How Movement Therapy Supports Grief Processing
Grief Lives in Both the Mind and Body
You may notice it late at night, the heaviness in your chest, the ache in your shoulders, or the restless urge to get up and move. Grief has a way of lingering in the body long after the first shock has passed.
While grief is often framed as an emotional or psychological process, it is also deeply physical. Muscles tighten, sleep patterns change, and energy drops. Some people feel disconnected from their body altogether, as if moving through life on autopilot.
This is where movement therapy can help. By gently engaging the body, movement therapy offers pathways for grief to be acknowledged, expressed, and released. For those in Surrey, Langley, or across BC, it provides an embodied way to process loss without needing to put everything into words.
Why Grief Shows Up in the Body
Grief doesn’t just “live in the mind.” It directly impacts the autonomic nervous system, which controls our stress and survival responses. Loss can trigger:
Fight/flight responses: restlessness, agitation, difficulty settling.
Freeze/collapse responses: heaviness, exhaustion, numbness, withdrawal.
Chronic stress activation: tension in the chest, shallow breathing, digestive upset.
Over time, these physiological reactions may leave you feeling stuck, either weighed down or running on empty.
Movement therapy interrupts this cycle by giving the nervous system safe, structured ways to release stress and reconnect with presence.
What Movement Therapy Looks Like
Movement therapy is not about choreography or performance. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never danced, stretched, or exercised regularly. It’s about noticing your body, following its cues, and allowing grief to move through you.
Examples include:
Grounding movements: Placing your feet firmly on the floor, shifting weight side to side, or pressing into the ground to feel supported.
Release practices: Gentle shaking of the arms and legs, stretching the spine, or exhaling with sound to let tension go.
Expressive gestures: Curling inward to embody sadness, pushing outward to express anger, or reaching upward to connect with longing.
Restorative flow: Slowly unfolding the body from contraction into openness, supporting a felt sense of aliveness.
These movements can be subtle or expressive. Often, the smallest shifts, like softening the shoulders or noticing your breath, begin to create space for grief to transform.
How Counselling and Movement Therapy Work Together
At Tidal Trauma Centre, movement therapy is integrated with counselling to provide both emotional and physical support. Some ways this works:
Somatic Therapy: Helps you track sensations connected to grief and release tension through grounding or movement.
IFS (Internal Family Systems): Supports parts of you that hold grief while anchoring you in your body. Movement provides safety when emotions feel overwhelming.
EMDR Therapy: Processes painful memories while using grounding and movement to regulate the nervous system during reprocessing.
AEDP & Emotion-Focused Therapy: Encourage emotional expression while movement supports staying present with feelings like sorrow, anger, or longing.
By combining talk-based and body-based approaches, therapy creates space for both the mind and body to heal.
Signs You Might Benefit from Movement Therapy for Grief
You feel stuck in numbness or heaviness.
Grief feels “in your body”, a tight chest, clenched jaw, or fatigue.
Words alone don’t capture what you’re experiencing.
Your emotions swing between shutdown and overwhelm.
You long to reconnect with energy, presence, or a sense of yourself after loss.
Moving Through Grief with Support
Grief is not something to “get over.” It’s an ongoing process that reshapes your body, mind, and relationships. Movement therapy offers ways to stay connected to yourself in the midst of that process, gently releasing what feels heavy while rebuilding a sense of aliveness.
Contact us or fill out a New Client Form to be matched with a therapist. If you’re ready, book a free consult or appointment today.
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Not at all. Exercise can be helpful for health and mood, but movement therapy is about awareness, regulation, and emotional expression. It’s not performance-based, and it meets you exactly where you are.
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Movement therapy is always paced with safety in mind. Your therapist will help you move gently, with options to pause, rest, or shift if something feels too much. Even the smallest movement, like noticing your breath or placing your hand on your heart can be enough.
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No. Movement therapy is not about skill or flexibility. It focuses on natural, accessible movements that emerge from your body’s needs, not a set routine.
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Yes. At Tidal Trauma Centre, movement-based practices are often combined with counselling. This allows you to process both physically and emotionally, creating a fuller experience of healing.
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Yes. Whether grief comes from death, divorce, miscarriage, illness, or another life-altering loss, movement therapy can help you process the embodied impact of what you’ve been through.
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Disclaimer: The content on this website is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical, psychological, or mental health advice. It is not a substitute for professional care. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for diagnosis and treatment.