Grief Therapy In Portland, Oregon

Services available virtually throughout Oregon & Florida.

Loss is a part of life, but no one teaches us how to process it. The days blur, sleep and appetite shift, and ordinary tasks can feel impossibly heavy.

You may be asking yourself how you’re supposed to “just move on.” It can be subtler too: “It’s been long enough. I should be better by now,” or “Other people have it worse.” You may have learned to hold it together for everyone else, until the weight becomes unbearable. Or, just as you thought you’d made it through the worst of it, something triggers a memory, a feeling, and you’re buried again. Grief that goes unspoken doesn’t disappear. It waits.

Grief therapy starts by modeling how to hold space for a pain this heavy. Grief is a profound relationship to pain, and it deserves to be honored. What would it feel like to carry this with someone beside you? You deserve a space with someone who understands the layered, complex and overwhelming parts of grief.

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Grief isn’t just sadness. It’s a deeply impactful, transformative process. How you relate to the world shifts profoundly, as your relationship with yourself changes, along with your relationships with the others affected by the loss. If you’re here, you may already feel that shift.

Grief therapy addresses things like:

Years may have passed, but your grief feels as intense as ever.

You blame yourself for the loss.

Your present relationships have suffered as a result, and you feel punished for grieving.

Moving on feels like a betrayal of the person you’re grieving.

You feel fixated on how a relationship ended. You just can’t stop thinking about it.

Thoughts of the person you lost bring rage, or the opposite: you can’t allow a single negative thought, even though you know the relationship wasn’t ideal.

Using compassion and several techniques, we’ll discover what it looks like to walk with your grief, processing its energy and releasing what feels right, when it feels right.

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Grief Therapy In Portland Oregon Helps You…

You feel a relief, and can still honor the departed
Waves of grief are gentler & more manageable
You can sleep again
You form a more intimate understanding of your grief

kintsugi: finding beauty in the broken pieces, wholeness within impermanence.

Meet your Portland Trauma Therapist

Hi, I’m Kemper Gottshall, a licensed professional counselor (LPC) helping adults find a way through grief, in Portland, Oregon. Feelings of devastation, fixation, or guilt can be common, and you deserve relief.

I’ve helped many people navigating profound grief for those both living and those passed. Whether it’s been a weight you’ve carried for years, or sudden and affecting your ability to function.

Here’s why I have a focus with grief: I understand the complexity and myriad aspects of grief, and its profound impact on life it can have. To fight, ride and dance with it. To watch it change you.

I believe you deserve a shared space to hold, and honor this profound experience. Greater calm, peace and understanding is possible.

More about Kemper

Trauma Therapy in Portland, Oregon

Frequently Asked Questions

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Trauma therapy means utilizing trauma-informed and research based methodology. This means the full scope of the effects of trauma are taken into account; body and mind.
This translates into creating a safe, nonjudgemental and trusting space, things that are so easily lost following trauma. We go at your pace, in a way that feels best for you.
The ultimate goal is helping you return to you: your voice, your body, your right to show up into the world fully.
Trauma is marked by persistent and often debilitating symptoms that make day to day functioning excruciating.
You’re felt sense matters here: racing thoughts, intense avoidance, shame, regret or rumination, sudden memories, persistent nightmares, panic attacks.

If you find yourself in ‘survival mode:’: can’t remember the last time you were able to truly relax, feel like a stranger to yourself or alien in your own body, trauma therapy may be right for you.
This is a common response to hearing about trauma. A few things to keep in mind:
- Trauma isn’t just what happens to you, it can also be what doesn’t happen to you.
- Trauma isn’t what happens outside of us, but what happens within us as a reaction.
Trauma defines the way we adapted to create safety and meaning in the world. Your experience matters here, even if you’re used to telling yourself your pain isn’t ‘that big of a deal.’
My rates are:
- $150 for individual sessions
- $200 for Couples/Family Sessions
Insurance participation changes over time. Reach out today to review currently accepted payment options and insurance availability.

Grief Therapy in Portland, Oregon

Grief Therapy

Grief doesn’t move neatly through five stages and then end.

In grief therapy, we don’t try to make your loss smaller. We look at how you’ve been carrying it: what you’ve held in, what you’ve been afraid to feel, and what still needs to be said.

Men’s Health in Portland, Oregon

Therapy for Men

Many men were taught early that strength means staying quiet. Don’t cry. Handle it. Don’t be a burden. These messages come from a culture shaped by patriarchy, and they carry a real cost.

In therapy, we build emotional language at your pace, without judgment.

Addiction & Recovery Therapy in Portland, Oregon

Addiction Recovery

Addiction rarely exists on its own. It often begins as a way to survive pain that felt too big to face: grief, trauma, or shame. Therapy can help you explore what’s underneath the drinking or using and build a life you don’t need to escape from.