Grief Therapy in Scottsdale, AZ
Laura Walton, LMFT, provides compassionate grief therapy in Scottsdale and online throughout Arizona and Maine for adults learning how to navigate life after the death of someone they love. Her work combines clinical expertise and personal experience that honors grief as a natural part of being human.
Therapy Grounded In Depth, Safety, and Clinical Integrity
A Grief Therapist Who Understands the Mind, Body, and Meaning of Grief
When someone you love dies, your whole world may suddenly feel unfamiliar. Daily routines can become difficult. Relationships may change. You may feel intense sadness one day and moments of genuine joy the next, only to be surprised by guilt, anger, numbness, or longing along the way.
Grief doesn’t follow a schedule. Even when a death was expected, it still can affect you in ways you could not have anticipated. Grief is emotional, but it is also physical, relational, and spiritual.
Laura's approach to grief therapy doesn’t rush you toward closure or pressure you to “get over it” or “move on.” It offers room to speak honestly, understand your experience, and discover how grief will fit into your life. She works with conscious thoughts as well as emotions, body-based responses, memories, and subconscious patterns.
Sessions can include traditional conversation, experiential work, nervous-system support, a specialized modality, or a combination of efforts that fits your needs and preferences.
How Can Grief Therapy Help You?
Many people seek grief counseling because they need a safe space. Friends and family may care deeply but feel unsure about what to say or do to support you. Others may expect you to return to your previous life before you are ready.
There is no predetermined formula for grief. Laura guides you on your journey of grief at a collaborative and supportive pace that feels manageable to you. Your relationship, the circumstances of the death, your culture, your beliefs, your goals, and the life you are living now all matter in this process.
A good grief therapist gives your grief the time and attention it deserves. Depending on what you need, sessions may help you:
Talk openly about the person who died and the life you shared
Make space for all the emotions that accompany grief
Understand how grief is affecting you physically and spiritually
Navigate anniversaries, holidays, birthdays, and unexpected reminders
Process distressing mental images connected to the death
Explore changes in identity, purpose, faith, or your sense of the future
Maintain a meaningful inner connection with the person who died
Types of Grief Therapy Available In Scottsdale, Phoenix & Throughout Arizona & Maine
Hypnotherapy for Grief
Clinical hypnotherapy uses a relaxed, focused state of attention to explore emotions, memories, beliefs, and patterns that may be difficult to reach through conversation alone. You remain aware and in control throughout the process. Clinical hypnosis is not sleep, mind control, or a loss of agency.
In grief work, hypnotherapy may provide a gentle way to engage with memories, difficult emotions, and things that feel unfinished with the person who died. As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Laura brings both clinical training and a deep respect for the subconscious mind to this work.
IADC Therapy for Grief
Induced After-Death Communication (IADC) is a specialized approach developed from EMDR principles for people grieving a death. It uses guided eye movements or other bilateral stimulation within a structured therapeutic process. Some people report an internal experience of connection, comfort, or communication involving the person who died.
IADC does not require a particular religion, spiritual belief, or explanation for what occurs. For some people, IADC may offer a new way to relate to intense emotions, troubling memories, or the continuing bond with the person who died.
Grief and trauma are not the same, but they can overlap. Laura may draw from additional trauma-informed and body-based therapies, including:
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing): May help the brain process distressing memories, images, beliefs, or moments surrounding a death.
Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR): Works gently with shock and threat responses that can arise before words or emotions fully form.
Brainspotting: Uses visual focus and body awareness to access experiences that may be difficult to describe through conversation.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART): May help reduce the intensity connected to distressing memories while allowing you to retain the facts and meaning of what occurred.
Somatic and nervous-system-informed practices: Help you notice and respond to the physical ways grief may be carried in the body.
Attachment and family-systems work: Explores how the death has affected relationships, roles, identity, and patterns within a family or support system.
Other Approaches Laura May Use in Grief Therapy
Meet Laura Walton, LMFT
Laura Walton, LMFT, is a compassionate grief therapist in Scottsdale, AZ, who is trained in 11+ approaches to grief and trauma therapy.
Her commitment to grief work is both professional and personal. Her father died when she was 21. At 26, her best friend and boyfriend, Beau, died unexpectedly from a heroin overdose. His death brought years of grief to the surface and changed the direction of her life.
Laura approaches grief not as something to conquer, but as an experience that becomes integrated into who we are. Laura holds a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and is licensed in Arizona and Maine. She is also a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, a grief educator, and the author of The Yoga of Grief: Finding Calm Through Ancient Wisdom.
Support For Grief Beyond Therapy
The following resources can complement grief therapy, but do not replace individualized mental health care with a trained therapist.
The Yoga of Grief: Laura’s book that offers historical and philosophical perspectives on yoga and grief.
Grief On Purpose: A trauma-informed grief support platform to make honest education, practical tools, and community available to people living with grief.
The Grief On Purpose Podcast: Honest conversations, personal stories, and trauma-informed perspectives that help normalize grief.
The Light After: Navigating Grief After the Death of Someone You Love: A grief support program for people trying to find their footing after someone important has died.
The Light After: Navigating Grief After the Death of Your Partner: A self-paced digital course created specifically for people living after a partner’s death. It can be completed privately and at your own pace.
Grief Journals and Downloadables: Laura offers guided grief journals, a grief resource bundle, and combined grief and trauma tools. Topics range from grounding and self-care to supporting grieving children and handling practical responsibilities after a death.
Find Relief With Grief Therapy in Scottsdale or Online
Laura offers grief therapy from her Scottsdale office and online throughout Arizona and Maine. Together, you can create room for grief, tend to what still hurts, and explore how life can continue to exist alongside grief.
FAQs About Grief Therapy
Is grief therapy only for a recent death?
No. You may seek therapy days, months, years, or decades after someone died. Sometimes grief changes when you enter a new relationship, become a parent, reach a milestone, or experience another death. There is no deadline for seeking support.
How do I know whether grief counseling is for me?
Therapy may be helpful if you want a private place to talk about the person who died, feel alone in your experience, are navigating difficult memories, or notice that grief is affecting your body, relationships, work, identity, or daily life.
Do I need to move on from the person who died?
No. Grief therapy is not about forgetting, detaching, or leaving someone behind. The relationship with the person who died can continue. Therapy can help you discover what carrying that bond means for you while making room for the life that continues.
Can I be traumatized by grief?
Grief is a natural response to death, but a sudden death, suicide, overdose, accident, medical crisis, challenging relationship, or childhood trauma might bring grief and trauma together. Laura can help you address both.
Do I have to use hypnotherapy or IADC?
No. These are options, not requirements. Laura is trained in a variety of approaches to grief therapy and will explain any approach before using it. Grief therapy may include conversation, body awareness, practical support, or another modality that fits better.
Does Laura offer online grief therapy?
Yes. Laura provides online grief therapy to adults located in Arizona and Maine. In-person services are available at her Scottsdale, Arizona office. Non-clinical educational resources are available virtually around the world.