GRIEVE is a one-on-one emotional wellness mentorship for people navigating heartbreak, depression, anxiety, grief, or the weight of being human. It offers ongoing weekly membership sessions and focused one-time intensives.

No. GRIEVE is emotional wellness mentorship and is not a substitute for clinical therapy. It is companionship, honest conversation, and practical guidance from a trained mentor.

How much does GRIEVE cost?

GRIEVE Membership is $4,999/month with a free 7-day trial. One-time intensive sessions (Mastering Heartbreak, Healing From Anxiety, Befriending Depression, The Silence, and Open Ended) are $195 each for a 1-hour session.

Do I need an account to book a one-time session?

No. One-time intensive sessions only require a preferred name and email. They are audio-only for privacy and anonymity.

GRIEVE is for anyone struggling with heartbreak, breakups, divorce, depression, anxiety, grief, loneliness, numbness, or the need to be heard — and who wants real, personal support rather than impersonal apps or hotlines.

Blog | GRIEVE

Scrolling became the last thing I’d do before I fell asleep, the first thing when I woke up... Drugs I don’t need; even alcohol I abstained from for an entire year. Dating apps? I craved them.¹ - Online Dater

Addictions are bizarre and confusing. Neither the homeless man, the middle class mom, or the most successful and supposedly "best" of humanity can escape them.

While not everyone is a pumping heroin into their veins, most of us, if we soberly reflect, carry behavior's and habits that we lean upon in order to get from day to day. Coping habits. Habits which, if we had the strength, we would likely be rid of, but simply can't, or won't, due to their capacity to help us get through.

These things are not just intriguing and attention grabbing in and of themselves. They're addicting for a reason beyond mere dopamine.

We indulge into our addictive behavior right around the time we feel bad.. really really bad about something. And so the addiction either distracts us or takes us to the very world we wish we could have. To feel the feelings we wish we felt.

Because you are not present in that world very often, these serve as vehicles to take you to that world of consciousness. Beer. Porn. Sex. Drugs. Potato Chips. These are not powers they posses in and of themselves. These are 'B's. Triggers. ('A' is the actuating event. 'B' the inner trigger due to our baggage, and 'C' our reaction.)

"The human brain will always strive towards consciousness."

Either with your permission, or without it, through agents such as food, intimate relationships, or Ms. long legs on the street.

What I'm getting at is, maybe one of the main antagonists to addiction is consciousness. And maybe what feeds and gives power to our addictive behaviors is our inability to create spaces of consciousness for some of our most deepest desires and interesting parts of our lives. (Addictive behaviors have many causes, maybe it's not one solution to it all. But here I'm talking about what gives it power.)

Speaking from experience, it's just like when you suddenly start seeing your ex walking all over the city.. every woman resembling her. When every little thing is a memory trigger.. that's your brain shouting, "I need attention. This needs attention! Things regarding your ex need to be thought about and felt! Your presence is urgently required in this space."

So also, dating apps, when you feel desire to use them compulsively, night after night, is maybe your brain shouting in the same way: This needs attention. Things regarding relationships, sex, intimacy with another human require your attention! As if it were an urgent email titled, "Attention!".

But how and what are ways we give this attention? For me, I usually ignore it. I usually use "wisdom" to justify ignoring it. "I'm a happy single, bruh". Nah bro.

The challenge for us who deal with either hardcore or pet addictions, is how can we feel the feelings our harmful addictive behaviors grant us without using the behavior itself. How can I feel the relief and peace that alcohol provides without using the bottle. How can I feel the joy and comfort that sugar gives me without downing an entire box of Timmy's doughnuts. How can I experience the feelings those things give me. For it needs to, and will be experienced, one way or another.

Simply spending time with and being present with your intimate desires. Your desire to hold hands.. to be kissed and held tightly. To be wanted. To want. To be free from problems and stress, to feel happy waking up, eager to exist, and feel as content about existence as you do when there's fudge in your mouth. Write down, even routinely, what you want. Write it in first person. Enjoy that experience. Become conscious of it. Use writing to take you to that virtual reality, instead of using men, women, or double chocolate chip muffins.

Don't let it sit shut up in the caverns of your subconscious. For it is stronger than you. It WILL be experienced. It WILL be felt. Either through you giving it platform, or through a particularly harmful habit.

"The human brain will always strive towards consciousness."

Ever we wander, constantly enthralled by anything and anyone who can take us to that beautiful world, for which we deeply long.

Girl at work.. guy at the bus station.. the new gadget on sale.. Whoever can capture our imaginations. Whatever can take us to a world we don't know how to take ourselves to. And so we remain vulnerable to the power of anyone who suggests it. These vehicles.

It's not "overeating" or "glued to dating apps", it's "entering consciousness". Trying to enter into a space where you can feel the feelings you wish you felt, and indulge into your deepest desires.

Reflection Question:

So... what are ways, including reflecting on my deepest desires, that I can remain conscious, and take myself to that other world, instead of relying on double stuffed Oreos to do it for me?

We're All Addicted to Something