Grief After Loss and Moving Abroad: Support with Milica Malinovic in Waterloo and Online
Grief can make the world feel unfamiliar, even when nothing around you has changed. When loss meets life in a new country, city, language, or culture, that unfamiliar feeling can become even heavier.
Some people grieve after the death of a loved one. Others grieve a relationship, a home, a version of life they expected, or the sense of belonging they once had. Moving abroad can bring its own kind of grief too. There may be excitement and opportunity, but also loneliness, distance from family, identity changes, and the quiet ache of missing what used to feel simple.
For people in Waterloo and across Ontario, therapy can offer a steady place to speak honestly about that pain. Milica Malinovic supports clients navigating grief, loneliness, and major life transitions, including the emotional strain that can come with moving abroad. She is available in person in Waterloo and online across Ontario, and she also supports clients who prefer to speak Serbian.
This article is for information only and is not a substitute for mental health care, diagnosis, or emergency support. If there is immediate risk of harm, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.
Grief is not only about death
When people hear the word grief, they often think of death first. Bereavement is one of the deepest forms of grief, and it can affect every part of life. Sleep, appetite, memory, energy, faith, relationships, and daily routines can all shift after a loss.
Yet grief also shows up after many kinds of endings.
A person may grieve:
The end of a relationship
A parent, sibling, partner, friend, or child who has died
A life left behind after immigration
A home country, neighbourhood, language, or familiar rhythm
A career path that changed
A family structure that no longer feels the same
A sense of identity that used to feel clear
The feeling of being known without having to explain so much
This matters because many people minimize their grief when it does not fit a narrow idea of loss. They may say, “Other people have it worse,” or “I chose to move, so I should not feel sad.” Pain does not work that way. A choice can still involve loss. A new beginning can still carry mourning.
Grief after moving abroad can be especially confusing because it often sits beside gratitude. Someone may be thankful for safety, education, work, or opportunity in Canada, while still missing the people, foods, humour, holidays, and daily ease of life elsewhere.
Both can be true.
Moving abroad can create hidden grief
Relocation is often described in practical terms. Find housing. Apply for documents. Get a job. Learn transit routes. Set up banking. Register for health care. Build a routine.
Those steps matter, but they do not capture the emotional cost.
Moving abroad can change the small things that once helped a person feel grounded. The grocery store may not carry familiar ingredients. Jokes may not translate. Family celebrations may happen through a screen. A simple phone call may involve time zones, guilt, and the sadness of hearing life continue without you.
Even when the move is positive, the nervous system may still read it as a major disruption. The brain has to work harder to interpret new accents, customs, expectations, and social cues. Over time, that can create exhaustion.
Common experiences after moving abroad include:
Feeling like an outsider, even among kind people
Missing the ease of speaking in a first language
Feeling guilty for not calling family enough
Feeling guilty for wanting distance from family
Worrying that friends back home are moving on
Comparing the old life and the new life
Feeling pressure to succeed because of the sacrifice involved
Wondering who you are in a new culture
For some, the loneliness is sharp right away. For others, it appears later, after the practical tasks are done and life becomes quieter.
That delayed grief can feel surprising. A person may think, “Why am I struggling now? I have already been here for months,” or even years. There is no schedule for adjustment. Some losses take time to become visible.
Loneliness can make grief feel heavier
Loneliness is not only the absence of people. It is often the absence of feeling understood.
A person can feel lonely in a busy home, at school, at work, or in a full community event. They may have people around them, yet still feel that no one really knows what they are carrying.
Grief often makes loneliness more intense because loss changes how people relate to the world. After someone dies, ordinary moments can hurt. A song in a store. A birthday. A holiday meal. A message that cannot be sent. A familiar recipe. A place where that person should have been.
When someone is also far from their home country, those moments may feel even more isolating. They may not have relatives nearby who remember the same stories. They may not have friends who understand the full cultural meaning of a ritual, anniversary, or family role.
There can also be pressure to appear strong.
Many immigrants, newcomers, international students, and people who have relocated for work or family carry a quiet message: keep going. Do not complain. Be grateful. Make the move worth it.
Strength can help people survive difficult seasons, but constant strength can become lonely too. Therapy offers a different kind of space, one where the goal is not to perform resilience. It is to tell the truth.
What grief can feel like in everyday life
Grief does not always look like crying. Some people cry often. Others feel numb. Some become busy and productive. Others feel unable to start basic tasks.
Grief can show up as:
Tiredness that rest does not fully fix
Irritability or anger
Brain fog
Trouble sleeping
Loss of interest in food or comfort eating
Tightness in the chest or stomach
Feeling detached from other people
Worry about more loss
Guilt about things said or unsaid
A sense that life has split into before and after
After moving abroad, grief may also appear as homesickness, resentment, culture shock, or a longing for “normal.” Sometimes people judge themselves for these feelings. They may think they should be adapting better.
The problem is not weakness. Grief asks the mind and body to absorb something significant. Moving abroad asks the mind and body to adapt to a new world. When both happen close together, the load can be heavy.
A therapist can help by making room for the whole story, not only the polished version.
The role of therapy in grief and loneliness
Therapy does not erase loss. It does not ask people to forget, move on quickly, or stop loving the person or life they miss.
Good grief support helps people relate to their pain with more care. It can help them understand what they are feeling, find language for confusing emotions, and build ways to get through hard days without shutting down completely.
Therapy may support grief by helping a person:
Speak openly without worrying about burdening friends or family
Make sense of mixed emotions, including love, anger, guilt, relief, or regret
Notice patterns that keep loneliness intense
Create rituals of remembrance or connection
Build tolerance for painful anniversaries and reminders
Reconnect with parts of life that still matter
Explore identity after loss or relocation
For grief after moving abroad, therapy may also include the challenges of culture, belonging, family expectations, language, and identity. These are not side issues. They can shape how grief is felt and expressed.
In some families and cultures, grief is communal. In others, people grieve privately. Some people grew up with open conversations about emotion. Others learned to stay quiet and carry pain alone. A thoughtful therapist will not assume that everyone grieves in the same way.
Why language matters when talking about grief
There are feelings that come out differently in a first language. A person may speak English well and still feel that their emotional life has more texture in Serbian or another language close to home.
Language carries memory. It holds family roles, childhood phrases, humour, affection, and grief rituals. It can soften the work of therapy when a client does not have to translate every feeling before speaking it.
Milica Malinovic supports clients who speak Serbian, which can be especially meaningful for those who want therapy that makes space for culture, migration, and family history. Speaking in a familiar language can help a person describe loss with more nuance and less effort.
It can also reduce the emotional distance that sometimes appears when painful experiences are discussed only in a second language. For some people, English creates enough separation to begin. For others, Serbian may feel more honest. For many bilingual clients, both languages may naturally appear in the same conversation.
That flexibility matters.
Support with Milica Malinovic in Waterloo and across Ontario
For someone looking for support with grief, loneliness, and the emotional impact of life transitions, Milica Malinovic offers a compassionate option through Beyond Happiness.
She is available for in-person sessions in Waterloo and online therapy for clients located in Ontario. That can be helpful for people who want local support in the Waterloo area, as well as those elsewhere in the province who prefer the accessibility of virtual care.
A natural fit may include people who are:
Grieving the death of a loved one
Feeling lonely after moving abroad or relocating within Canada
Missing family, language, culture, or community
Struggling with identity after a major life change
Carrying sadness while trying to function day to day
Looking for therapy in English or Serbian
What to expect when starting grief therapy
Starting therapy during grief can feel intimidating. Many people worry they will cry too much, not know what to say, or feel worse after opening things up. Those worries are normal.
A first session usually begins with conversation. The therapist may ask what brought the client in, what life has been like lately, what kind of loss or transition they are facing, and what support they hope for. There is no need to tell the entire story perfectly.
Grief stories are often scattered. They come in fragments. A memory here. A regret there. A sudden image. A practical problem. A wave of emotion. Therapy can hold that pace.
Some sessions may focus on the loss itself. Others may focus on the current loneliness, family stress, sleep, daily coping, or the difficulty of building life in a new place. The work can shift as needs change.
Helpful grief therapy often moves gently. It respects that some days need depth and other days need steadiness. The point is not to rush healing. The point is to create enough support that the grief does not have to be carried alone.
Small ways to care for grief between sessions
Therapy can be a strong source of support, but grief also lives in the ordinary hours between appointments. Small practices can help create a little steadiness.
These are not cures. They are simple anchors.
Keep one gentle routine
Grief can disturb time. A small routine, such as morning tea, a short walk, or preparing one familiar meal each week, can help the day feel less shapeless.
Name the loss honestly
Try writing one sentence that begins with “I miss...” or “I am grieving...” This can help bring vague pain into language.
Stay connected to culture in small ways
Music, food, prayer, holidays, books, language, or conversation with someone from the same background can reduce the sense of being cut off from a former life.
Let loneliness be a signal
Loneliness is painful, but it can also point toward a need for connection, rest, familiarity, or honesty. It does not mean failure.
Plan for hard dates
Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and immigration milestones can bring grief back strongly. Planning ahead can help. That might mean calling someone, lighting a candle, cooking a familiar dish, visiting a place of worship, or keeping the day quiet.
Reduce pressure to “be over it”
Grief changes over time, but love and memory do not follow deadlines. If the loss still matters, it makes sense that feelings still arise.
When grief needs more support
Some grief feels heavy but manageable with time, care, community, and therapy. Some grief becomes more concerning, especially when a person feels unsafe or unable to function.
Extra support may be needed when someone:
Feels hopeless most of the time
Cannot sleep for long stretches
Feels disconnected from reality
Uses alcohol, drugs, or other behaviours to numb pain in harmful ways
Cannot manage basic daily needs
Has thoughts of self-harm or suicide
Feels trapped in panic or intense despair
In Canada, immediate danger should be treated as an emergency. Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. If there is no immediate danger but the situation feels urgent, reaching out to a crisis line, family doctor, walk-in clinic, or local mental health service can help bridge the gap.
Seeking support is not a sign that grief is being done wrong. It is a sign that the pain deserves care.
A gentler way forward
Grief after loss and moving abroad can feel like standing between worlds. One world holds memory, language, people, and places that shaped you. The other asks you to keep living, adapting, and building something new.
No one should have to make sense of that alone.
Support can help grief become less isolating. It can make room for sadness without letting sadness take the whole story. It can help a person stay connected to what was loved, while slowly finding steadiness in the life that is here now.
For those in Waterloo or elsewhere in Ontario, Milica Malinovic offers grief and loneliness support in person and online, with the option of therapy in Serbian. If loss, relocation, or loneliness has become too heavy to carry privately, reaching out may be a meaningful next step.
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