Can Therapy Help With Grief and Loss?

Summary: Yes, therapy can help with grief and loss. In some cases, people who experience a major loss, such as the death of a loved one, develop prolonged grief disorder (PGD).

Key Points:

• PGD includes severe symptoms that occur every day for more than a month, more than a year after the loss.
• People with PGD may be able to improve/reduce symptoms with a technique called grief-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (GF-CBT).
• A new study examines the impact of two types of therapy that may help with grief and loss: group GF-CBT and individual GF-CBT.

What is Prolonged Grief Disorder (PDG)?

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) defines prolonged grief disorder (PGD) as follows:

“Prolonged grief disorder is characterized by intense and persistent grief symptoms which are not only distressing in themselves but also associated with problems in functioning. Thus, those who meet criteria for prolonged grief disorder constitute a group of bereaved persons who are significantly disturbed and disabled by their grief.”

The APA also describes the clinical criteria for receiving a diagnosis for PGD:

To meet diagnostic criteria for PGD, an individual must have experienced major loss at least one year prior to diagnosis for adults and at least 6 months prior to diagnosis for children and adolescents. The individual must experience at least 3 of the symptoms below nearly every day for at least a month before diagnosis. Symptoms of prolonged grief disorder may include:

• Disrupted sense of self, feeling as if part of oneself died.
• Persistent sense of denial/disbelief related to the death.
• Avoiding reminders of the death/loss
• Intense emotional distress associated with the death, including, but not limited to:
  • Anger
  • Bitterness
  • Sorrow
• Problems reintegrating to typical social behavior, i.e.:
  • Reluctance/difficulty reconnecting with friends
  • Reluctance in pursuing interests
  • Difficulty planning for future
• Significant numbness/detachedness/lack of emotion
• Feeling that life is now meaningless
• Intense feelings of loneliness and isolation
• All symptoms persist longer than expected for individuals’ personal, social, cultural, or religious norms

Risk factors for prolonged grief disorder include:

• Relationship with the deceased:
  • Child
  • Spouse/partner
• History of mental illness:
  • Depression
  • Anxious attachment style
  • Previous suicidal ideation
  • Previous exposure to trauma
• Characteristics of the death:
  • Suddenness
  • Unnatural circumstances
  • Violent death
• Lack of social support
• Demographic factors:
  • Older age
  • Female gender
  • Lower income

That’s what PGD is, and who’s at most risk. Consequences and complications of untreated PGD include:

Physical consequences:

• Impaired immune function
• Increased activity/presence of stress hormones
• Increased risk of mortality associated with heart disease

Psychiatric consequences:

• Depression
• Anxiety/panic disorders
• Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

That’s what PGD, how clinicians diagnose the disorder, factors that put a person at risk, and the consequences of untreated PGD. Now we’ll introduce the study we allude to above, and learn whether therapy can help with grief and loss for people with PGD.

New Research on Therapy for Grief and Loss

In 2025, a group of researchers conducted a study called “Group Vs Individual Grief-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Older Adults” designed to answer the following question:

“Is grief-focused cognitive behavioral therapy delivered in a group format (GF-CBT group) noninferior to grief-focused cognitive behavioral therapy delivered in an individual format (GF-CBT individual) in reducing symptoms of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) in older adults?”

To find answers, researchers recruited individuals from the Danish National Center for Grief (DNCG) in Copenhagen, Denmark. Participants included 113 older adults (65 +) with:

• Prolonged grief disorder (PGD)
• Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Depression (MDD)
• Anxiety (GAD)

The researchers split the group into two sections. One received grief-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (GF-CBT) in a group setting. The other received grief-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (GF-CBT) in an individual setting

The intervention for the GF-CBT group consisted of:

• 12 weekly 2-hour sessions, with techniques provided in this order:
  • Exposure
  • Cognitive restructuring
  • Behavioral activation

The intervention for the GF-CBT individual consisted of:

• 12 weekly 1-hour sessions, with the same techniques provided in the same order:
  • Exposure
  • Cognitive restructuring
  • Behavioral activation

Outcomes assessed by the research team included:

• Primary:
  • PGD symptoms as measured by the Prolonged Grief-13 Questionnaire (PG-13)
• Secondary:
  • PTSD: with the PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition (PCL-5)
  • Depression: Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Short-Form (CES-D)
  • Anxiety: Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7)
• Additional secondary outcomes included:
  • Loneliness
  • Social support
  • Functional impairment
  • Quality of life
  • Well-being

Researchers assessed each metric at baseline, i.e. the start of the study, at the end of treatment, e months post-treatment, and 6 months post-treatment. Here’s what they found.

Therapy for Grief and Loss: Outcomes for Group and Individual Therapy

PGD, Primary outcome:

• Baseline: 38.39 group / 38.09 individual
• Post-treatment: 27.19 group / 26.19 individual
• 3 months: 25.88 group / 26.52 individual
• 6 months: 25.98 group / 26.40 individual

PTSD, secondary outcome:

• Baseline: 33.45 group / 30.91 individual
• Post-treatment: 17.51 group / 15.81 individual
• 3 months: 17.95 group / 16.47 individual
• 6 months: 18.49 group / 16.38 individual

Depressive Symptoms, secondary outcome:

• Baseline: 17.79 group / 17.09 individual
• Post-treatment: 11.40 group / 9.96 individual
• 3 months: 11.91 group / 11.94 individual
• 6 months: 12.65 group / 10.58 individual

Anxiety Symptoms, secondary outcome:

• Baseline: 11.34 group / 10.96 individual
• Post-treatment: 5.65 group / 4.96 individual
• 3 months: 6.02 group / 5.98 individual
• 6 months: 6.58 group / 5.73 individual

Here’s how the researchers characterize these results:

“GF-CBT can be delivered effectively in both group and individual formats in the treatment of older bereaved adults with PGD symptoms.”

We’ll discuss these outcomes further, below.

Therapy Helps With Grief and Loss: Group and Individual Therapy Both Work

In addition to the clinically significant results in the primary outcome area, symptoms of PGD, and secondary outcome areas PTSD, depression, and anxiety, researchers observed statistically significant improvement in all additional secondary outcomes, with the exception of physical quality of life, including:

• Well-being
• Grief-related functional impairment
• Mental quality of life
• Loneliness
• Social support

When we look more closely at the data, detailed outcomes show:

• PGD symptoms: 62% of patients improved
• PTSD symptoms: 56% of patients improved
• Depressive symptoms: 42% of patients improved
• Anxiety symptoms: 46% of patients improved

The research team also assessed which approach patients preferred – group or individual therapy for grief and loss. Here’s what they found:

• Pretreatment:
  • Individual: 40.5% expressed preference for individual treatment
  • Group: 18% expressed preference for individual treatment
  • No preference: 41.4%
• Satisfaction with treatment, post-treatment:
  • Group: 97.6%
  • Individual: 94.1%
• Would recommend to friend:
  • Group: 97.5%
  • Individual: 96.1%

These results are easy to interpret. Grief-focused group and individual cognitive behavioral therapy help with grief and loss. All participants in all groups showed significant improvement in all primary and secondary outcomes, except for physical quality of life. This shows that for older patients experiencing grief and loss, engaging in therapy can help reduce symptoms of grief, related mental health disorders, loneliness, quality of life (mental), and overall wellbeing.