A New Model for Grief and Loss
Loss is an inevitable part of life, yet it is often difficult to talk about—and frequently goes unrecognized in its full impact. While many grief models exist, we observed important limitations across much of the existing literature. Many models focus primarily on death-related loss and emphasize tasks, stages, or phases. This language can unintentionally create the expectation that grief is a linear process.
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In response, we developed the Transcending Model of Grief and Loss (TMGL). This model is not intended to replace existing theories or offer a new explanation of the human experience. Instead, it invites a closer examination of the language we use to describe grief and the expectations for healing that language creates.
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The Transcending Model moves away from tasks and stages and instead focuses on the spaces that grief can bring individuals into and out of over time. It offers a way to conceptualize grief as an ongoing, non-linear process, one that requires navigation rather than resolution.
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Rather than providing a step-by-step roadmap for “getting through” grief, the TMGL serves as a framework to help individuals recognize where they are, understand that movement between spaces is natural, and trust that other spaces may emerge along the journey. While each person’s landscape of grief is unique, there are shared features that can be recognized and named. This journey is shaped by many factors, including the type of loss, personal history, relationships, and broader contextual influences.
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Please contact us to schedule your next workshops to learn more.
Griefly Speaking
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Griefly Speaking is a compassionate, reflective workbook for anyone navigating loss of any kind. Moving beyond stage-based ideas of grief, it honors grief as a deeply human, non-linear experience shaped by identity, culture, and context. Loss does not simply happen to us, it changes who we are and reshapes the terrain of our lives.
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Whether you are grieving a death, a relationship, a dream, a diagnosis, or a version of yourself, Griefly Speaking offers language and space for what you are carrying. This workbook does not tell you how you should feel, how long grief should last, or what healing is supposed to look like. Instead, it invites curiosity, self-trust, and gentle exploration.
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What You’ll Find Inside
At the heart of the workbook is the Transcending Model of Grief and Loss (TMGL), which outlines 4 spaces of evolving grief. These are not steps to complete or stages to move through, but shifting landscapes that reflect how loss alters identity, meaning, and direction over time.
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Through guided reflections and creative practices, you are invited to notice where grief shows up in your life, how it has shaped you, and what feels possible now. The workbook is designed to be used at your own pace, allowing you to return to sections as your grief evolves.
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What This Workbook Is and Isn’t
Griefly Speaking is not about getting over loss, fixing grief, or finding silver linings. It is about learning how to live alongside grief over time, making room for sorrow and joy to coexist, honoring what matters most, and finding meaning in a life that has been irrevocably changed by loss. This is a space to slow down, reflect honestly, and tend to grief with care.
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Coming Early 2026. Join the mailing list to stay updated about release and receive a free resource on Helping Others Navigate Grief and Loss.
"Drs. Lorelle and Atkins do a fantastic job allowing us to understand such complex emotions and the integration of grief in a way that is more digestible. The Transcending Model of Grief and Loss offers an opportunity for reflection and growth rather than a grueling process to get through. In their book, their reflection questions and activities offer a diverse set of ways to digest grief. Even as a clinical mental health counselor, I utilize these methods with the clients that I work with." Amar D.
Most people don’t know they’re grieving, especially when the loss isn’t a death. Some don’t even know that grief exists outside of bereavement. What the workbook allows is a slowing down that feels both steady and respectful. It helps people get oriented to feel where their feet are, in a grief process they often didn’t realize they were already in. People can dip their toes into grief without feeling swept away.
As people begin to name grief that has gone unrecognized, something important shifts. People slow down and stop pushing themselves to move on. And, instead, develop a clearer, more grounded sense of where they are. I see more agency, more self-trust, and a stronger sense of self bubble up alongside a rise in self-respect, like a quiet permission to take their own experience seriously.
This workbook is not a set of steps to perfect, but a compassionate framework that honors grief as part of being human. It doesn’t rush healing. It gently and creatively supports people in staying present with loss, ultimately making them more whole. With the workbook as a guide, the nervous system and the mind begin to get back on the same page, and new narratives slowly start to unfold.
If you are human, this workbook is for you.” Emily L.
Transcending Model of Grief of Loss
Reconceptualizing Grief
Our textbook, Reconceptualizing Grief: Developmental Considerations for Counseling Clients Experiencing Loss, presents the Transcending Model of Grief and Loss and practical approaches for counseling clients through loss.
to prepare counselors for grief and loss counseling through a developmental model.
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The TMGL is framework that helps to:
•Normalize Grief: It is an inevitable and human experience and ongoing throughout life
•Recognize Grief: Counselors need to see it and name it to help clients navigate these spaces
•Individualize the Grief Process: Grief is not a prescriptive process
•Conceptualize Grief for Treatment Planning: Should be viewed through a developmental lens.
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Available now at the Cognella.
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