Grief Therapy in Dubai
Written and medically reviewed by: Dr Millia Begum, Consultant Psychiatrist (MRCPsych, DHA Licensed)
Grief is a natural response to losing someone or something important in life. However, for some individuals, grief remains overwhelming, persistent, and significantly disrupts daily life. This may be lead to Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD).
Trauma-informed somatic therapies such as EMDR, Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and other body-based approaches may help address these barriers to the natural grieving process, particularly when grief has become prolonged, traumatic, or complicated by unresolved shock, guilt, or attachment-related conflicts.
Complicated Grief: Key Insights
- Complicated grief is more than sorrow. It can affect identity, relationships, daily functioning, and a person’s ability to engage fully with life.
- Traumatic loss can trigger PTSD symptoms. Intrusive memories, nightmares, avoidance, hypervigilance, and emotional numbness may occur alongside grief.
- Attachment patterns influence grief. Unresolved conflict, abandonment pain, and aloneness distress may make adaptation to loss more difficult.
- Grief can reactivate earlier wounds. Previous losses, attachment injuries, childhood trauma, and feelings of loneliness may resurface following bereavement.
- Healing is possible. EMDR, DBR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and somatic therapies can help people process loss safely and restore connection, meaning, and wellbeing.
Book an Appointment
Book a consultation with Dr Millia Begum at First Psychiatry Clinic, Dubai.
Book at First Psychiatry ClinicWhat Is Prolonged Grief Disorder?
Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD), sometimes referred to as complicated grief, can develop if the bereaved person feels emotionally stuck, unable to accept the loss, disconnected from life, or unable to move forward. The longing, yearning, and emotional pain remain so overwhelming that relationships, work, wellbeing, and everyday functioning are affected. It is more common following sudden, traumatic, unexpected, or highly significant losses.
Key insight: Prolonged Grief Disorder is disruptive to life and functioning. A proper mental health assessment can help differentiate a normal grief from prolonged grief disorder.
Recovering from Prolonged Grief Disorder and Traumatic Grief
Yes. It is possible to heal from Prolonged Grief Disorder and Traumatic Grief. When grief becomes overwhelming or the loss itself was traumatic, the natural grieving process can become interrupted or blocked.
Trauma-informed therapies such as EMDR, Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and other body-based approaches may help process the trauma surrounding the loss, reduce emotional overwhelm, and create the sense of safety needed for healthy mourning.
Healing does not mean forgetting the person who died. It means finding a different way of carrying the relationship, processing the pain of the loss, and gradually reconnecting with life, meaning, hope, and inner safety.
Key insight: No therapies can make one forget the memories of their loved ones. Therapies can offer safe space to explore those difficult feelings and process traumatic aspects to resolution. This will help the natural flow of grief in a more healthier way.
What are the symptoms of Prolonged Grief Disorder?
People experiencing Prolonged Grief Disorder often describe feeling as though life stopped at the moment of the loss while everyone else continued moving forward.
Although they know intellectually that the person has died, emotionally it can feel impossible to fully accept the reality of the loss or adapt to a life without them.
- Persistent yearning or longing for the person who died
- Difficulty accepting the loss
- Feeling emotionally numb, disconnected, or detached
- Intense sadness, guilt, regret, anger, or loneliness
- Avoiding reminders of the loss
- Feeling unable to imagine a meaningful future
- Loss of purpose, identity, or direction
- Difficulty reconnecting with relationships and everyday life
Key insight: In those with Prolonged Grief Disorder, the most struggle described is being stuck with the memories of loss, without access to the heart-felt positive memories of their loved ones.
| Normal Grief | Prolonged Grief Disorder | PTSD Following Loss |
|---|---|---|
| Natural response to losing someone important | The attachment pain of the loss remains overwhelming and difficult to integrate | Shock and trauma disrupt the normal grieving process |
| Grief comes in waves | Persistent preoccupation with the person who died and difficulty shifting attention away from the loss | Avoidance of reminders alongside intrusive memories of the circumstances of the death |
| Sadness and longing gradually soften over time | Persistent yearning and difficulty accepting the loss | Flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, and distress linked to the traumatic event |
| Gradual adaptation to life after the loss | Feeling emotionally stuck and unable to move forward | Nervous system remains organised around threat, danger, and survival |
| Memories bring sadness and comfort (bittersweet) | Memories trigger intense longing, pain, and difficulty accepting reality | Memories trigger fear, distress, shock, or traumatic re-experiencing. The distress is also from not being able to access heart-felt memories of connection. |
Key insight: Prolonged Grief Disorder is centered around persistent longing, attachment pain, and difficulty adapting to life after the loss. PTSD following a traumatic loss is centered on unresolved shock, threat, fear, and traumatic memories surrounding how the loss occurred.
Many people experience both Prolonged Grief Disorder and PTSD at the same time. In these situations, therapy may need to address both the attachment pain of the loss and the unresolved shock or trauma associated with how the loss occurred.
Common Triggers in Complicated Grief
Complicated grief can be reactivated by reminders of the person who died, the relationship, or the circumstances surrounding the loss.
- Anniversaries, birthdays, and holidays
- Family gatherings and important life milestones
- Songs, smells, places, photographs, or personal belongings
- Seeing others experience what has been lost
- Dreams, memories, or reminders of the person
- Unfinished conversations, regrets, or unresolved conflict
- Major life transitions that highlight the person’s absence
Clinical Insight: Triggers are a normal part of grieving. However, if reminders of the loss repeatedly lead to overwhelming distress, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, emotional numbness, or significant difficulties in daily functioning, it may be helpful to seek a professional assessment.
Concerned that grief may have become stuck or overwhelming?
Book a Confidential Consultation with Dr. MilliaCoping Patterns in Complicated Grief
To survive the pain of loss, people often develop coping strategies that help them manage overwhelming emotions, loneliness, shock, or the reality of what has happened.
- Avoiding reminders of the loss
- Staying constantly busy
- Emotional numbing or shutdown
- Withdrawing or isolating from others
- Using food, alcohol, work, exercise, or screens to cope
- Feeling unable to speak about the person who died
- Avoiding people, places, or activities linked to the loss
These coping patterns are often attempts to protect against overwhelming emotional pain. The unbearable pain may be hard to turn to without numbing or soothing it.
Need Support? It is not always easy to speak openly about grief with family or friends. A compassionate and confidential therapeutic space can help you understand your responses to loss and process grief safely.
Can Unresolved Grief Be Helped?
Yes. Working through grief does not mean forgetting the person who died or “moving on” as though the loss did not matter. It means gradually finding a way to carry the relationship differently, reduce emotional pain, process traumatic aspects of the loss, and reconnect with life, meaning, and inner safety.
How Different Therapies Help With Traumatic Grief
Traumatic grief can involve shock, attachment pain, intrusive memories, guilt, emotional overwhelm, and difficulty adapting to life after a loss. Different therapies work at different levels of the grief experience.
Therapy | How It Understands Grief | Focus of Healing |
|---|---|---|
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy for grief | Traumatic grief occurs when distressing memories of the loss remain emotionally and physically overwhelming. The nervous system becomes stuck in shock, guilt, intrusive memories, or traumatic aspects of the loss. | When grief is complicated by intrusive memories, shock or traumatic circumstances surrounding the death, EMDR therapy for traumatic grief may help process these experiences. |
IFS (Internal Family Systems) Therapy | Helps to soften up the protective parts of the system holding the pain of loss and grief. Parts that organize themselves to cope and prevent emotional flooding and overwhelm. | Helps build compassionate relationships with the protective parts, reducing the system’s internal conflicts that may have come from differing needs and fears and supporting emotional healing. |
DBR (Deep Brain Reorienting) Therapy for PTSD | Traumatic grief often begins with shock. The nervous system may become frozen at the moment the loss was discovered or realized, preventing the grief from fully unfolding. | Works with the brain’s earliest orienting and shock responses, helping process attachment pain and grief that feels deeply held, stuck, or difficult to access. |
Key Takeaway: EMDR primarily helps process traumatic memories, IFS helps heal the emotional and relational impact of the loss, and DBR helps resolve the shock and attachment pain that may keep grief feeling stuck. These approaches can also be integrated depending on the individual’s needs.
When Should Someone Seek Help for Grief?
Grief therapy may be helpful when the emotional pain of a loss remains persistently overwhelming or begins to affect daily functioning, relationships, sleep, concentration, or emotional well-being.
People may benefit from support if they experience ongoing guilt, intrusive memories, rumination, emotional numbness, anxiety, panic attacks, isolation, or difficulty coping following a loss.
Trauma-informed grief therapy provides a safe and compassionate space to process grief, traumatic distress, and unresolved emotional pain while supporting healing and emotional integration over time.
Frequently Asked Questions About Grief & Therapy
Common questions about grief, traumatic loss, therapy and finding support in Dubai.
Will I ever overcome the loss of my loved one?
Grief is not usually about “getting over” the person who one has lost. Over time, many people find that the intensity of the pain becomes more manageable and that memories, connection and meaning can coexist with less overwhelm.
Can grief get better?
Yes. Grief often changes over time. For some people, support from family, friends or community is enough. Others may benefit from therapy, particularly when grief feels overwhelming, prolonged or difficult to integrate into everyday life.
How long does it take to come to terms with grief?
There is no fixed timeline. Grief unfolds differently for each person and may be affected by factors such as the nature of the relationship, circumstances of the loss, previous experiences and current support. Sudden or traumatic loss may take longer to process.
What if my grief still feels traumatic?
When a loss has been sudden, frightening or distressing, grief and trauma symptoms can overlap. Therapy may help address both the loss itself and reactions such as intrusive memories, guilt, shock, avoidance or a persistent sense of threat.
Will therapy make me relive my loss?
Not necessarily. Therapy should be paced according to what feels manageable. You do not have to describe painful experiences in detail before you feel ready, and some approaches begin by focusing on safety, emotional regulation and the impact of the loss in the present.
I am afraid to start therapy for grief. Is that normal?
Yes. Starting therapy can feel vulnerable, especially after a significant loss. An initial appointment can simply be a space to understand what you are experiencing and discuss what kind of support may be helpful.
Will therapy make me forget the person I lost?
No. The aim of therapy is not to remove memories or your connection with the person who died. Therapy may help you relate to those memories with less distress and find a way of carrying the relationship forward in a form that feels meaningful.
How does grief therapy help?
Grief therapy can provide space to process emotions such as sadness, guilt, anger or regret, understand difficult reactions to the loss and gradually rebuild meaning and connection. It may also help when grief is complicated by trauma, anxiety, depression or relationship difficulties.
How do I know if I need grief therapy?
Therapy may be worth considering if grief remains intensely distressing, interferes significantly with daily life, feels impossible to integrate, or is accompanied by persistent guilt, traumatic memories, emotional numbness or difficulty functioning.
What is the difference between grief therapy and trauma therapy?
Grief therapy focuses primarily on adapting to loss and the emotional impact of bereavement. Trauma therapy may be more relevant when the circumstances of the loss themselves remain frightening or intrusive. Some people may benefit from both approaches.
Can grief therapy help after a sudden or traumatic death?
It may. Sudden or traumatic loss can involve both bereavement and trauma-related symptoms. Treatment can be adapted according to which aspects of the experience are causing the most difficulty.
How do I choose a grief therapist in Dubai?
It can be helpful to consider the clinician’s professional qualifications, experience with grief and traumatic loss, training in relevant therapies and whether their approach feels comfortable and appropriate for you.
How do I book grief therapy in Dubai?
Appointments with Dr Millia can be arranged through First Psychiatry Clinic in Dubai. You can use the booking details on this page to enquire about assessment, grief therapy and current availability.
About Dr. Millia
Dr. Millia Begum is a British-trained Consultant Psychiatrist and an expert trauma specialist with over 25 years of clinical experience in psychiatry and therapy.
She is an EMDRIA Certified Therapist™ and EMDRIA Approved Consultant™, a former EMDR researcher, and a former board member of the EMDR Association UK. She uses EMDR, Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) Therapy and is a Certified Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapist . She brings a compassionate, parts-informed approach to her work with clients in Dubai.
Book a Mental Health Appointment
Arrange a confidential consultation with Dr Millia Begum at First Psychiatry Clinic in Dubai.
Villa 975, Municipality 363856
Al Manara, Umm Suqeim 2
Dubai, UAE
Office: +971 4 221 6000
Email: info@firstpsychiatryclinics.com