Grief & Loss Counseling
Nobody gets through a life without loss.
Grief isn’t a problem to be solved, and it doesn’t run on anyone’s schedule. Whoever you lost, and however long ago, there’s a place here to set some of it down.
“Grief is the conversation most people avoid. I’ve spent my career making room for it — for adults, teens, and kids.”
Bryna Talamantez, LMFT
Who This Is For
Adults
Any loss, at any point. A spouse or partner, a parent, a child, a sibling, a friend, a pregnancy, someone whose death was complicated to grieve because the relationship was. Grief also arrives without a death: a diagnosis, a divorce, a move, a job, the version of the future you were counting on. You don’t have to rank your loss against anyone else’s to be here.
Young adults
Your twenties and thirties are a strange time to be grieving. Most of the people around you haven’t lost anyone yet, so there’s often no one to say the obvious thing to, and the milestones keep coming whether or not the person is there for them. That’s its own kind of hard, and it doesn’t need to be smaller than anyone else’s grief to be worth an hour a week.
Families
Sometimes the loss is one family’s loss, and everyone in the house is carrying a different piece of it. Bryna works with families as well as individuals, and it’s common for a family to start with one person and widen from there.
Children and teens
Kids grieve differently than adults do, usually in play, in behavior, and in bursts rather than in conversation. That work has its own page: grief play therapy for children. If you’re looking for help for a child and for yourself, you can say so on the same phone call.
Grief also rarely travels alone. If your child is navigating ADHD or anxiety alongside a loss, that’s work Bryna does too.
How Working Together Looks
Grief is her lead specialty, not a service she also offers
Bryna has been a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 2017 and opened Talamantez Therapy in 2021. Grief and loss is her lead specialty: the subject she speaks and writes about, and the reason most people find this practice.
No program to complete, and no timeline you’re behind on
There’s no set number of sessions and no curriculum to get through. We start where you are, move at a pace that’s actually bearable, and work out together what helps you carry this. If what would help most is something (or someone) beyond this practice, Bryna will tell you that plainly.
In person in Plano, or from wherever you are in Texas
Sessions happen in person at our Plano office, or virtually. Bryna offers telehealth sessions anywhere in Texas, so you can do this from wherever you feel steadiest. Your first step is a free 15-minute phone consultation; from there, sessions run 45 minutes.
What we actually do in the room
I use a client centered approach to therapy helping each person navigate their therapeutic journey in a way that makes sense for them. I am also able to see families together in order to help with communication and working through emotions as a family.
Want to see the whole process, from your first message to your first session? See what to expect.
More Specific Help
If your loss has a name
Some griefs are common enough, and specific enough, that they get their own page here:
- Grief after losing a spouse: when the person who finished your sentences is gone, and so is the shape of the day.
- Grief after losing a parent: at any age, close relationship or complicated one.
- When grief stays intense and won’t ease: grief that hasn’t loosened its grip months or years on.
- Grief play therapy for children: how kids process a loss, and what that work looks like.
If none of them is quite it, this page is the right place to start. Most of what people bring to a first phone call doesn’t have a tidy label.
For a hard day on the calendar, like an anniversary or a first holiday, Unbox has guided activities you can do together at home.
Reading on grief and loss
- The Talamantez Therapy blog: reflections on grief, loss, and the long middle of it.
- Welcome to Your Peak Grief Season: why grief can intensify at predictable times of year.
- Unexpected Visitors: on grief that keeps returning, long after everyone expects it to be “over.”
FAQ
Questions people ask.
Is my loss “big enough” for grief counseling?
There’s no threshold. People come in after a death and people come in after a diagnosis, a divorce, a move, or a loss nobody else in their life is treating as one. If it’s taking up room, it’s worth an hour. You don’t have to justify it first, and you won’t be asked to compare it to anything.
What’s the difference between grief counseling and a grief support group?
A support group puts you with other people who’ve had a similar loss, which many people find genuinely helpful, and it’s usually free or low cost. Counseling is one-to-one with a licensed therapist, at your pace, about your specific situation, including the parts you’d rather not say in a room full of people. Plenty of people do both.
How soon after a loss should I reach out?
Whenever you want to. There’s no waiting period, and there’s no window that closes. Some people call in the first week because the logistics are unbearable; some call four years later because a birthday landed harder than expected. Both are ordinary reasons to start.
Do I have to talk about the death?
Not before you’re ready, and not on any schedule but yours. First sessions are often more about how you’re actually living right now (sleep, work, the people around you, what’s become hard) than about the loss itself. You set what gets said and when.
Who you’ll meet
- Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)
- Practicing since 2017; opened Talamantez Therapy in 2021
- Grief and loss is her lead specialty
- Serving grieving adults and families across Plano and North Texas, with telehealth statewide
As featured in Plano City Lifestyle: “When Festive Lights Cast Shadows: A Guide to Holiday Grief” by Bryna Talamantez.
Ready to talk?
Reach out and we’ll find a time that works for you.
Free 15-minute consultation by phone, then $150 per session — in person at our Plano office, or virtually, anywhere in Texas.