When the casseroles stop and the fog will not lift, most grieving parents eventually ask: what kind of help do I actually need? The options have confusing labels. Therapist, counselor, grief coach, support group, peer companion. Here is the honest map, including exactly where we at Jonny's Angels do and do not belong on it.
What a therapist does
Therapists and counselors are licensed clinicians. They diagnose and treat what can ride along with grief: depression, anxiety, trauma, complicated grief that has frozen in place. If your grief includes months of unbroken numbness, an inability to function, trauma flashbacks, or any thoughts of self harm, a licensed professional is the right first call, and in a US crisis, 988 is the right number. Therapy is also simply valuable for many grievers with none of those signs. There is no threshold of brokenness you must reach to deserve it.
What a grief coach offers
Coaching is not treatment and does not diagnose anything. A grief coach walks beside you: deep listening, structure for your days, help finding meaning and purpose in your pain, and accountability for the slow rebuilding of a life. Coaching works in the present and future tense. The best grief coaches bring lived experience, because someone with the same wound can truly see you.
What peer community gives
Some medicine only a room of fellow travelers can dispense: the moment you say the unsayable thing and five heads nod. Support groups give you witnesses, rhythm, and the proof, living and breathing on your screen, that survival is possible. Community is not a substitute for therapy, and therapy is not a substitute for community. They feed different hungers.
Most parents blend all three
- Therapy for what rides along with grief, at whatever season it is needed.
- Coaching for walking companionship, structure and meaning. That is what my sessions offer, from lived experience, over Zoom.
- Community for weekly witness. That is our Thursday circle and the free 12 step program.
"Someone with the same wound can truly see you."
We will always be straight with you about which help a moment calls for, because the goal was never to be your only support. The goal is your healing.
Questions we hear often
What is the difference between a grief coach and a therapist?
Therapists are licensed clinicians who diagnose and treat conditions like depression, trauma and complicated grief. Grief coaches provide non clinical companionship, structure and meaning making, often from lived experience. Many grieving parents use both, plus a peer support community.
Walk with someone who has walked it
One on one sessions with Kathryn over Zoom, worldwide. 60 minutes for $120, or a gentle three session package.
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