Grief Therapy, Grief Counseling or a Support Group?

Once you start looking for help with grief, you meet three terms that sound almost the same: grief therapy, grief counseling and grief support groups. They overlap, people use them loosely, and no single official definition separates them. That makes it hard to know what you would be signing up for.

This article describes each in general terms, then compares who runs them, what they tend to cost and what research has found. If you are not yet sure you want any of them, do I need grief therapy? is the better starting point.

What do the three terms usually mean?

These are everyday descriptions, not formal definitions, and a given program may use the words differently. It is always fair to ask a provider what they mean.

• A support group is a meeting of people who share a kind of loss. The point is company and understanding from others who have been there. Many are led by peers. Samaritans' SafePlace meetings for suicide loss, for example, are facilitated by trained volunteers who are themselves survivors of suicide loss.
• Grief counseling usually means supportive conversations about a loss with someone trained to offer them. Hospice bereavement programs are a common source.
• Grief therapy usually means psychotherapy with a licensed mental health clinician, such as a psychologist. It can go further into how a loss connects with your history, your relationships and other difficulties such as depression or trauma.

The line between a group and professional care is the clearest of the three. The Compassionate Friends of Boston, a group for people who have lost a child, sibling or grandchild, says so directly: its meetings "are not counseling sessions; we are a support group."

Who runs each one, and what does it cost?

Support groups are run by hospices, nonprofits and volunteer organizations, and several in Greater Boston say on their own sites that they charge nothing. SafePlace meetings are free, ongoing and open on a drop-in basis. The Children's Room in Arlington provides its programs for grieving children, teens and their caregivers free of charge. Good Shepherd Community Care in Newton says its support groups are free and open to the community. Others do not publish a fee, so ask.

Hospices offer bereavement support because federal rules require them to make it available to families for up to 1 year after a patient's death. The National Institute on Aging notes that you can ask hospice workers for bereavement support even if hospice was not used before the death.

Individual therapy in private practice is paid by the session. Dr. Rabin's fee is $375 per session, private-pay and out-of-network, with a monthly superbill you can submit to your insurer for possible reimbursement and a sliding scale available on request. Costs are covered in more detail in what grief therapy costs in Massachusetts.

What does research say about support groups?

The trial evidence is weak. A 2022 meta-analysis of 14 randomized trials, with 1,519 participants in all, found that bereavement groups were marginally more effective than control groups right after treatment but not at follow-up. Its authors concluded that the evidence for bereavement groups is weak, while noting that the studies differed so much that the result is hard to generalize.

Other kinds of study are more encouraging. A 2019 systematic review looked at 32 studies of peer support after sudden or unexpected death, not all of them randomized trials. Most showed evidence that peer support was helpful, reducing grief symptoms and increasing well-being, and the reviewers found it appeared especially valuable for survivors of suicide loss.

The American Psychiatric Association takes a middle position: bereavement support groups and peer support can provide a useful source of social connection and can help people feel less alone. Many people value groups for exactly that, whether or not a symptom score changes.

What does research say about counseling and therapy?

Here too the answer depends on who is being helped. The National Cancer Institute reports that researchers disagree about whether credible evidence on the efficacy of grief counseling exists. A 2008 meta-analysis of 61 controlled studies found, taken together, only a small effect after treatment and no statistically significant benefit at follow-up. Interventions aimed only at people having marked difficulty adapting to a loss did better, with outcomes that compared favorably with psychotherapy for other problems.

For prolonged grief disorder, a diagnosis for grief that stays intense and disabling long after a death, the difference between formats matters. A 2024 review found that support groups may be beneficial for building social support in people whose grief is following a typical course, but have limited support as a treatment for prolonged grief disorder. The treatments with the best evidence are described in types of grief therapy.

Which one might suit you?

There is no test for this, but a few questions can point the way.

• Do you mainly want to feel less alone? A group of people with a similar loss offers something a professional cannot: the knowledge that others have lived it.
• Is it hard to speak in front of others, or are there things you could not say in a room? One-to-one work is private and moves at your pace.
• Is the grief tangled up with other things? Depression, trauma, a difficult relationship with the person who died or older losses are reasons people look for a licensed clinician.
• Has the grief stayed severe for a long time? That is a reason to be assessed by a clinician instead of relying on a group alone.
• Is cost the deciding factor? Start with a free group or a hospice bereavement program, and ask therapists about sliding scales.

Can you combine them?

Yes. A group and individual therapy do different jobs. One gives you peers, the other gives you a private place to work things through with a professional. Nothing requires you to choose, and you can start with one and add the other later. If you are in therapy, tell your therapist about the group so the two can support each other.

Dr. Rabin offers individual grief and loss therapy in Brookline and by telehealth across Massachusetts. She does not run groups. For those, the practice keeps a list of grief support groups in the Boston area. If you would like to talk through which kind of help fits, she offers a free consultation of about 15 minutes by phone through the contact page.

Keep reading

• Types of Grief Therapy and What the Research Says
• How to Choose a Grief Therapist
• What Grief Therapy Costs in Massachusetts
• All grief and loss guides

Sources

• Maass, Hofmann, Perlinger and Wagner, Effects of bereavement groups: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Death Studies (2022)
• Bartone, Bartone, Violanti and Gileno, Peer Support Services for Bereaved Survivors: A Systematic Review, Omega (2019)
• American Psychiatric Association, Prolonged Grief Disorder (2025)
• LaPlante, Hardt, Maciejewski and Prigerson, State of the Science: Psychotherapeutic Interventions for Prolonged Grief Disorder, Behavior Therapy (2024)
• National Cancer Institute, Grief, Bereavement, and Coping With Loss (PDQ), Health Professional Version (2024)
• Currier, Neimeyer and Berman, The effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions for bereaved persons: a comprehensive quantitative review, Psychological Bulletin (2008)
• Samaritans, Suicide Grief Support Services (accessed 2026)
• The Compassionate Friends, Boston Chapter (TCF of Boston) (accessed 2026)
• The Children's Room, Services overview (accessed 2026)

Last reviewed October 2026. This guide is general information, not medical advice or a diagnosis. If you are in crisis, call or text 988, or call 911 in an emergency.