Finding grief counseling and support in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama

If you need help now

If grief has brought thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 any time. Each state’s crisis lines are on our state help lines page.

1. Start with the hospice, if there was one

If your loved one received hospice care, the hospice is required to help you afterward. Federal Medicare rules say a hospice must:

• have an organized bereavement program supervised by someone with education or experience in grief or loss counseling
• make bereavement services available to the family, and others in the bereavement plan, for up to one year after the death

Medicare doesn’t pay hospices separately for this, but it’s still a required service. Call the hospice’s main number and ask for the bereavement coordinator. SAMHSA describes hospice care as a source of grief counseling for many families and caregivers.

Even if your loved one wasn’t in hospice, NAMI notes that most local hospices offer free or sliding-scale grief support or can refer you to it.

2. Join a grief support group

SAMHSA lists local or virtual grief support groups, community grief counseling services and grief peer support among the supports that help people cope. To find one near you:

• Ask a local hospice, even if your loved one wasn’t a patient there.
• Dial 2-1-1 and ask about grief support groups in your area. NAMI suggests this.
• Ask your place of worship, the funeral home or your employer’s EAP. Our EAP guide explains how EAPs work. Kentucky state employees with basic life insurance, for example, can get up to five grief counseling sessions per death.

3. Find help for grieving children and teens

• The Dougy Center’s program finder (dougy.org/program-finder) searches a directory of more than 500 grief support programs for children, teens and families.
• The National Alliance for Children’s Grief (nacg.org/find-support) lets you search grief support centers and camps by ZIP code, with filters for peer support groups and virtual services.

When you contact a program, ask about age groups, whether parents or caregivers have their own group, and the cost. Many children’s grief centers are free.

4. Know when to look for a grief therapist

SAMHSA says people with very hard grief may seek clinical care, such as individual or group psychotherapy, and many also find grief peer support helpful. A licensed therapist can help when grief is affecting your sleep, work, relationships or safety, or when you’d simply like more support than a group gives.

Who provides grief counseling: licensed professional counselors, clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists and psychologists. Some have extra training in grief and loss. The Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) offers grief-focused credentials, though we couldn’t read ADEC’s own pages to describe them.

Questions to ask a grief therapist:

• “How much of your practice is grief and loss?”
• “Have you worked with this kind of loss?” Loss of a child, a sudden death, suicide loss and loss after a long illness can each call for different experience.
• “Do you see families or children together?”
• “Do you run or know of a grief group I could join alongside therapy?”

Our fit guide covers the general first-call questions.

5. Search LunahUP for grief therapists

As of November 5, 2026, these LunahUP profiles list grief as a focus:

6. Sort out the cost of grief counseling

Insurance pays for therapy when there’s a diagnosed condition, so coverage for grief counseling varies. A federal report to Congress in 2023 named cost as a barrier to grief services. Ask your plan, and see our insurance guide and sliding scale guide. If you lose health coverage because the person who died held the policy, SAMHSA notes that’s a qualifying life event, so you can enroll in a new plan outside open enrollment.

7. Use programs for military families

Vet Centers offer free bereavement counseling to family members of:

• service members who died while serving
• Reservists and National Guard members who died while on duty
• veterans who were receiving Vet Center services when they died unexpectedly or while in hospice or similar care
• veterans and service members who died by suicide

There’s no cost. Call the Vet Center Call Center at 1-877-927-8387, or find your nearest Vet Center at va.gov/find-locations. Our trauma and PTSD guide lists the Vet Centers in our four states.

8. Get help after a violent death

State crime victim compensation programs can pay for counseling for families after a homicide:

• Georgia’s Crime Victims Compensation Program covers mental health counseling up to $3,000, and parents or guardians of someone who was killed can be eligible.
• Alabama’s Crime Victims’ Compensation Commission says that in a homicide, funeral, counseling and other expenses can be considered for surviving spouses, children or parents, up to a $20,000 maximum.

Tennessee and Kentucky have similar programs; ask the victim advocate at your local district attorney’s office.

The short version

• If your loved one was in hospice, the hospice must offer your family bereavement support for up to a year.
• Local hospices, 2-1-1, places of worship and EAPs can point you to grief groups.
• The Dougy Center and the National Alliance for Children’s Grief list programs for children and teens.
• Vet Centers offer free bereavement counseling to families of service members who died on duty.
• Georgia and Alabama crime victim programs can pay for counseling after a homicide.