If someone you love has died, or you are watching them slip away and already feeling the ache of what is coming, you do not have to carry it alone. Grief is not a problem to fix or a weakness to hide. It is what love looks like when the person is gone. Whatever you are feeling right now, whether it arrived a week ago or has followed you for years, there is support here for you.
Call our team any hour at 772-403-4500 or contact us online. There is no cost, no pressure, and no wrong reason to call. You can simply ask what support is available and go from there.
Types of grief
Treasure Coast Hospice has walked beside grieving families since 1982, and our grief support is open to the whole community, not only to families who had a loved one in our care. If you live in Martin County, St. Lucie County, or Okeechobee and you have lost someone, you are welcome here. Every bit of it is free, funded by donors and the community, so cost is never the reason a person goes without help.
Grief is the natural response to losing someone or something you are attached to. It is emotional, but it is also physical. Many people are surprised by the physical symptoms of grief: exhaustion, a tight chest, trouble sleeping, appetite changes, and a foggy mind that forgets simple things. The signs of grief show up in the body as much as the heart, and none of it means something is wrong with you.
There are also different types of grief, and naming what you are going through can bring a little relief.
Is the sorrow that begins before a death, when you are caring for someone with a serious illness and grieving the losses along the way.
If your loved one is on hospice, this weight is real, and support is available to you now, not only later.
Follows a death that came without warning, a heart attack, an accident, a stroke.
The shock itself becomes part of what you have to work through.
Is when the pain stays so intense for so long that it keeps you from functioning months or years later.
This is common, it is not a failure, and a trained counselor can help.
There is no schedule for this. Some mornings you will feel steady, and then a song, a smell, or an empty chair at the table will undo you. That does not mean you are moving backward. Coping with loss is not a straight line, and healing after loss rarely follows the tidy order people expect.
And it helps to understand what that model does and does not mean. The stages of grief that Elisabeth Kübler-Ross described, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, were never meant to be steps you climb one after another.
You can feel acceptance one day and raw anger the next. The grieving process is yours alone, and no one gets to tell you how long it should last or how it should look.
The honest answer is that grief changes rather than ends. It softens. It makes room for other feelings again. The goal of grief support is not to rush you past the pain but to help you carry it in a way you can live with.
Hard days
The holidays can be brutal when someone is missing from the table.
We offer support and gatherings around these hard days precisely because they are when so many people feel the loss most sharply. If a season is closing in on you, reach out before it does.
Catches many people off guard.
And there is no shame in stepping back.
This is the part many people do not expect. You do not need to have had a loved one in hospice to receive our grief support.
Our grief support is free and open to the wider community across Martin County, St. Lucie County, and Okeechobee. We can do this because of the generosity of donors and the Treasure Coast Hospice Foundation.
Where does that leave the question of who can help with grief on the Treasure Coast, and where to get grief support without a bill? Right here.
Grief care is a gift this community gives to itself, and it belongs to you as much as anyone.
You are still welcome.
You are still welcome.
You are still welcome.
Our grief support services
Whatever shape your grief takes, you deserve people who understand it. Learning more about what grief is and how the grieving process unfolds is often the first step toward feeling less alone in it.
Treasure Coast Hospice offers a full range of bereavement support, and you can use as much or as little of it as feels right. You can find the whole program on our grief support page.
Not sure what you need yet? That is completely okay. Call 772-403-4500 and a real person will listen and help you figure out where to begin. You do not have to have the words ready.
Sometimes you need one person who will sit with your story without flinching. Our grief counseling gives you private time with a trained counselor who understands loss. Whether you are dealing with grief after the death of a parent, learning to live after losing a spouse, or holding grief you have never said out loud, this is a safe place to bring it. People who look for grief counseling services or a grief counselor are often surprised to learn that our counseling is free and open to the community. It is not therapy in a clinical sense, though our counselors draw on real training; think of it as steady, compassionate grief therapy for the heart, guided by someone who does this work every day. If you would be more comfortable with a licensed grief therapist for deeper clinical needs, we can point you toward trusted options too.
Grief counselingThere is a particular comfort in a room full of people who get it without explanation. Our grief support groups bring together people walking similar roads, so no one has to grieve in isolation. Some are general bereavement groups; others focus on a specific loss, like a widow or widows group for those learning to live after losing a spouse, or a group for adults who have lost a parent. Many people who look for grief support groups near me simply want to know they are not the only one. In a group, you are not. For those who cannot attend in person, ask us about online and virtual grief support options so distance or a hard week never has to keep you away.
Grief support groupsChildren grieve too, and they do it differently than adults. A child may cry one minute and play the next, and that is normal. Our children’s grief support meets kids where they are, with age-appropriate ways to understand death and express big feelings. We offer grief support for children of every age, from little ones through the teen years. Teen grief support gives older kids a space that respects how private and complicated their grief can feel, and grief counseling for children helps younger ones make sense of a loss they do not yet have words for.
Grief support for childrenCamp Good Grief is our children’s grief camp, a supportive weekend where kids who have lost someone they love come together to heal through activities, connection, and play. A grief camp for kids can do what few things can: remind a grieving child that they are not alone, and that joy and sorrow can share the same day. Families across the Treasure Coast tell us Camp Good Grief is a turning point for their children.
Camp Good GriefGrief needs to be witnessed. Our Community Remembrance ceremonies and memorial gatherings give families a chance to honor the people they have lost, together. A remembrance ceremony, a candle, a name read aloud, a shared memorial service, these rituals matter. They give sorrow a place to land and remind you that your loved one’s life is still held by this community.
Memorial gatheringsUnderstanding grief helps you move through it. We offer grief education, seasonal grief workshops, and practical grief resources for anyone who wants to learn how to cope with grief or how to support someone else who is grieving. From short talks to printed guides, these tools help you make sense of what you are living. Ask us what is available and we will point you to the right resources.
Grief resources
For many people, loss stirs deep spiritual questions.
Why did this happen?
Where is my person now?
What do I even believe anymore?
Our chaplains offer spiritual care that meets you on your own terms, whatever your beliefs, alongside our grief counseling.
And you are not required to hold any particular faith to find comfort.
In small moments, and you are allowed to search for it at your own pace.
A larger circle of care
Grief support is one part of how Treasure Coast Hospice cares for this community. As a nonprofit and part of the Treasure Health family, we support more than 4,000 patients and families a year across three counties. When a family is facing the end of a loved one’s life, our hospice team, our pediatric program for children, our volunteers, and our grief counselors work together so that no one is left to face loss alone. You can learn more about us and the full circle of care we provide.
If you want to give back after your own experience, many people find healing in helping others; our volunteer program welcomes those who want to walk beside grieving families the way someone once walked beside them.
Coping with grief
There is no single right way to grieve, but a few practices help most people. Grief recovery is not forgetting. It is learning to live a life that has room for both the love and the loss.
Ready to take one small step? Reach out through our contact form or call 772-403-4500. You can ask to join a group, request a counselor, or simply talk. We will meet you wherever you are.
Learning to deal with a loss takes energy, and you are allowed to rest.
Even when it feels easier to say you are fine.
Saying their name keeps them close.
Let a counselor or a group share it.
Eat something. Step outside. Accept one kind offer. Coping with grief is not about being strong; it is about staying connected to people who can hold some of the weight with you.
Loss changes you. It is one of the hardest things a person ever lives through, and it deserves real support, not silence. Whether you need a counselor, a group, a camp for your child, or simply one conversation with someone who understands, Treasure Coast Hospice is here for you, free of charge, for as long as you need.
Reach out any hour at 772-403-4500, or contact us through our website. You can ask about grief counseling, join a support group, or learn about Camp Good Grief for a grieving child. There is no cost, no timeline, and no wrong way to begin.
You loved someone. That love is worth honoring, and you are worth supporting. Let us walk this with you.
