Grief & life transitions
How do you carry grief and still live?
Some losses come with a funeral. Others come with a phone call, a diagnosis, a move, or a door quietly closing.
Grief is rarely only sadness. It reaches into your identity, your relationships, your routines, your confidence, your faith, and the version of the future you had assumed you'd get.
You may be functioning well and still be grieving. You may be grieving something other people don't consider a loss. Both are real.
What can grief affect?
- Who you are now, when a role you held is gone.
- Relationships that changed shape, including the ones that surprised you.
- Faith: prayers that feel different, or questions you didn't have before.
- Ordinary routines that used to run themselves.
- Confidence in your own decisions.
- The future you had already pictured.
What does grief counseling offer?
Lori won't hand you a tidy explanation. There isn't one, and the phrases people reach for usually make it worse.
What she can offer is unhurried space to say what actually happened and what it cost you, without protecting anyone else from it. Together you can look at what's hardest right now, what helps, and how to carry this in a way that doesn't require pretending.
You can honor what mattered while learning how to live in what comes next. Those two things are not in competition.
If grief has brought anxiety, sleeplessness or low mood along with it, which is common, see anxiety and depression. If you want space to bring it to God, see spiritual direction.
For rates, insurance and what a first session involves, see counseling information.
Common questions
Does Lori Rasmussen offer grief counseling?
Yes. Lori provides grief counseling for women and female students in Waterloo, Iowa, for death and also for the losses that don't come with a funeral: a diagnosis, a divorce, a job, a friendship, a plan for the future.
How long does grief last?
Grief doesn't run on a schedule, and it rarely moves in a straight line. It tends to change shape rather than disappear. Counseling can help you carry it without it running everything.
What if my loss was a long time ago?
That's a common reason to come in. Grief often waits until life is quiet enough to be felt, and there's no expiration date on talking about it.
How do I get started?
Call 319-240-5035 or use the contact page.
You may also find it helpful to read Grief that does not follow the stages.
Helpful reading
If it helps to read a little before reaching out, these were written with this exact concern in mind.
Grief that does not follow the stages
Why grief rarely moves in a tidy order, and what helps when it comes back on a day you thought you were fine.
Grief after losing a parent
Why this loss reaches into identity, family roles and everyday life, and what tends to help.
Grief that has no funeral
For losses that carry no ritual: infertility, estrangement, a diagnosis, a dream that ended.
Reaching out can be the first step.
You don't need to know exactly what to say, or have anything figured out, before you contact Lori.
Or email rasmussencounselingandsd@gmail.com