Anticipatory Grief Support Group: A Space to Grieve Someone Who's Still Here
Starts on March 31
You're watching someone you love slowly become less of who they were — and the grief is already here, even though they haven't gone. Anticipatory grief is one of the loneliest kinds of loss because the world doesn't always recognize it yet. An anticipatory grief support group gives you something most caregivers never get enough of: a room full of people who understand the weight you're carrying. At Shifting Tides, our groups are led by licensed therapists and available virtually across New York, Connecticut, and Florida.
What Is Anticipatory Grief?
Anticipatory grief is the grief you experience before a loss has happened. It's what you feel when a parent's dementia is progressing, when a loved one's diagnosis is terminal, or when someone you care for is slowly declining in a way that changes the relationship you once had. The anticipatory grief definition often centers on death — but in practice, it includes grieving the loss of who someone used to be, the future you expected to share, and the version of your own life that's being reshaped by caregiving. It's real grief. It's happening now. And it deserves real support.
Our Offering & the Story Behind This Group
Ava knows what it's like to grieve someone who is still here — to carry the weight of what's coming while trying to stay present for what still is. What she couldn't always find during that time was a space to say the unsayable: the guilt, the resentment, the exhaustion that sits right next to deep love. This group exists because she needed it first.
A virtual, closed anticipatory grief support group — 8 weeks, every Tuesday, one hour via Zoom. Open to caregivers, adult children, partners, chosen family, and anyone holding vigil for someone whose absence is already being felt. All ages and identities welcome.
$80 per session | Sliding scale available | Free 15-minute consult to start
Grief After Loss: When Anticipatory Grief Becomes Bereavement
Sometimes the loss you've been bracing for arrives. If you've already been through anticipatory grief and are now navigating life after death, our grief support group offers continued community for the next chapter. Many members move between groups as their experience evolves — there's no wrong time to transition.
What Happens in the Group?
Each session begins with a check-in. From there, the group shapes what gets explored — Ava draws on somatic work, IFS, and DBT to help members process what they're carrying. Topics that tend to come up:
Anticipatory grief and dementia — watching a parent or partner lose memory, language, or recognition
Anticipatory grief and cancer — navigating treatment decisions, hospital visits, and the fear of what's next
Caregiver burnout, guilt, and the tension between love and resentment
Grieving someone with Parkinson's, multiple myeloma, or other progressive conditions
How to cope with anticipatory grief while still showing up for the person you're losing
Online Anticipatory Grief Support Group: Join From Anywhere
All Shifting Tides anticipatory grief support groups are held virtually — no commute, no added burden on an already full plate. Available to anyone in New York, Connecticut, or Florida. For caregivers especially, the virtual format removes one more barrier between you and the support you need.
Frequently Asked Questions About Anticipatory Grief
What are the 5 stages of anticipatory grief?
Is anticipatory grief normal?
The 5 stages of anticipatory grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance — are borrowed from the Kubler-Ross model. In reality, anticipatory grief rarely follows a neat sequence. You might feel acceptance on Monday and rage on Tuesday. The stages are a framework, not a rulebook — and in a support group, there's space for all of it.
Completely. Anticipatory grief is a natural response to watching someone you love decline. It doesn't mean you've given up, and it doesn't mean you're grieving "too early." It means you're human and you're paying attention. Many caregivers feel guilt for grieving before someone has died — but the loss is already real, and your grief is valid.
How is anticipatory grief different from grief after loss?
How do you cope with anticipatory grief for a loved one with dementia?
Grief after loss looks back. Anticipatory grief sits in the middle — you're mourning what's already changed while dreading what's still coming. It also carries a unique weight: you're often still caregiving, still making decisions, still showing up every day for the person you're losing. That combination of active love and active grief is what makes it so exhausting.
Anticipatory grief and dementia is particularly painful because the losses are constant and incremental — a forgotten name, a lost conversation, a personality shift. Coping strategies include staying connected to your own identity outside of caregiving, finding community with others in similar situations, and working with a therapist who understands caregiver grief. An anticipatory grief support group can help you feel less alone in a role that often isolates.