LOSS
The Comprehensive Resource Model was developed by Lisa Schwarz specifically to work with deep dissociation that other approaches couldn't touch. This can be particularly helpful if your grief is layered with complex trauma, abandonment, dissociation, or earlier losses. Learn about CRM.
Eye Movement
Desensitization & Reprocessing
EMDR includes specific protocols for working with grief and loss. You don’t lose your memories, but the experience of feeling like you’re reliving it. Learn about EMDR.
STOP RELIVING THE PAST
Brainspotting
BODY-BASED PROCESSING
This trauma-informed therapy works through the autonomic nervous system, letting us gently work with these deeper emotional and physiological responses without requiring you to describe every detail. Learn about Brainspotting.
Your Somatic Therapist
Work With Dr. Maria Niitepold
Dr. Maria Niitepold, PsyD, is a licensed psychologist in Florida and New York specializing in trauma-focused and body-based therapy for adults. She provides grief therapy that is collaborative, body-aware, and responsive to your nervous system.
Dr. Niitepold’s clients describe her as warm, direct, and attentive. Maria is EMDRIA-trained in EMDR and has advanced training in Brainspotting, the Comprehensive Resource Model, CBT-I, and clinical hypnosis.
You do not need to tell your story perfectly, remember every detail, or know exactly what you want from therapy before reaching out. You can begin with what feels most present now.
Sessions are available in person in Gulf Breeze, Florida, and online for clients across Florida, New York, and participating PsyPact states.
Frequently Asked Questions
ABOUT GRIEF THERAPY
Questions
How do I know whether I need grief therapy?
You don’t have to wait until grief becomes unbearable to seek support. Therapy may be helpful if the loss is starting to interfere with sleep, relationships, work, physical well-being, or your ability to feel present in daily life.
Does grief follow the five stages?
Not always. Denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and acceptance are all natural responses to a loss, but they don’t usually unfold in a specific order. They can appear in any order, overlap, or even return after a period of time.
What is complicated or prolonged grief?
Some grief remains persistently intense and makes it difficult to reconnect with daily life for an extended period. A trauma-informed grief therapist can support you through this period of loss.
Can I grieve someone who is still alive?
Yes. Grief can follow estrangement, addiction, serious illness, betrayal, or rejection. These types of loss can be especially isolating because other people may not recognize it as grief.
Can I feel grief and relief at the same time?
Yes. Relief is common after a prolonged illness, caregiving period, difficult relationship, or unsafe family dynamic. It does not cancel out your love or your grief. Therapy can help you make room for mixed emotions without treating any one of them as wrong.
Can EMDR help with grief?
EMDR may help when distressing memories or circumstances surrounding a loss remain unprocessed. It can reduce the intensity of traumatic memories while allowing you to maintain a meaningful connection to the person or part of life you lost.
Do I have to talk about everything that happened?
No. Dr. Niitepold’s body-based approaches do not require you to recount every detail. The work can be paced according to what your nervous system is ready to process.
How do I get started?
You can request a consultation to see if we're a fit before your first full session. If you'd rather skip the call and get started right away, you can also fill out this intake form.
Start Healing from Grief Today
Don't Face Grief Alone
If you are looking for grief therapy in Gulf Breeze, Pensacola, elsewhere in Florida or New York, or online in a participating PsyPact state, Hayfield Healing offers a place to process what happened, tend to the parts of you that still feel overwhelmed, and begin building a life that makes room for both your loss and what comes next.