Hypnosis consultations for Grief and Sadness
This page won't promise to "get through your grief" in a handful of visits, or erase a sorrow that's the size of what you've lost. Grief isn't an illness. It's the path, unique to each person, through which love learns to live alongside absence.
What hypnosis support can do is make that path easier: soothing the waves that overwhelm you, loosening the images that loop in your mind, easing guilt, and putting words to what's been left unsaid.
Across Quebec, in office or online, at your own pace.
Grief Doesn't Run on a Schedule
Grief Is a Normal Reaction to Loss
Grief is a normal reaction to loss, touching emotions, the body, sleep, and concentration — and its intensity and duration vary enormously depending on the bond and the circumstances, as noted by the Canadian Mental Health Association — Quebec Division and the Government of Quebec.
There's no date by which you should "be over it" — and if you don't move through the well-known "stages of grief" in order, you're not doing anything wrong: real grief oscillates, it doesn't climb steps.
To understand the waves, the obstacles, and what hypnosis can do about them, our full guide to grief.
What Our Support Works On
Not to escape the sorrow — to move through it without drowning:
- Being overwhelmed. When the waves keep you from functioning — sleeping, eating, caring for the kids — we build in supports: an inner place of respite, grounding for calm, sleep that returns.
- Images that block everything else out. When the last scene — the hospital, the phone call, the discovery — loops and crowds out forty years of good memories, gentle work creates distance and strips it of its violence, never by making you relive it. And the whole person becomes accessible again: the years, not just the ending.
- Guilt. The "I should have" thoughts of grief resist logic. We work with them where they actually live: revisiting decisions with what you knew at the time — not with what you know now.
- Words never said. Symbolic dialogue under hypnosis — saying the love, the forgiveness, the goodbye that departure made impossible — is one of the most soothing tools in grief support. A word finally spoken.
- The unspoken ban on feeling better. Rediscovering enjoyment, laughing again — without betraying anyone: because feeling better isn't forgetting, and loyalty isn't measured in suffering.
Video transcript
Hi, I’m Nuria hypnotherapist at Solutions Hypnosis. Today, I’d like to talk to you about a subject that affects many of us : separation and grief. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one, a break-up, the end of an important relationship, or even the loss of a country, a pet, a home, a job, or a social or personal situation... these experiences can be deeply upsetting. When we experience grief, we may feel a combination of emotions : sadness, anger, guilt. You know, grief is not linear. It is a journey with ups and downs, and it is completely normal to feel lost, overwhelmed by emotions, or even stuck in pain. I am not talking here about difficult grief, with great suffering or even depression. If you are in this situation, please, consult your doctor or a psychologist.
However, if you feel like you’ve already gone through the grieving process, because time has passed or because you’ve worked hard on yourself but you feel like something is connecting you to the past, that you’re going around in circles, or that there are still disturbing emotions that come up from time to time... Hypnosis can gently guide you through this process. How? First, by helping you to accept your emotions without repressing them. Next, by working to untangle these emotions and cut the ties of suffering, while preserving what is precious. And above all, by reconnecting you with your inner resources, that strength that you have within you to rebuild yourself. All this is done gently, symbolically, without having to relive difficult memories.
Hypnosis does not make the pain disappear with a wave of a magic wand, but it gives you the tools to work through it at your own pace, to gradually regain inner peace and allow yourself to turn the page more serenely. If you want to move past losses and regrets that are still present in your life and move forward into a new cycle, the team of hypnotherapists at Solutions Hypnosis is here to support you. In person near you or by video, it works just as well. So make an appointment now to create the life you want through hypnosis. See you soon!
Hypnotherapy is a complementary form of support and does not replace medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns about your health, please consult a physician first.
The Losses We Support Most Often in Quebec
- Separations and divorce. A breakup is a real grief — the person, the life you built, the one you imagined — with its waves, its guilt, and its "whys" (see Love Life & Relationships).
- The loss of a pet. Too often dismissed — and yet: a daily bond, real love, a real void. Your sorrow is valid, full stop.
- The grief of the caregiver. Years of caring — appointments, treatments, nights — then the void: the loss of the person AND the loss of the role that organized your life. This kind of grief, common here, carries its own double burden and deserves its own support.
- Grief after palliative care. When the end was accompanied in a palliative care home or at home, preparation helps — and doesn't prevent the waves. Many families come to us once everyone else has gone back to their lives and the phone has stopped ringing.
- Griefs nobody sees. An ex-partner, a colleague, a miscarriage no one was told about: these griefs without social acknowledgment are the loneliest kind — a space to live them changes a lot.
- And children, who process grief according to what they're told and imagine something worse from what's hidden from them (see Hypnosis for Children).
The Grief of Winter
It's worth naming, because it's a reality here: grief during a Quebec winter compounds the sorrow, the isolation, and the lack of light — visits space out, outings do too, and the waves find a stretch with no one to witness them.
If that's your situation, don't stay alone: support, peer groups — the InfoDeuil directory lists resources by region — and loved ones, even through a screen, make a real difference.
When Other Kinds of Help Come First, and the Signal That Can't Wait
Our usual honesty, more important here than anywhere: if, after many months, the pain is still as crushing as day one and keeps you from any kind of daily life, a psychologist (a member of the OPQ) or a doctor is the right first stop; our support can follow as a complement.
What our clients say
« At first, I went to see Anne-Marie for difficulty getting over a breakup. She quickly identified the problem and set up sessions that helped me chase away the sadness. Session after session, I kept getting better. I learned to reprogram the way I think. She also helped improve the quality of my sleep during one of the sessions for that reason. Overall, everything was positive for me! »
Brigitte, client of Anne-Marie Quesnel
« A wonderful experience, I absolutely recommend Jean-Marie Balestrat. Wonderful and very caring. For me it was about grieving my father, and the experience helped me a lot. »
Linda, client of Jean-Marie Balestrat
« Nuria Pérez is a real gem! She's attentive, and her positive, caring approach was exactly what I was looking for! She greatly eased my anxiety and helped me along my grieving journey. Truly excellent! I can't wait to see her again, I feel like she could change my life! Nothing less! 😊 »
Jessica, client of Nuria Perez de Leon
Find a Hypnotherapist Near You
In Office or Online Across Canada
Offices in Montreal, Gatineau, Sherbrooke, Montérégie…
And if you live far away or elsewhere in the world, online sessions work very well. Evening slots available.
All areas
Annie Mayrand
Gatineau - Cumberland (ON)
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Christian Rocher
Beloeil
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David Veilleux
Montréal - Anjou
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Florence Aton
Sutton
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Jessica Reid
Sherbrooke
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Julie Rocque
Montréal - Jean-Talon
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Nuria Pérez de León
Montréal - Rosemont - Saint-Lambert
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Romain Rastoin
Bromont
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Réjeanne LeBlanc
La Prairie
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Frequently asked questions about hypnosis for sadness and grief
Neither is really true. In the first weeks, family and rituals tend to carry you through; support often finds its place once everyone else has gone back to their lives — a month, six months, two years later: grief has no expiration date, and it's never "too late" to set down what you've been carrying for a long time. The right time is when you feel ready.
No — and almost everyone we work with asks this question eventually: loyalty isn't measured in suffering. Rediscovering enjoyment, laughter, love, doesn't take anything away from what that person meant to you — often, it's even what they would have wanted for you.
Deeply normal — you're living a double grief: the person, and the role that organized your days, your priorities, your very identity. The emptiness, the exhaustion that hits all at once, sometimes even a guilty relief: all of that is part of this particular kind of grief, and all of it can be supported — including the right to relief, which takes nothing away from the love.
Yes — it's one of the areas where hypnosis helps the most: taking the violence out of that final scene, never by making you relive it, so the good memories become accessible again. If those images come from a significant trauma, a psychologist specialized in trauma may be the right first step — we'll help point you there.
Completely. The loss of a pet is real grief: the bond was daily, the love unconditional, the presence constant — and "it was just a dog" has never comforted anyone. Your sorrow is proportional to the bond, not the species.
That depends on your group plan. Our practitioners issue receipts (counselling, naturopathy, or hypnotherapy, depending on their affiliation), but not all insurers accept them: check your policy before your first session. Note that several employee assistance programs (EAPs) also cover grief support.
We are not doctors, psychologists, or psychotherapists. Our services fall under counselling and well-being support: they do not constitute treatment or psychotherapy (a reserved act in Quebec), and never replace medical or psychological care. If your grief is still crushing after many months, see a psychologist or a doctor; if dark thoughts cross your mind, ask for help without waiting — 1 866 APPELLE, 24/7.
Page written by Anne-Géraldine Lavielle
hypnotherapist and holistic coach
partner at Solutions Hypnose.
English version reviewed by David Veilleux
Updated .