Expert Therapy For People Who Expect Results.
Expert counseling and therapists serving Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista, Leucadia, La Costa, Encinitas, and San Diego County.
What Is Grief? Understanding Its Layers and Impact
Grief is not just sadness. It’s a full-body, full-mind response to losing something meaningful. Whether you’ve lost a person, a relationship, a dream, or a sense of stability, grief shows up in powerful, complex ways.
The Many Faces of Grief
Emotional pain: sorrow, longing, guilt, anger
Physical symptoms: fatigue, aches, insomnia
Cognitive effects: confusion, distraction, disbelief
Behavioral changes: withdrawal, avoidance, restlessness
Spiritual questioning: loss of meaning or purpose.
When Current Grief Reopens Old Wounds
Loss can retrigger unresolved grief from earlier life stages Early childhood losses or attachment injuries may resurface Therapy helps identify and untangle these overlapping layers Reprocessing past experiences supports healing in the present.
Complicated Grief & Relationship Complexity
Ambivalent or conflicted relationships often intensify grief Unfinished conversations or unresolved emotions linger Family therapy research shows grief impacts relational systems.
Therapy allows for meaning-making and emotional resolution
Grieving well means feeling, remembering, processing, and growing. Therapy can help guide that process with care and clarity.
Take the first step towards a healthier and happier life. Share your concerns with us and let's embark on a journey of growth and healing together. Schedule a free consultation today.
When Grief Gets Stuck: Warning Signs to Watch
Sometimes, grief doesn’t ease over time—it deepens. When left unprocessed, it can interfere with your ability to live fully.
Here are five signs that grief counseling may help:
You don’t have to stay stuck. Therapy offers a structured path through the pain toward meaning, peace, and forward movement.
Client Success Stories
Grief Counseling That Honors Your Attachment and Promotes Growth
Grief affects us on every level—emotionally, physically, cognitively, and relationally. Effective therapy must address grief from all these angles, drawing on evidence-based approaches proven to help people heal.
At New Growth Counseling, we understand that grief is a natural part of love. Therapy helps you honor your bond with what was lost while creating space for healing.
Our Therapeutic Approaches to Grief
Evidence-Based Modalities That Support Grief Recovery
Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy (PGDT): Targets symptoms of stuck, complicated grief through structured reflection and behavioral activation.
What You Can Expect in Grief Therapy
A safe space to talk openly without judgment
Tools to help regulate difficult emotions like sadness, guilt, and longing.
Gentle guidance to process what remains unresolved
Support for understanding grief through the lens of your life history and development.
Grief changes you—but it doesn’t have to break you. With the right support, you can grow through grief, not just survive it. Evidence-based therapy can be a powerful guide through that growth.
Why Clients Choose New Growth for Grief Counseling
Our Team
Our team is dedicated to providing you with the help you need with the results you desire. With a combined many decades of experience in counseling and therapy, our team aims to partner with you towards a better future.
Jussi Light
Licensed MFT
Bryson Greaves
Licensed MFT
Anne James
Associate MFT
Iliana Arick-Harvey
Licensed MFT
We Are Board, Licensed Therapists & Associates
Frequently Asked Questions
You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your mental health care may cost. Since we do not accept insurance, New Growth is required to provide an estimate of the expected charges for medical services, including psychotherapy services. You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency healthcare services, including psychotherapy services. You can ask your New Growth therapist for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule a service.
It is not possible for a psychotherapist to know, in advance, how many psychotherapy sessions may be necessary or appropriate for a given person, relationship issue, or diagnosis. Psychotherapy is talk-therapy and involves an ongoing conversation that involves the participation of one or more people for the sake of achieving a goal or goals. In relationship counseling (couples or parent-child), it is impossible for a therapist to know each person’s motivation to creating change—people in distress often feel uncertain about how they wish to proceed at times and their ambivalence affects the length of therapy. Since the therapist relies on people’s motivation and follow-through as necessary components to achieving treatment goals, the therapist cannot predict how long therapy will take. The same is true for individual counseling which often involves inner conflicts that pull a person in more than one direction at once. The therapist cannot make choices for an individual, and so relies on that individual’s free will to achieve an outcome—the therapist cannot predict how long that will take.
While the “No Surprises Act” requires a good faith estimate, the above discussion illustrates how difficult that is to provide. However, all of our therapists reveal their hourly fee before therapy begins. Your total cost of services will depend upon the number of psychotherapy sessions you attend, your individual circumstances, and the type and amount of services that are provided to you. This estimate is not a contract and does not obligate you to obtain any services from the provider(s), nor does it include any services rendered to you that are not identified here.
Good Faith Estimates are not intended to serve as a recommendation for treatment or a prediction that you may need to attend a specified number of psychotherapy visits. The number of visits that are appropriate in your case, and the estimated cost for those services, depends on your needs and what you agree to in consultation with your therapist. You are entitled to disagree with any recommendations made to you concerning your treatment and you may discontinue treatment at any time.
If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill. Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate. For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, please visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises.
Can I use my insurance?
New Growth is out-of-network and does not accept insurance.
PPO plans allow you to go out-of-network and will reimburse according to your plan.