Grief Counseling in Indianapolis
For the sadness. The anger. The numbness. And the “I have no idea what to do with any of this.”
Schedule a free 15-minute consultationLoss can leave you trying to live an ordinary day in a life that no longer feels ordinary. At High Thrive Counseling, we offer grief counseling for adults in Indianapolis and online in Indiana and Florida.
You don’t have to explain it perfectly. We can start with what hurts.
You don’t need a brave face. You need somewhere to put it down.
- In person in Indianapolis
- Online in Indiana
- Online in Florida
- 55-minute individual sessions
Everyone else seems to be moving on. You’re just trying to get through Tuesday.
Maybe the calls have slowed down. People have gone back to work. And you’re still reaching for your phone to tell someone who is no longer there about your day.
Or maybe there was no funeral, no gathering, and no obvious moment when people understood that you had lost something important.
You might be crying in the car, getting irritated over small things, or feeling strangely flat. You might feel relief and then feel guilty about the relief. There is room for those conversations here.
Your grief does not have to look like anyone else’s to deserve attention. Wondering why some days hit harder? Read why grief can feel worse at different times.
Grief can reach into more than one part of your life.
Your feelings
Sadness, longing, anger, numbness, or emotions that seem to arrive together.
Your thinking
Concentration slips, looping questions, or decisions that suddenly feel enormous.
Your routines
The empty chair, unfamiliar responsibilities, or a bedtime that feels too quiet.
Your relationships
Wanting company, needing space, or feeling misunderstood by people who care.
Grief doesn’t always come with a sympathy card.
Bereavement counseling makes space for life after someone dies. Grief counseling can also address losses that other people may not recognize. We can talk about what changed—and what that change means to you.
A person or pet has died
A partner, parent, friend, family member, or animal companion. The relationship may have been loving, difficult, or both.
Illness or caregiving
You’re facing a loved one’s decline, anticipating a death, or grieving changes that are already happening.
Divorce or estrangement
Someone is alive, but your connection to them is different—or absent. There may be no neat ending to make sense of.
Health or independence
A diagnosis, disability, or change in abilities has altered daily life and the future you pictured.
Identity or life transitions
A role, career, home, or familiar way of life has changed. Even a chosen change can involve real loss.
What never got to happen
You’re grieving a future, a relationship you hoped for, or experiences you expected your life to include.
You do not need to rank your loss against someone else’s. We can begin with your experience.
Space for the loss. Support for the life around it.
We start with what you’re carrying and what feels hardest now. We’ll ask questions, listen for what matters, and help us all choose useful places to focus. You won’t be handed a timetable for getting over someone.
Say the honest thing
The thing you keep editing before you say it out loud. What you miss, resent, regret, or wish people understood. You do not have to make the story more comfortable for us.
Untangle guilt and “if only”
We can examine the questions your mind keeps replaying, make room for real regrets, and look at expectations you may be placing on yourself with the benefit of hindsight.
Plan for the hard moments
Lonely evenings. Anniversaries. A family gathering you’re dreading. We can explore grounding, boundaries, and practical support that fit you—not a generic instruction to relax.
Find the right support
We’ll consider what needs attention: the loss itself, trauma, relationship strain, anxiety, depression, or several things together. We can also discuss additional or specialized care when appropriate, including EMDR therapy.
Make daily life more manageable
Asking for help, facing a decision, changing a routine, or figuring out what matters now. We can make the next step smaller without pretending the loss is small.
Remember in your own way
A story, a tradition, a song, or deciding what to do with belongings. We can explore what feels meaningful to you, with room for your beliefs and the relationship you actually had.
There is no gold star for doing grief “correctly.” We’ll pay attention to what is useful for you and adjust our work together.
Talk with usWhat getting started looks like
You don’t need a diagnosis, a rehearsed explanation, or a clear idea of what therapy should look like before you reach out.
Start with a conversation
A free 15-minute consultation gives us room to discuss what you need, answer practical questions, and consider whether we’re a good fit.
Tell us about your world
In the first session, we’ll talk about the loss, your daily life, and the support around you. You can tell us if something feels too much to discuss yet.
Choose what needs care
Together, we’ll set priorities and discuss a meeting rhythm. We’ll keep checking what is helping and what needs to change.
These are steps for beginning therapy—not stages your grief has to follow.
When loss overlaps with everything else
Grief + trauma
You may be missing someone while also struggling with what happened around their death. An image keeps returning. A reminder feels frightening. Certain places feel hard to face.
Not every loss is traumatic. When trauma is part of your experience, we can consider whether trauma-focused care, including EMDR therapy, belongs in your treatment plan. We’ll talk about your needs and readiness first.
Grief + relationships
One person wants to talk. Another needs quiet. Someone offers a cheerful explanation when what you wanted was for them to sit beside you.
We can work on asking for support, setting boundaries, and making room for different responses to the same loss. If the relationship itself needs focused attention, we can discuss whether couples counseling is a better fit.
Promising, still growing, and worth being honest about.
EMDR was built for trauma, and most of its research is on PTSD. For grief, the research is smaller, and we would rather tell you that plainly than oversell it. These are the published studies we point to, in plain language. Several involve sudden or violent loss, where grief and trauma are tangled together.
EMDR and CBT both helped with grief
Adults struggling with grief were randomly assigned to EMDR or an integrated cognitive behavioral program after a seven-week wait, then had seven weeks of therapy. Grief, trauma symptoms, and distress improved in both groups, and neither approach outperformed the other. Quality of life did not improve in either group, and nobody improved during the wait.
Meysner, Cotter & Lee (2016), Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 10(1), 2–12.
After a homicide loss
Dutch adults bereaved by homicide were randomized to an eight-session program combining CBT and EMDR or to a waitlist. Self-rated complicated grief and posttraumatic stress both improved from before to after treatment. The authors note that it is still unknown whether combining the two approaches adds anything over either one alone.
van Denderen, de Keijser, Stewart & Boelen (2018), Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 25(4), 497–508.
After the MH17 plane crash
Cognitive therapy plus EMDR was compared with a waitlist in people bereaved by the MH17 disaster. Depression dropped significantly more in the treatment group. Differences in grief and PTSD symptoms between the groups were not statistically significant, and the authors call for larger studies.
Lenferink, de Keijser, Smid & Boelen (2020), Traumatology, 26(4), 427–437.
EMDR and guided mourning
A 2001 study compared EMDR with guided mourning, an exposure-based grief approach, in 50 people with traumatic grief who chose which one they received, so it was not randomized. A 2024 review describes both as reducing symptoms such as intrusive thoughts and nightmares, and notes that only the EMDR group reported more positive memories of the person who died.
Sprang (2001), Research on Social Work Practice, 11(3), 300–320, as summarized by Spicer (2024).
What we don’t know yet
A 2024 review of the evidence concluded that research on EMDR for prolonged grief is still building. Studies so far have been small, follow-up has been limited, and no trial has yet tested EMDR specifically in people who meet the diagnostic criteria for prolonged grief disorder or compared it directly with the grief treatment that currently has the strongest support. So we won’t tell you EMDR is the best treatment for grief. What the studies suggest is that it is worth discussing as one option when a loss involves trauma, and that it is one tool among several, not a requirement.
Spicer (2024), Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15:1357390. Clinical guidance on using EMDR within broader grief work: Solomon & Rando (2007), Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 1(2), 109–117.
Jenny Staats, LMSW, and Jill Frame, LMFT, CST, both offer EMDR at High Thrive. Jenny also offers EMDR intensives in Indianapolis, in 3-hour or 6-hour days across one to three days. To learn more, start with considering EMDR therapy: 7 things to know first, myths and facts of EMDR, or the possible risks.
Hi, we’re Jenny and Jill.
Both of us are willing to stay in the conversation when it gets uncomfortable. You can book a free 15-minute consultation with either of us. If you’re not sure which of us to choose, say so, and we’ll help you decide.
Jenny Staats, LMSW
Jenny is warm, practical, and collaborative: less “try harder,” more “let’s figure out why this isn’t working.” She works with adults on grief, trauma, anxiety, and depression, and she is an EMDR therapist who also offers EMDR intensives.
- LMSW
- EMDR therapist
- Practical + collaborative
Jill Frame, LMFT, CST
Jill is a warm, direct therapist who works with adults navigating grief, trauma, relationships, and major life changes. She listens carefully, asks questions, and helps figure out what could make a difference in your actual day-to-day life. She is also an EMDR therapist.
“You don’t have to find the silver lining. And if you laugh while talking about your grief, we don’t have to treat that as a problem.”
- LMFT, CST
- EMDR therapist
- Warm + direct
Grief therapy in Broad Ripple. Online in Indiana + Florida.
In person in Broad Ripple
Our office at High Thrive Counseling is in Broad Ripple, Indianapolis. We welcome adults from Indianapolis, Carmel, Fishers, Zionsville, Brownsburg, and surrounding communities.
High Thrive Counseling6229 Indianola Ave
Indianapolis, IN 46220
Grief counseling FAQs
You’re allowed to have questions before you make an appointment. Here are a few places to start.
How do I know whether grief counseling is right for me?
You may want help with overwhelming moments, isolation, guilt, changed relationships, or simply somewhere to talk honestly. You don’t have to be in crisis or prove that you are struggling enough. A consultation can help us discuss what you need and whether this practice is a good fit.
Do I need to wait before starting grief counseling?
No required waiting period applies to asking for support. You can reach out soon after a loss, during a loved one’s illness, or much later. We’ll discuss what is happening now and the kind of support that may fit.
What if the loss happened years ago?
You can still bring it to therapy. A new loss, a milestone, a family change, or simply having more room to think can bring an earlier loss into focus. We can start with why it feels important to talk about now.
What if I’m not ready to talk about what happened?
Tell us that. We can begin with your day-to-day life, what feels difficult about talking, and what would help you feel more comfortable in therapy. You do not need to give us every detail in the first session.
Does everyone who grieves need therapy?
No. People may find enough support through friends, family, faith, community, or peer groups. Individual counseling is another option when you want dedicated support or help with concerns that are making life difficult.
Can grief counseling help if no one has died?
Yes, we can talk about loss connected with divorce, estrangement, serious illness, changing abilities, or a future that looks different from what you expected. Bereavement specifically relates to a death; grief can be part of other significant losses too.
How long does grief counseling take?
There is no preset number of sessions. We’ll discuss your goals, what support you already have, and how often it makes sense to meet. We’ll review how the work is going along the way. The aim is useful support, not putting your grief on a deadline.
Can EMDR help with grief?
It may, particularly when a loss involves trauma, such as a sudden or violent death or images that keep returning. Small studies, including randomized trials, have found improvements in grief and trauma symptoms after EMDR-based treatment, but the research is still growing and has not shown EMDR to be better than other approaches such as CBT. We would talk about your needs and readiness first. See the research summary above or read about EMDR therapy in Indianapolis.
Is grief after a year automatically prolonged grief disorder?
No. For adults, the DSM-5-TR diagnosis requires at least 12 months since a death, but time alone does not establish a diagnosis. Specific symptoms, distress or difficulty functioning, and cultural and social context also matter. Continuing to miss someone is not, by itself, a disorder—and you don’t need to wait a year to seek support.
Do you take insurance, and can we meet online?
Individual sessions with Jenny or Jill are 55 minutes. In-person appointments are in Broad Ripple, Indianapolis; online appointments are available for clients located in Indiana and Florida. Jenny and Jill are out of network. A superbill is available for possible reimbursement from your insurance, and many people use HSA or FSA funds, though reimbursement depends on your plan. Review fees and insurance details.
From the grief & life transitions blog
Something to read, something to share, or a song that helps you find the words. Take what feels useful today.
When Is Grief the Worst?
Why reminders, milestones, and ordinary days can feel unexpectedly difficult—and why a hard day isn’t the whole story.
Read about grief’s changing intensity →Grief Literacy
Understanding loss and knowing how to help. A resource for you—and for the people who care but don’t know what to say.
Read about understanding and support →Songs About Grief & Loss
A collection for remembering someone or making space for a feeling. Music is an option, not an assignment.
Explore the grief playlist →You don’t have to know what you need before we talk.
Tell us a little about the loss, what has been hardest, or what you’re hoping for. We can figure out whether grief counseling with Jenny or Jill feels like a good next step.
Schedule a free 15-minute grief consultationAdults · Broad Ripple, Indianapolis · Online in Indiana + Florida