Grief and Loss
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About Grief and Loss
Grief Counseling in Santa Monica & Los Angeles
Grief is one of the most profound human experiences — and one of the most misunderstood. Whether you are mourning the death of someone you love, the end of a relationship, the loss of a job, health, or a version of yourself you expected to become, grief deserves to be taken seriously and worked through with care.
Dr. Sally Hackman, PhD, MFT, offers compassionate grief counseling and loss therapy in Santa Monica and throughout Los Angeles. She creates a safe space where you can honor your grief, understand its roots, and slowly rebuild meaning — at your own pace, never rushed.
Key Points
Guiding You Through Loss.
Empowering Resilience
Grief therapy with Dr. Hackman helps you understand your loss in the context of your whole life — including past losses that may be resurfacing — so that the grieving process leads to genuine healing rather than just time passing.
Healing Space
A truly safe, confidential space — in person in Santa Monica or via Zoom — where your grief is never minimized, and you are never told how long you should feel this way.
Transformative Support
Dr. Hackman draws on psychoanalytic insight, attachment theory, and relational approaches to help you process loss, manage strong emotions, and rediscover a sense of meaning and forward movement.
OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU
Your Wellbeing Is Our Priority.
Therapy for grief and loss helps you process what happened, manage strong emotions, and slowly rebuild meaning after difficult events. It is important to allow oneself a grieving process after a loss. Doing it with a therapist helps you understand past experiences and how earlier losses may be shaping your experience now.
Dr. Hackman has worked extensively with individuals grieving deaths, divorce, illness diagnoses, major life transitions, and the complicated grief that comes from ambiguous losses — such as estrangement or caring for someone with dementia.
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Years Supporting Clients Through Loss
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Serving Santa Monica Continuously
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Confidential — Always
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First Session Free If You Don't Return
FAQ
Common Questions
Grief counseling focuses specifically on processing loss and the emotions, beliefs, and life disruptions that follow. It often connects to deeper therapeutic work around identity, attachment, and meaning — which is where Dr. Hackman's depth of training is particularly valuable.
There is no correct timeline. Grief is deeply personal and influenced by the nature of the loss, your history, and your support system. Dr. Hackman works at your pace — not toward a deadline.
Absolutely. Dr. Hackman works with clients grieving divorce, serious illness, career loss, the end of a life chapter, estrangement from a child or parent, and many other forms of loss that are often unacknowledged by the world around us.