Existential Therapy for Grief, Death, and Loss in Singapore
Grief changes life. Therapy helps you live alongside the loss.
I’m Dr. Mag, founder of Encompassing Therapy, Singapore’s first existential practice. I work with adults facing grief, loss, death, and the deeper questions these experiences can awaken about love, meaning, identity, and how to continue living.
What It Feels Like to Live with Grief and Loss
Grief doesn't end. It changes shape.
The loss of someone you love, or the approaching reality of death, can change the texture of ordinary life. You may still be functioning. Going to work. Showing up. But underneath, you are carrying something that has no clear name and no obvious place to put down. Grief does not always look like sadness. Sometimes it is numbness. Sometimes it is a low, persistent awareness of absence that follows you from room to room.
In Singapore, there is often an expectation to recover quickly, to manage things, to carry on without burdening others. The pressure to move forward can sit right next to the feeling that moving forward would be a betrayal. And somewhere beneath both, the larger questions keep surfacing: What does it mean that this person is gone? What am I, now that they are not here?
Grief is not a problem to be solved. But you do not have to carry it entirely alone.
Existential therapy for grief does not aim to resolve what cannot be resolved. It offers a space to be with what is real, to speak honestly about loss and death without being rushed toward acceptance or told what recovery is supposed to look like. There is more about how existential therapy approaches these questions on the site.
Who Grief and Death Therapy Is For
People come to grief therapy at different points. Some are recently bereaved. Some have been carrying a loss for years. Some are facing the anticipated death of someone close and don’t know how to hold both that reality and the life continuing around them. What they share is a readiness to face what they are carrying more honestly, with support. There is room here for whatever grief looks like for you.
Grief and death therapy is often a fit if you:
- Are you grieving the death of a loved one and finding it difficult to cope
- Are facing the anticipated death of someone close and don’t know how to hold that
- Feel stuck in grief and unable to find your way forward
- Carry a loss from years ago that still shapes how you live
- Are struggling with the bigger questions that death has brought to the surface
- Feel pressure to move on before you are genuinely ready
How Grief and Death Therapy Can Change What You Carry
Before grief and death therapy
- Carrying the weight of loss without anywhere to put it down
- Moving through the days with a feeling of absence that you cannot explain to others
- Feeling pressure to recover on a timeline that has nothing to do with your experience
- Avoiding certain thoughts or memories because they feel too large to face alone
- Feeling stuck between grieving and living, unable to fully do either
- Carrying questions about what death means, that you have no one to sit with
After grief and death therapy
- Finding language for what you have been carrying, even when the loss itself remains
- Moving through grief at your own pace, without pressure to be further along
- Holding the memory of who you have lost without being undone by it every time
- Facing the questions that death raises with more steadiness and less dread
- Living alongside loss rather than around it
- Returning to daily life with a clearer sense of what still matters
If grief has brought you somewhere you don't know how to navigate alone, this is a place to start.
How Grief and Death Therapy Works
We don't move past what was lost. We find a way to carry it that doesn't consume everything.
Existential therapy for grief does not follow a fixed protocol. Rather than working through prescribed stages, sessions unfold around what feels most alive, difficult, or unresolved for you at that particular moment. I bring clinical judgement and direction to each session. The content comes from you. The pace is yours.
In sessions, I pay attention to what remains unspoken as much as what is said. Grief often carries secondary layers: guilt, anger, relief, the feeling that you should be further along by now. We look at all of it, at a pace that feels bearable. For those also navigating life transitions that grief has complicated, or the anxiety that can surface when death becomes real, the work holds that too.
Existential Approaches Used in Grief and Death Therapy in Singapore
My approach to grief and loss is grounded in existential therapy, the philosophical tradition that takes the facts of being human seriously: that we die, that meaning is not given but made, and that we are ultimately alone even in our closest relationships. For people in grief, these are not abstractions. They are a lived reality. You do not need to arrive with philosophical language or a capacity for abstract reflection. You can arrive exhausted, dysregulated, guilty, frightened, or simply overwhelmed. The approach meets you where you are.
What Grief and Death Therapy Can Help With
Grief and bereavement take many forms, and the concerns that bring people to therapy vary considerably. What follows are some of the specific experiences this work holds.
The death of a loved one is among the most profound experiences a person can face. It removes from daily life someone whose presence shaped how you understood yourself. The absence is not only emotional. It is practical, relational, and existential. There is no correct way to grieve a death, and therapy does not prescribe one. What it offers is a space to be with what the loss actually means, in all its dimensions.
When loss is expected but has not yet arrived, the grief that comes before the death is real. People living alongside a seriously ill partner, parent, or friend often experience anticipatory grief: the mourning of what is coming while the person is still present. This kind of grief is often invisible to others. Therapy holds both the anticipation of loss and the reality of life continuing alongside it.
Complicated grief is grief that does not follow the expected path. Rather than easing over time, it intensifies. It interferes significantly with daily life, work, and relationships, and the person cannot see the future. Therapy for complicated grief focuses on helping someone find ground again, without rushing toward a resolution that the grief is not yet ready to reach.
Disenfranchised grief is grief that is not publicly recognised or socially acknowledged. It arises from losses that others do not see as significant: the end of an undisclosed relationship, a miscarriage, the death of a pet, the grief of a role or identity that has ended. In Singapore, cultural expectations around mourning can add additional layers of invisibility. In therapy, all losses are legitimate.
Death anxiety is the fear that can surface when death, your own or someone else’s, becomes a near and real presence. It can arrive suddenly after a bereavement, or quietly as an undercurrent that shapes decisions and relationships without ever being named directly. Therapy for death anxiety works toward a more honest and less consuming relationship with what cannot be changed.
When grief arrives while you are also parenting, the weight is particular. You are holding your own loss while managing how it lands on children who are also grieving, often without language to understand what is happening to them or to you. Therapy holds the whole of that experience. There is more on the site about parenting support for those navigating loss and family at the same time.
Grief and Death Therapist in Singapore
Hi, I'm Dr. Mag
I’m a BPS and SPS-accredited Counselling Psychologist and the founder of Encompassing Therapy, Singapore’s first existential practice. My doctorate is in Existential Psychology from the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling in London. My specialisations include death and dying, grief and bereavement, and the existential questions that loss brings to the surface.
I came to this work through my own life, not just my training. I believe death is not something to be overcome or managed away. It is one of the most honest and clarifying facts of being human. When someone brings their grief into the room, I am not trying to rush them out of it or toward premature closure.
I am trying to help them stay with what they are carrying long enough to begin bearing it differently. My care philosophy is not to diagnose or categorise, but to work with the person in front of me, here and now, as a fellow traveller.
What I bring:
- Doctorate in Existential Psychology, New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London
- Chartered Psychologist, British Psychological Society (CPsychol)
- Full Clinical Member, UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP Reg)
- Level 4 Certified Master Practitioner, MAPACS (Singapore)
- Member, Society for Existential Analysis, UK
Frequently Asked Questions About Grief and Death Therapy
What Is Grief?
Grief is the response to loss. It is most commonly associated with the death of a loved one, but it extends to any significant loss: the end of a relationship, a miscarriage, the loss of a role, a future that will not now arrive. Grief is not a pathology. It is what happens when something that mattered is gone.
How the Grief Process Affects Daily Life
The grief process is not only emotional. It disrupts sleep, concentration, appetite, and the ability to be present in ordinary moments. Grief and trauma can intersect when the death was sudden or violent. The emotional disruption is not a sign of weakness. It is a measure of what was real.
Grief Counselling for Complicated Grief
Complicated grief, also called prolonged grief disorder, is grief that remains severely disruptive long after the loss and does not ease in the expected way. Signs include persistent difficulty accepting the loss, intense longing that does not diminish, and inability to re-engage with daily life. Grief counselling for complicated grief is slower and more careful than general bereavement support.
Disenfranchised Grief
Disenfranchised grief is grief that is not publicly recognised or socially acknowledged. It arises from losses that others do not see as significant: an undisclosed relationship, a miscarriage, the death of a pet, the end of a role or identity. In Singapore, cultural norms can add additional invisibility to these losses. In therapy, all losses are legitimate.
Life Transitions and Grief
Grief does not only follow death. Life transitions, the end of a marriage, leaving a career, migration, and the loss of a version of yourself, can all involve genuine grief. These losses often go unnamed. Therapy takes them seriously regardless of whether the world around them has done the same.
The 5 Stages of Grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, were developed in the context of people facing their own death and later applied to bereavement. The stages describe common emotional states in the grieving process, not a fixed sequence. Not everyone experiences all five, and they do not occur in a set order.
What the Stages of Grief Are Not
The five stages are not a checklist or a timeline. The grieving process is individual. Reaching acceptance does not mean the loss no longer matters. The model helps people recognise that grief involves multiple emotional states. It is not useful as a measure of where you should be at any given point.
Signs of Complicated Grief
Signs of complicated grief include persistent difficulty accepting the loss, longing and sadness that do not diminish over time, inability to engage with daily life and relationships, and difficulty being able to regulate your emotions around the loss even after an extended period. Complicated grief differs from normal bereavement in both its duration and severity.
When to Seek Grief Counselling
If grief is significantly disrupting daily functioning for an extended period, or if you feel stuck and unable to move in any direction, grief counselling is worth considering. There is no correct waiting period. Some people seek support immediately. Others come years later. Both are valid.
What Happens If You Don’t Grieve?
Grief that is suppressed does not resolve itself. It tends to surface in other forms: emotional numbness, difficulty forming or maintaining relationships, physical symptoms without a clear cause, or a persistent sense of carrying something unnameable. The ability to express and process your emotions around a loss is about staying with what is true, not about dwelling.
Processing Grief and the Grief Journey
There is no correct timeline for the grief journey. Processing grief does not mean reaching a point where the loss no longer matters. It means gradually developing the capacity to live alongside the loss rather than being consumed by it. Therapy supports that movement without imposing a schedule.
Pre-Grieving and Anticipatory Loss
Anticipatory grief is the grief that begins before a loss has occurred. It arises when someone close is seriously ill, when a relationship is ending slowly, or when your own death has become a near reality. It involves mourning what is already being lost while the person is still present. Grief and trauma can both be present in this experience, particularly when an illness has been long or frightening.
Grief, Death, and Life Transitions
Anticipatory grief often intersects with life transitions. Watching a parent decline, navigating the end of a marriage, and leaving a country: each involves the grief of what will no longer be alongside the life that continues. Therapy holds both without collapsing them into each other.
Therapy for Grief and Death
There is no single therapy that is universally best for grief and death. What matters is whether the approach creates genuine space for the experience of loss, does not rush toward resolution, and allows the person to inhabit their grief rather than be managed out of it. Existential grief therapy is particularly suited to people for whom questions of meaning, identity, and mortality are central to their experience.
Individual Therapy Sessions for Grief
Individual therapy sessions for grief offer a private, consistent space to explore what you are carrying at your own pace. For those navigating complicated grief, anticipatory loss, or the existential questions that death raises, individual therapy is often the most appropriate starting point. At Encompassing, this work is existential in its orientation and entirely unhurried.
Holistic and Personalised Healing for Grief
Grief counselling typically focuses on helping someone cope with the emotional impact of loss and restore daily functioning. A more holistic and personalised approach to healing grief, like the one I take, is shaped by what this person is carrying: what the loss means, what it has disturbed, and what a life that makes room for it can look like. You do not have to arrive with philosophical questions or existential clarity. You can arrive overwhelmed, exhausted, or simply not knowing where to begin.
A Non-Judgmental Environment for Grief Work
Existential therapy creates a non-judgmental environment where grief is not managed or rushed. There is no fixed programme or endpoint. The work of helping individuals with grief at Encompassing is oriented toward integration and steadiness, not symptom reduction. Sessions are held with clinical care and genuine direction, even when the content is not prescribed. The pace is always the person’s own.
Hypnotherapy for Grief
Hypnotherapy for grief is used by some practitioners as a way of accessing emotions or memories connected to a loss that feel difficult to reach through direct conversation. It is not a modality offered at Encompassing Therapy. Here, grief work happens through existential therapy: honest, direct, and unhurried conversation about what loss means and what it asks of the person carrying it.
Your First Session: A Safe Space to Begin
In the first session, I am not looking for a complete account of what happened. I am listening for what is most present right now: what you are finding hardest to hold, and what brought you here at this moment. The environment is non-judgmental. There is no expectation to express emotions you are not ready to express.
Assessment and Onboarding: Getting a Full Picture
There are no formal questionnaires or standardised surveys at Encompassing. The initial consultation is a conversation. I want to get a sense of what you are carrying and whether this feels like a good fit. You leave with a clear sense of how I work and what this kind of support looks like. There is no obligation to continue based on one conversation.
How Long Does Grief Last?
Grief does not have a fixed duration. For some, the acute phase eases within months. For others, grief remains present for years in different forms. What changes is usually not the fact of the loss but the relationship to it. There is no timeline grief is supposed to follow.
How Long Do Individual Therapy Sessions for Grief Take
There is no standard programme or fixed number of sessions. Some people find significant support within a few months. Others continue for longer, particularly when grief is complicated or when broader existential questions need to be explored. We discuss this together and adjust as the work develops.
Healthy Ways to Cope with Grief
Healthy ways to cope with grief include allowing yourself to feel what is actually present rather than suppressing it, maintaining basic routines where possible, accepting support from people you trust, and finding ways to express emotions honestly rather than containing them. For those also managing concerns around work-life balance alongside a loss, the cumulative weight can be particularly hard to carry without support.
Reestablishing Routines, Overcoming Guilt, and Rediscovering Identity
Reestablishing routines and habits is not about pretending things are normal. It is about creating enough stability to carry the loss without it consuming everything. Overcoming guilt, a common feature of grief, and rediscovering identity after a significant loss are both areas that therapy addresses directly, at whatever pace the person is actually moving.
Fees and How to Book an Appointment
- Existential Process Groups: SGD 95 per session, 1.5 hours, 10-session commitment.
- Chemistry Session (initial consultation, couples or group): SGD 330, 75 minutes.
- Ongoing Group Sessions (before 5 pm): SGD 330, 75 minutes.
Ongoing Group Sessions (after 5 pm): SGD 350, 75 minutes.
Getting to Encompassing Therapy Near Fort Canning
Encompassing Therapy is at 16 Mohamed Sultan Road #06-02, Singapore 238965, in the Fort Canning area, close to River Valley, the CBD, and Robertson Quay. The office is opposite UE Square and opposite the Ippudo Restaurant at UE Square.
Getting Here by Public Transport
- Fort Canning MRT Station (nearest MRT)
- Buses along River Valley Road
Parking Near the Office
- Parallel parking along Mohammad Sultan Road (code: M0015)
- Carpark along Mohammad Sultan Road and River Valley off-street (code: M0077)
Therapist for Grief and Loss Near Me in Singapore
Yes. Encompassing Therapy offers in-person grief and death therapy at 16 Mohamed Sultan Road #06-02, Singapore 238965, near Fort Canning MRT Station. The office is easily accessible from River Valley, the CBD, Robertson Quay, and the surrounding neighbourhoods. Frequently asked questions about the practice, including what to expect, are addressed throughout this page and on the FAQ page on the site.
Grief and Death Therapy in Singapore: Begin When You're Ready
The first step is a conversation.
Reach out below to talk about what you are carrying and whether existential therapy for grief and loss feels like the right kind of support. There is no pressure and no expectation about where you should be in your grief.