Judy Austin, LPC-S

The Grief Center of Southwest Colorado is dedicated to meeting the needs of bereaved members of the community regardless of cultural and/or religious beliefs, manner of death, relationship to the deceased, and ability to pay. Services include individual, family and group grief counseling, offered in La Plata, Montezuma, San Juan, Dolores and Archuleta Counties.

The Grief Center of Southwest Colorado is honored to companion you along your grief journey. We strive to offer a place of safety, comfort and healing opportunities to those who are bereaved. As a non-profit, our mission is to meet the needs of bereaved members of the community regardless of cultural and/or religious beliefs, manner of death, or relationship to the deceased. Founded in 2009, we have been recognized both locally and nationally for our outstanding care. Our grief specialists hold Master’s or Doctoral Degrees in counseling psychology and have taken advanced certification courses in grief therapy. And they all understand grief.

Our work is based in honoring the lived experience of our clients, and incorporates the following philosophy:

Grief Is:

1) Natural: Loss is a normal, inevitable and universal human experience

2) Non-pathological and Complex: Grief is an adaptive, non-pathological response to loss

3) Contextual: Grief is not solely an individual experience; grief is interwoven in a sociocultural context, influenced by family, community and other social systems

4) Disruptive: Grief challenges our identity, relationships, beliefs and assumptions about the world and our role in it

5) Relational: Healthy adaptation to loss is fostered by supportive relationships

6) Dynamic: The dynamic nature of grief cannot be captured by stage, phase, or other prescriptive models. There are no universally acceptable or “correct” ways to grieve.

7) Nonfinite: Loss is interwoven into our identity; therefore, the act of grieving is not a finite experience. Grief is ongoing.