---
title: "Complicated Grief Therapy in Florida | McFadden Institute"
url: https://mcfaddeninstitute.com/specialties/complicated-grief
description: "Online therapy in Florida for grief that hasn't softened with time. Keeping the connection without keeping the pain. Robert Cushing, LCSW."
lang: en
---

Image: Dry golden grass seed heads backlit by low warm sun. (https://mcfaddeninstitute.com/__l5e/assets-v1/b17f378a-9aff-42a2-b82d-7558b23fb475/grass-detail.jpg)

Specialties

# Complicated Grief

Everyone said it would get easier. It's been a long time, and it hasn't.

Book a free consultation: https://mcfaddeninstitute.com/contact
How RRT works: https://mcfaddeninstitute.com/approach

## What this looks like

The loss still feels as raw as the first week.

You replay the last days or the last conversation.

Reminders are everywhere, or you avoid them completely.

Life seems to have stopped at the moment they died.

## How Rapid Resolution Therapy approaches it

RRT aims to ease the stuck, sharp part of grief while the connection stays.

This isn't about moving on. It's about carrying them differently.

## When grief doesn't ease

Most grief changes shape over time. It doesn't go away, but it softens enough to live alongside. Sometimes that doesn't happen. A year or five years later, the loss still takes up the whole room. People around you have stopped asking, and you've stopped saying.

It's the part of grief and loss (https://mcfaddeninstitute.com/specialties/grief-and-loss) I think of as stuck.

## Stuck at the moment of the loss

For some people, time seems to have split into before and after, and part of them is still standing at the line. The phone call. The hospital room. The last ordinary morning. It replays without asking.

When a death came without warning, shock often gets tangled into this. There's more on that on the page about grief after a sudden loss (https://mcfaddeninstitute.com/specialties/sudden-loss).

## Guilt and what-ifs

What if I'd called that day. What if I'd pushed for another doctor. What if I hadn't said that. Guilt is one of the most common threads in stuck grief, and it often attaches to things no reasonable person could have known or done.

Arguing with guilt rarely helps. Working with how the mind is holding it can.

## Avoiding reminders, or holding on to everything

Some people can't drive past the house, hear a certain song, or look at a photo. Others can't move a single object, and the closet stays exactly as it was. Neither is wrong. Both can be signs that the pain is carrying the connection, rather than the love.

## You don't need a label

Complicated grief, prolonged grief, whatever name gets used. You don't need one to ask for help. If grief has settled into something that feels like depression (https://mcfaddeninstitute.com/specialties/depression), that's worth talking about too.

The aim isn't to have you stop missing them. It's for the missing to stop knocking you over.

## How sessions work with stuck grief

We don't start by going back over the death. We start with where it hurts now: the moment that keeps replaying, the guilt that won't let go, the room you can't go into. You decide what to bring. Sessions are 90 minutes, which gives us time to work with something without rushing out the door at a raw moment.

People often worry that they'll be told to move on or let go. You won't. The connection is yours to keep. What we work with is the weight.

Grief can also arrive alongside other hard things, like caring for someone else who is ill, or a job that doesn't pause. It's fine to bring all of it. More on that in does letting go of grief mean forgetting? (https://mcfaddeninstitute.com/resources/letting-go-of-grief)

If you're in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). For emergencies, dial 911.

Stuck grief isn't too much love. It's pain that never got to settle.

## Questions people ask

### How long is grief supposed to last?

There's no set length, and it doesn't really end. What usually changes is its weight. If it's stayed just as heavy for a long time, that's worth looking at.

### Is it normal to feel guilty?

Yes. Guilt is one of the most common parts of grief, especially when it gets stuck. It's something we can work with directly.

### Will feeling better mean I loved them less?

No. Love and pain aren't the same thing. Many people find that when the pain eases, the connection feels closer, not further away.

Not sure if what you're carrying fits here?

A free 15-minute call is the simplest way to find out.

Book a free consultation: https://mcfaddeninstitute.com/contact

Rapid Resolution Therapy is a therapeutic approach, not a guarantee of specific results and not a substitute for medical care. Every person's experience is different and individual outcomes vary.

Back to home: https://mcfaddeninstitute.com/

Free consultation · no pressure

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