When Grief and Trauma Intersect: Expanding the EMDR Lens

Grief is an experience that unites us all—yet when we meet it in the therapy room, it can feel profoundly complex. For many clients, grief doesn’t arrive alone. It often weaves itself through layers of trauma, attachment wounds, and unfinished stories of love and loss.

At the Trauma and Grief Institute, we recognize how deeply intertwined trauma and grief can be, and how important it is for clinicians to have tools that support both. For EMDR-trained therapists, the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model provides a powerful framework for understanding how loss becomes encoded in the brain—and how healing can unfold through integration rather than resolution.

Beyond Resolution: Supporting Integration

Traditional models of grief often focus on “moving on” or achieving closure. But as trauma-informed clinicians, we know that healing from loss is not about letting go—it’s about integrating what has been lost into one’s ongoing life story.

Through EMDR, clients can safely revisit the memories, sensations, and beliefs associated with their loss. The process allows the brain to connect painful or fragmented experiences to adaptive information—such as love, safety, and meaning. Over time, clients often describe feeling more grounded, more connected to their loved ones, and more able to re-engage with life without betraying the depth of their grief.

EMDR, when applied to grief, doesn’t seek to erase the pain. It honors the bond and facilitates adaptive mourning—a process where the person can carry both sorrow and connection, absence and love.

The Clinician’s Experience: Sitting With the Unfixable

Working with grief challenges even the most seasoned clinicians. There’s often a natural pull to help clients “feel better,” but grief asks something more profound of us. It invites us to be present with what cannot be fixed.

The EMDR–GRIEF model emphasizes this stance of compassionate presence. It integrates established grief theories within EMDR’s eight-phase model, offering both structure and flexibility. Clinicians are guided to hold space for clients as they oscillate between loss and restoration—facilitating emotional movement without rushing the process.

This work is not just technical; it’s relational. It calls on us to be steady, patient, and attuned—to offer the safety that allows clients to face the unbearable and find their way through it.

Why Specialized Training Matters

While many EMDR practitioners already work with grief, specialized training helps bridge the gap between trauma processing and mourning. Understanding how grief shows up within the AIP model allows clinicians to discern when a client’s natural mourning has become blocked, looping, or complicated.

Through advanced training, clinicians gain:

• A structured approach to working with grief within EMDR

• Opportunities for hands-on practice and supervision

• Insight into case conceptualization and treatment planning

• A community of peers dedicated to trauma- and grief-informed care

  
  

Continued learning in this area helps clinicians expand both their confidence and compassion, allowing them to support clients through grief in ways that are both grounded and transformative.

Continuing to Grow as Clinicians

As we deepen our understanding of grief, we inevitably deepen our humanity as therapists. Expanding our EMDR practice to include grief work isn’t just about refining technique—it’s about strengthening our capacity to be present, to tolerate ambiguity, and to trust the innate wisdom of the human healing process.

When we accompany clients through loss with steadiness and skill, we help them rediscover meaning, connection, and the possibility of living fully—even in the presence of grief.

Upcoming Training Opportunity

If you’re an EMDR-trained clinician ready to deepen your skills in working with grief, join us for our EMDR–GRIEF Training on November 6–7, 2025, in Kanata, ON. This two-day advanced program offers 12 EMDRIA Credits, practical tools, and a comprehensive 200-page EMDR–GRIEF manual.

Explore our upcoming Training & Events page for more learning opportunities, or visit our About page to learn more about our approach to trauma- and grief-informed care.

Together, we can continue to expand what it means to heal—both for our clients and for ourselves.