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You want your life back. Not the same life. A real one.
People come to grief therapy in Brunswick, ME, at different points. Some are in the thick of an acute loss. Others have been navigating it for years, functioning on the outside while something important sits unresolved underneath. What most share is this: they’ve tried to figure it out alone, and they’re ready for something more intentional.
Grief isn’t just about what happened. It’s about who you’re becoming because of it. The people I work with are usually reflective enough to know that. They want to understand the loss, integrate it, and find a way to move toward connection, meaning, and purpose again. That’s the work I do.
There is still room for connection, meaning, and growth after loss.
Build Stability, Meaning, and a Path Forward
My work is grounded in attachment theory, nonviolent communication, mindfulness, and a developmental understanding of what loss actually does to a person. I believe grief is a normal human experience, not a pathology. What I help people build is the internal stability, the practical skills, and the self-compassion needed to move through it and find their footing again.
I bring my whole self to sessions. That means warmth, directness, and sometimes humor. I give people frameworks and tools they can actually use, not just insight to sit with. The work is collaborative: I help you figure out where you are, orient to where you want to go, and develop the habits and skills to get there.
What the work actually involves:
I’m Paul Sullivan, M.Ed., LMHC, LCPC, CGP. With nearly two decades of experience, I bring my whole self to this work: my clinical training, my own journey, and a genuine belief that people can build a meaningful life after even the hardest losses. My approach is humanistic at its core. I’m grounded in attachment theory and nonviolent communication, I think developmentally, and I use humor when it belongs. I work best with people who show up open and ready to do the real work. Learn more about my background on my about page.
What I Offer:
Healing doesn’t mean forgetting. It means finding a way to keep living fully.
My approach is integrative. I draw on several frameworks depending on what a person needs. These are the primary ones I bring to grief work.
Loss disrupts attachment. When someone close to us is gone, a fundamental sense of safety and connection is disrupted alongside them. Attachment-based work helps you understand what the loss means to your sense of self, your relationships, and your security, and how to rebuild that foundation from the inside out.
What this looks like in sessions:
Grief creates needs that are hard to name and even harder to ask for. Nonviolent communication gives people a practical framework for identifying what they’re actually feeling and what they need, and for expressing that to the people in their lives without blame or shutdown.
What this looks like in sessions:
Grief is often a developmental disruption. It can stop the forward movement of a life chapter and force a reassessment of who you are and what matters. I help people understand their grief in the context of where they were when the loss occurred and what development from here might look like.
What this looks like in sessions:
Grief lives in the body as much as the mind. Mindfulness and self-compassion practices help you stay present with what’s happening without being overwhelmed by it. They build the internal steadiness needed to engage with grief rather than avoid it or push through it.
What this looks like in sessions:
Grief takes many forms. Here are some of the most common experiences people bring to our sessions.
Grief shows up differently than most people expect. Here are two of the most important things to understand about it.
Grief is a physical experience as much as an emotional one. Common physical experiences of grief include:
Grief rarely moves in a straight line. Most people find it arrives in unpredictable waves rather than a steady progression. Understanding why can reduce the self-judgment that often comes with it:
Grief can become part of your story without defining the rest of it.
1. Does grief therapy actually help?
Grief therapy helps most people who engage with it genuinely. Research consistently shows improved outcomes for people navigating prolonged or complicated grief. For more typical grief, the benefit depends significantly on the fit between the person, the therapist, and the approach. The most honest answer I can give is this: for people who are open and ready to do the real work, the process tends to create real movement.
Therapy doesn’t erase the loss. It helps you develop a different relationship with it. People who complete grief therapy commonly describe being able to think about what happened without being consumed by it, finding a sense of direction and meaning again, and feeling more present in their relationships and daily life. The goal is integration, not forgetting.
Therapy tends to work best when the person arrives with genuine openness to change, when there’s enough safety and trust in the therapeutic relationship, and when the approach is tailored to the specific nature of the loss rather than following a fixed script. Consistency matters. So does what happens between sessions.
2. When should someone seek grief counseling?
The right time to seek grief counseling is when you feel like you’d benefit from it. You don’t need to be at a breaking point. You don’t need to wait until the grief becomes unmanageable. Seeking support early, before patterns become entrenched, often makes the process faster and more productive.
3. How does grief therapy work?
Grief therapy creates a dedicated space to engage with loss directly, with support. Rather than managing it at the edges of daily life, therapy gives it proper attention and structure. Sessions are typically an hour, weekly or biweekly, built around what you’re navigating and what you need to do something meaningful with it.
Early sessions focus on understanding the full picture: the nature of the loss, what it’s disrupted, and what you’re hoping will change. From there, we build frameworks, develop skills, and work with whatever is present. The process is collaborative. I give you tools you can actually use between sessions, not just things to reflect on.
There is no fixed protocol. The work adapts to the complexity of your specific loss, your history, your strengths, and your pace. What this looks like will be different for every person. It’s built around you.
4. How long does grief therapy take?
There is no fixed timeline. How long therapy takes depends on the nature of the loss, how long you’ve been navigating it, and how much space you’re able to create between sessions. Some people find meaningful progress in 10 to 16 sessions. Others benefit from longer support, especially when grief is complicated or has been accumulating across multiple losses over time.
There is no point at which grief becomes too long. What matters is whether it’s actively limiting your ability to function, connect, or find meaning. If it is, that’s not a sign that something is wrong with you. It’s a sign that you’d benefit from skilled support. The earlier you seek it, the more options we have to work with.
5. How much does grief therapy cost in Brunswick, ME, and do you take insurance?
6. Additional Support at Success & Wellbeing
If grief is affecting your family relationships, family therapy in Brunswick can help. For those navigating loss alongside professional challenges, executive therapy and coaching provides additional support. Group therapy in Brunswick offers community and connection for people who benefit from shared experience. Additional services, including family therapy in Maine and group therapy in Maine, are available virtually.
Loss is part of your story. It doesn’t have to write the rest of it.
A free 15-minute consultation is where we begin. We’ll talk about what you’re navigating, I’ll explain how I work, and together we’ll figure out whether this is the right next step. No commitment required. Just an honest conversation.
You can build a meaningful life after loss. Let’s figure out how.
