Grief Recovery Method® programs for adults and teens navigating loss, trauma, life transitions, and pet loss.
You’ve tried to stay strong.
You’ve stayed busy.
You’ve talked about it.
And yet, the pain is still there.
Grief isn’t something you “get over.”
It’s something you need the right tools to move through.
Ways We Can Work Together
Each offering follows the same structured Grief Recovery Method®, with options for private support or small, guided groups. You can choose the format that feels most comfortable for you.
ONE-ON-ONE GRIEF RECOVERY
Private, focused support
over 7 weeks
Some losses are too layered or too personal to work through in a group.
8-WEEK GRIEF RECOVERY GROUP
Structured small-group support
It’s a guided, eight-week process where each participant works through their own grief using a clear and proven structure.
PET LOSS SUPPORT
6-week program
The grief after losing an animal is real and often minimized. This program honors that relationship with the seriousness it deserves.
HELPING CHILDREN WITH LOSS
4-week guidance for adults supporting grieving children
This four-week program gives parents, caregivers, and educators practical tools for responding to grieving children with clarity and confidence.
Grief is not always loud.
Sometimes it looks like being the person who keeps everything going.
The one everyone relies on.
The one who knows how to function.
And then something small happens (a date, a memory, a comment) and your whole body reacts before you have time to think.
You’ve talked about what happened.
You know the story.
You understand why it affected you.
That’s not the problem.
The problem is that the pain is still active.
It shows up as:
the anger that surprises you
the guilt that won’t let you rest
the conversations you replay
the things you never got to say
the way your life split into “before” and “after”
This is what unresolved grief feels like.
Not constant sadness, but something that never fully settles.
WHO THIS WORK IS FOR
This work is often right for people navigating:
death of a loved one
divorce or relationship loss
trauma
estrangement
major life transitions
pet loss
a child’s diagnosis
loss of identity or future expectations
This work is often right for people who:
have already done therapy and still feel something unresolved
are high-functioning but internally exhausted
feel stuck in anger or resentment
struggle with guilt or “what if” thinking
want a clear framework instead of ongoing coping strategies
find that certain dates, memories, or interactions still bring an immediate emotional or physical reaction
have losses that were never fully acknowledged by others,
but continue to affect how they live and relate
Grief is personal. But it is not random.
There is a pattern to how it works and that pattern can be addressed.
PRIVATE GRIEF RECOVERY
One-on-One | 7 Weeks
There are losses that are hard to speak about in a room full of people.
Losses that are layered, complicated, or still very close to the surface.
The one-on-one program is a private, structured space where we move through the Grief Recovery Method® together, step by step, over seven weeks.
We meet once each week. Between sessions you’ll have small, guided pieces of work to do on your own.
This work focuses on one relationship or one loss at a time. That might be:
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a person who died
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a relationship that ended
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a trauma
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a loss of trust or safety
-
the life you expected to have
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a change in your child’s health or future
You are not retelling your story over and over.
You are changing your relationship to it.
By the end of the seven weeks, most people notice that the intensity around the memories has eased. The mental replaying quiets. The anger or guilt that once felt immediate begins to feel complete rather than constantly active.
8-WEEK GRIEF RECOVERY METHOD® GROUP
Group | 8 Weeks
The group is small, consistent, and carefully guided.
It meets once a week for eight weeks, with the same people each time.
This is not a drop-in support group and it isn’t based on sharing your story in detail.
Each person is:
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learning the method together
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completing their own personal work
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moving at their own pace
There is connection, but there is no comparison.
No pressure to talk before you’re ready.
The structure of the program is what allows real movement to happen.
Week by week, you’re working toward emotional completion around a specific loss.
People are often surprised by how different this feels from other group experiences. It’s quieter. More focused. And deeply respectful of each person’s process.
Groups are offered throughout the year, book a call with me below to talk about upcoming groups.
PET LOSS SUPPORT
6-Week Grief Recovery Program
The relationship with an animal is woven into the smallest parts of daily life: the routines, the physical closeness, the way they regulate your nervous system without saying a word.
When that relationship ends, the absence is everywhere.
And yet this is one of the most misunderstood forms of grief.
This six-week program uses the same Grief Recovery Method® structure, centered entirely on your relationship with your animal.
We meet once a week.
You’ll have gentle, guided steps between sessions.
Together, we address:
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the guilt around decisions that had to be made
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the “what if” thoughts
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the unfinished goodbyes
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the sudden silence in your home and your body
- the space to remember them and honor them
The goal is not to let go of the bond.
It’s to be able to remember that relationship with more love than pain.
HELPING CHILDREN WITH LOSS (HCWL)
4-Week Program for Adults
Most adults were never shown how to support a grieving child.
We’re told to protect them, to keep them from feeling too much, to find the right words... and in trying to do that, we often become unsure and quiet.
This four-week program is practical and immediately usable.
We meet once a week and focus on real-life situations:
- how children understand grief at different ages
- what helps them feel safe enough to talk
- what unintentionally shuts them down
- what to say when you don’t have an answer
You’ll learn how to:
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respond to big emotions without trying to fix them
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model healthy grieving
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create an environment where children can ask hard questions
This program is for parents, caregivers, educators, and professionals who want to show up for grieving children with clarity and confidence.
HI, I'M KRISTIN DARCY, M.S.W.
This work is both professional and deeply personal to me.
For more than ten years, I worked in clinical settings with individuals and families living through profound loss and trauma: child loss, adolescent bereavement, sexual abuse, domestic violence, families impacted by the 9/11 Pentagon attack, victims of crime, and those in emergency medical situations.
I understood grief from a professional perspective.
I knew how to support others through it.
What I didn’t recognize was my own.
When my oldest son experienced a traumatic event as a teenager and was later diagnosed with PTSD, our entire family changed. We fought for his life, for his healing, and for some sense of stability in a world that no longer felt safe.
Years later, I was still carrying intense anger and sadness.
Not because I hadn’t done the work, I had been to therapy and used every tool I knew, but because I was grieving losses I didn’t yet have language for:
- the loss of trust
- the loss of safety
- the loss of the life I believed my son would have
- the loss of who we had been as a family before that moment
The Grief Recovery Method® was the first process that allowed me to fully complete that pain.
Through that work, I was able to:
- feel peace where there had been constant anger
- honor what we had been through without reliving it
- experience genuine joy again
- recognize the strength and closeness that had grown between my son and me
That experience changed the direction of my work.
I became a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist so I could offer others the same structured, compassionate process that had helped me. Not just to understand their grief, but to resolve the parts that were still active in their daily lives.
Today, I provide Grief Recovery Method® programs for adults and teens in the Pittsburgh South Hills and online, along with specialized groups for pet loss and for adults who want to better support grieving children.
INVITE KRISTIN TO SPEAK
Grief shows up in classrooms, workplaces, and communities, whether we know how to talk about it or not.
I offer presentations and workshops for schools, parent groups, professional organizations, and community settings that want to understand grief in a way that is practical, compassionate, and immediately usable.
Common topics include:
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how children understand and express grief at different developmental stages
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what to say (and what not to say) to someone who is grieving
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supporting students after loss or trauma
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understanding unresolved grief in adults and how it affects behavior, learning, and relationships
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creating grief-informed environments in schools and organizations
Every presentation is tailored to the audience, with the goal of helping people feel more prepared, more capable, and less afraid of getting it wrong.
If your school, organization, or group is looking for a way to approach grief that is clear, respectful, and deeply human, I’d be honored to be part of that conversation.
To inquire about availability and topics, please reach out here →
WHAT CLIENTS ARE SAYING
"As a parent, Kristin gave me the confidence and guidance to talk directly and constructively to my teenage daughter. Kristin was able to provide my daughter with coping skills to more effectively express her emotions in a positive way."
"Kristin Darcy has been an incredible resource to me as I've raised my three teens. She has a steady, quiet confidence that is very reassuring. Her knowledge and experience is evident in the advice and suggestions she gives. Somehow she always strings the perfect words together to give me comfort, reassurance and help me devise a plan. I am forever grateful to her!"
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Pittsburgh, PA
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