Grief Recovery West Los Angeles
Gelfand
​
Leslie
The Grief Recovery Method®
The only evidence-based
Grief Recovery program in the world.
​
An action-based, powerful, directed approach to healing from life's deepest heartbreaks.
are you suffering from
​A LOSS?​​​
​Are you
• Waiting for time to heal, only to discover that the only thing that is passing is time?
• Keeping busy, active and occupied, only to find the grief is flooding back the moment you slow down?
• Replacing the loss with someone or something else, only to find it doesn't work?
• Trying to move on, but can't figure out how?
Was it caused by the
• Death of a loved one?
• Divorce?
• End of a relationship?
• Loss of health?
• Loss of someone as you once knew them?
​
​
​
​
Grief is the normal and natural reaction to loss of any kind.
While grief is normal and natural, most of the information passed on within our society about dealing with loss is not normal, natural, or helpful. Grief is the emotional response to loss, but most of the information we have learned about dealing with loss is intellectual.
​​my
​
​
story
The Challenge
Why The Grief Recovery Method® Program?
Many grief groups provide an environment for you to verbalize the thoughts and feelings you experience following a loss. The Grief Recovery Method takes it several steps beyond and is specifically designed to guide you through a series of actions that not only verbalize your feelings, but help you complete the pain cycle associated with those feelings and allow you to thrive again in your life.
The Solution​
People say you have to let go and move on in your life, but they don't tell you how to do that. The Grief Recovery Method, developed and refined over the past 30 years, not only makes that possible, but provides partnerships and guidance to ensure that it happens.
The program provides
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​As a result, my clients find that they are able to discover and complete what was left emotionally unfinished due to a death, a divorce, or other major loss.
It's not your head
that is broken,
it's your heart
that's been broken open.
It was Memorial Day 2011 and I was enjoying breakfast with my husband and our two daughters when the call arrived. My husband's only sister had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. In the days and weeks that followed, I felt like I was moving through water as I tried to deal with my own grief, how to best support my husband, and comfort my children too young to understand death and wrapping their arms around the concept of never seeing Auntie Alisa again. It was all so overwhelming and not unlike many families, at a certain point we just shut it down and moved on because the pain was simply too great.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​A year went by and I was introduced to The Grief Recovery Handbook and my first instinct was to give it to my husband. I had been quietly entertaining working with people going through loss and little did we both know my husband was to be my first unintentional client. It sat on his nightstand for days on end. I was convinced he would get to it and convinced he was the one who really "needed" it. Apparently The Universe had other plans. The person who gave me the book was aware of my desire to explore grief counseling and suggested I attend the certification course offered by the writers of the book and owners of The Grief Recovery Institute®. I immediately jumped at the opportunity.
​
The certification course was not only an eye-opener, but a heart-opener for me. I discovered I had not properly processed the death of my sister-in-law, as well as a string of previous losses that had accumulated over time and traveled with me to that point in my life; moving, job loss, financial changes, health, loss of faith. I was struck by a powerful quote from the handbook: There is an enormous difference in how you experience the rest of your life after a loss with sadness versus with pain.
​​
It was in this moment I realized if I was going to be effective as a Grief Recovery Specialist® and help others, I first needed to help myself. Utilizing The Grief Recovery Handbook and the tools it provided, I was able to move through my personal grief and loss in a much healthier way. I have experienced many losses in the past twelve years - the death of my beloved grandmother and grandfather, the death of my 22-year-old sweet cat, my beautiful mother released her body in February 2017, and my mother-in-law released her body after a long battle with cancer in April 2022.
I have learned that although there may be sadness in my heart, the pain of my loss experiences can be released, leaving me more emotionally complete.
​My role as a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist® is to be a strong support system and facilitator in helping my clients move through their grief, rediscover their joy, and embrace their lives with more love than ever before. Having walked the path I'm excited to lead the way!
-
A safe environment for participants to take the actions of The Grief Recovery Method.
-
A look at old beliefs about dealing with loss and what losses have affected your life.
-
​New action steps that will lead you to completion of the pain attached to those losses.
Alisa and
my eldest daughter
February 2011
My mom and me, 1970
Me and my MiL, Jan, 2012