Therapy for Grief & Loss in Ottawa
Grief changes the shape of your world.
One day, life is familiar. The next, you are learning how to exist inside a version of your life you never asked for. Everything can feel quieter. Heavier. Different. Even the smallest moments can carry an ache that no one else can see.
If you're here, perhaps you're carrying a loss that words have never felt big enough to hold.
At Cup of Tea Psychotherapy, we offer compassionate grief therapy for teens (12+) and adults (18+). We provide in-person therapy in our warm, welcoming Ottawa office, and virtual therapy across Ontario—because healing deserves to meet you wherever you are.
You do not have to carry this alone.
What is Grief Therapy?
Grief asks so much of us.
It asks us to continue living while part of us is still reaching for someone, something, or some version of life that no longer exists. It asks us to make room for unbearable love.
Therapy is not a place where you'll be asked to move on or heal on a timeline. It is a space where your grief is welcome exactly as it is.
Here, you can cry, sit in silence, speak their name, or say the things you've been carrying alone. There is nothing you have to talk about, and nothing you cannot bring into the room.
Grief therapy is an invitation to care for yourself with gentleness—to make space for your pain, honour your love, and slowly find your footing in a world that feels different now.
Types of Loss We Support
Grief is not reserved for death. We grieve every ending that changes who we are. Every goodbye. Every future we imagined that no longer exists.
We support individuals navigating:
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Bereavement
The death of a partner, parent, child, sibling, family member, or close friend
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Pet Loss & Animal Bereavement
The loss of a beloved pet whose love shaped everyday life
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Anticipatory Grief
Grief while caring for someone with a terminal illness or witnessing gradual decline
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Relationship Dissolution
Divorce, separation, difficult breakups, or family estrangement
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Life Transitions & Identity Loss
Career loss, retirement, identity shifts, relocation, or major life transitions
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Ambiguous Loss & Disenfranchised Grief
Losses that others may not recognize or understand
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Traumatic Grief
Processing sudden, unexpected, or complicated losses
No loss is "too small."
If your heart is grieving it, it deserves care.
Our Approach to Grief & Loss
No two people grieve in the same way.
We don't believe your healing should be measured against rigid stages or expectations. We believe your experience deserves curiosity, compassion, and respect.
Our work is client-centered, trauma-informed, and deeply relational. Together, we'll create a space where every part of your experience is welcome.
Depending on your needs, our therapists have extensive training and expertise with the following approaches:
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Because grief often arrives holding guilt beside it. The "I should have called." The "If only." The questions with no answers. Together, we'll learn to meet those moments with compassion instead of punishment.
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Grief doesn't disappear because we wish it would. ACT helps us gently make space for our pain while slowly reconnecting with a life that still holds meaning, even alongside loss.
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Sometimes one part of you feels angry. Another feels numb. Another wants to keep moving because stopping feels unbearable.Every part deserves to be heard.
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When grief becomes overwhelming, these approaches offer practical tools to help regulate emotions, tolerate distress, and create moments of steadiness when the waves feel impossible.
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To help you share the story of the loss while finding meaning and a way forward.
Above all, we believe healing includes your whole self.
Your mind. Your body. Your heart. Your story.
Virtual or In-Person?
Grief asks enough of you already.
Some days, leaving the house feels impossible.
On those days, therapy can meet you exactly where you are. Wrap yourself in a blanket. Pour a warm cup of tea. Find a quiet corner of your home, and we'll meet there.
For others, healing begins by physically stepping outside of the spaces that hold so much pain. Our welcoming office in Ottawa's Glebe neighbourhood offers a calm, private place where you don't have to hold everything on your own.
Whether you choose in-person or virtual sessions, our hope is the same: That therapy feels like somewhere you can finally exhale.
Virtual appointments are available throughout Ontario in both English and Français.
Frequently asked questions
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There is no "right" way to grieve.
Some people cry every day. Others feel numb for months. Some feel relief alongside sadness. Some feel angry. Some don't know what they feel at all.
All of these experiences can be part of grief.
If you feel overwhelmed, isolated, unable to cope with daily life, or if your loss feels too heavy to carry by yourself, therapy can become a steady place to land while you find your footing again.
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No.
Love doesn't ask us to forget.
Our work is not about helping you leave someone behind.
It's about helping you find a way to carry their memory—and your love—with less suffering and more tenderness, so that your life can continue to grow around what has been lost.
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There isn't a perfect time.
Some people reach out within days.
Others come months—or years—later, when the silence settles and the reality finally arrives.
Whenever your heart tells you it's time, that is enough.
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Your consultation is simply a conversation.
A gentle beginning.
You'll have the opportunity to share as much—or as little—as you'd like, ask questions, and get a sense of whether your therapist feels like someone you can trust with your story.
There is no pressure.
Only an invitation to take the first step whenever you're ready.