Grief after suicide is unlike anything else.
It’s not just sadness. It’s the weight of what-ifs. The images you can’t unsee. The silence where someone’s voice used to be. It’s trying to survive in a world that no longer makes sense.
Whether your loss was recent or many years ago, if you’re still struggling to get through the pain and find the happier memories of your lives with them – you’re not alone. And you’re not doing it wrong.
This kind of loss is often called traumatic grief – and it needs more than just time to heal.
It needs support that understands the impact of suicide.
Support that reaches the parts of grief talk can’t always touch.
Support that helps not just your mind, but your nervous system begin to heal.
A Different Approach to Healing After Suicide Loss
One therapy that’s been quietly changing lives in the field of trauma and loss is called EMDR – short for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
Originally developed to treat PTSD, EMDR is now used to help people process traumatic grief, especially when the pain feels stuck, overwhelming, or too heavy to carry alone.
A therapist named Marilyn Luber developed a specific EMDR protocol for people experiencing excessive or complicated grief – the kind that often follows suicide loss. It’s designed to help reduce emotional overwhelm, quiet intrusive images, and gently create space for healing.
What Is EMDR, and How Does It Help with Suicide Bereavement?
EMDR helps the brain reprocess trauma so it no longer causes the same intense distress. It doesn’t erase grief – but it can take the edge off the pain that feels unbearable which is stored in your body.
Using guided eye movements, tapping, or sounds, a trained EMDR therapist supports you in processing the memories, emotions, and beliefs that are keeping natural mourning stuck.
You don’t need to go into all the details. You don’t have to “talk it all out.” EMDR meets you where you are – and helps your adaptive brain and body do what it already knows how to do: heal.
Five Grief Triggers EMDR Can Help You Work Through
Luber’s EMDR protocol focuses on five areas where suicide grief often gets tangled in the brain:
1. Painful Moments You Can’t Escape
Whether it’s the day you found out, the last conversation, or an image you can’t stop seeing – EMDR helps reduce the intensity so it doesn’t control you.
2. Intrusive Mental Images or Flashbacks
If your brain keeps replaying distressing scenes, EMDR helps these fade, allowing you to be more present in daily life.
3. Recurring Nightmares or Sleep Disruption
Grief often hijacks sleep. EMDR can calm the nervous system and ease the emotional weight behind the dreams.
4. Everyday Triggers That Reignite Pain
Anniversaries, places, smells, songs – anything can bring grief flooding back. EMDR helps your system respond with less overwhelm.
5. Heavy Emotions Like Guilt, Shame, or Regret
Many suicide loss survivors struggle with questions like, “Could I have stopped it?” or “Why didn’t I see it coming?” EMDR helps shift these painful beliefs toward self-compassion and peace.
This Isn’t About Forgetting – It’s About Healing
Grief is a sign of love, and nothing can take that away. But grief doesn’t have to stay stuck in suffering.
With the right support, it’s possible to feel more grounded, more emotionally steady, and more able to remember your person without drowning in pain.
Who Is This For?
Whether you’ve lost a partner, sibling, friend, parent, child, colleague, or someone else you loved deeply – this kind of grief changes you.
At Suicide Grief Support, we walk beside you through:
-
Traumatic grief recovery after suicide
-
EMDR-informed healing practices
-
Community support for suicide bereavement
-
Coping strategies for grief that won’t let go
-
Tools to feel safe in your body and emotions again
You don’t have to be a parent to find support here. But if you are grieving while raising children, we do offer an optional parent-focused course to help you navigate parenting through grief.
You Deserve Support That Goes Deeper Than Words
Grief after suicide is layered. It often brings trauma, guilt, and isolation.
But healing is possible – without forgetting, without pretending, and without rushing.
If you’re curious about how EMDR or how our grief support programs could help, take the first step. No pressure. Just an invitation.
Explore our 12-Week Parenting Course
Or our April 2026 EMDR Retreat for Women
You’re not alone.
You have complicated grief.
And that grief deserves to be met with care, understanding, and hope.
With love
