Life transitions and grief

Support through loss, change, and hard seasons

For anyone navigating grief, loss, divorce, retirement, or other major life changes. Care starts with understanding what's happening and how it's affecting daily life. You don't need a diagnosis to ask for help.

First visit: 60 minutes, $400. Telehealth from anywhere in Oregon. No referral needed.

Book a first visit

Meredith personally reviews every appointment request and confirms within one business day.

If this sounds familiar

Grief and major life transitions aren't mental illnesses. They're what it feels like to be human in a hard season. The loss of a partner or parent, the end of a marriage, a move, a career ending, a long stretch of caregiving: these are supposed to hurt.

But sometimes the hurt stops moving. Sadness, anxiety, or sleeplessness starts interfering with eating, concentration, school, work, or daily life, and months pass without things getting better. That's a reasonable time to reach out.

Meredith starts with a careful look at what happened, what the days look like now, and how it's showing up across daily life. Sometimes medication is part of the plan; sometimes, after a real look, it isn't, and Meredith will say so.

The seasons that bring people here

A few of the ones we see most, not a complete list and not a checklist you need to match.

Loss of a spouse or partner

Loss can affect sleep, appetite, concentration, and the ability to manage daily routines, and it often continues long after the world around the loss has moved on.

Divorce and separation

Even a chosen separation can bring mood changes, sleep problems, anger, and disorientation. For many people this is the first time mood or sleep has ever been a real struggle, and asking for help is unfamiliar.

Empty nest and retirement

When a role that structured daily life ends, the disorientation is real. It can slide toward flatness, withdrawal, or dread that won't lift.

Caregiver exhaustion

Long stretches of caring for parents, a partner, children, or others can affect sleep, energy, mood, and concentration, and can leave little room for a person's own health.

When grief crosses into something heavier

Sometimes grief opens the door to clinical depression or anxiety that needs treatment in its own right.

How Meredith approaches this

Thirteen years in social work before nursing means Meredith has sat with people through a lot of loss. She understands that grief is not depression, that a major life transition is not a disorder, and that medication is not a fix for what you're going through. It's a tool that might help you carry it.

Your first visit is 60 minutes. She'll ask about what happened, what the days look like now, how you're sleeping, what's holding and what isn't, at your pace. For many people, the most valuable part of that first hour is being heard all the way through.

Meredith won't push you toward medication you don't need. She also won't minimize how hard this season is. If medication makes sense, you'll understand what it's intended to help with, how long it might be needed, and how the plan will be revisited together over time. If what you need most is a good therapist or a grief group, she'll say so and help you find one.

Pricing and logistics

First visit: 60 minutes, $400

Follow-up: 30 minutes, $250

Extended follow-up: 60 minutes, $375 (when you want more time)

Insurance: We are out-of-network with all insurance plans. Superbills are provided (upon request) for possible out-of-network reimbursement on commercial plans. We are not able to see Medicare or Medicaid (Oregon Health Plan, or OHP) members, and we screen for this at intake so eligibility is clear before care begins.

Format: Visits are by video, from anywhere in Oregon. In certain circumstances a face-to-face visit may be necessary.

No referral needed. Book directly.

Questions people ask

Is grief a mental illness?
No. Grief is a normal human response to loss, and most grief doesn't need medical treatment. What deserves attention is when grief starts costing you function: months of broken sleep, inability to work, isolation that keeps deepening, or grief that opens into depression or anxiety. The first visit is where we look at that honestly, in both directions.
Do I need a diagnosis to be seen?
No. You don't need a label, a referral, or a theory about what's wrong. Losing someone and still not sleeping months later is reason enough. If an evaluation finds something that has a name, Meredith will explain it plainly. If it doesn't, that's a fine outcome too.
Will she just put me on antidepressants?
No. Sometimes the honest answer after a full evaluation is that medication isn't what you need, and Meredith will tell you that. When medication does make sense, you'll understand the reasoning, the plan, and what stopping looks like before you start. Nothing is automatic.
Would I be on it forever?
Not necessarily. How long medication is recommended depends on your symptoms, history, response to treatment, preferences, and clinical needs. Meredith reviews those decisions with you over time, including whether and when a gradual taper may be appropriate. The plan is built with you from day one.
Should I be seeing a therapist instead?
Maybe, and possibly alongside. Therapy and grief groups are often the core of getting through loss, and Meredith is direct about that. She prescribes; she doesn't do weekly talk therapy. If therapy is what you need, she'll help you find someone good. If medication support belongs in the picture too, you can have both, coordinated.

Your provider

Meredith Galvin is a board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner (PMHNP-BC). She came to prescribing after thirteen years in social work and ten years in psychiatric nursing, including work as a charge nurse, conducting emergency psychiatric assessments at Duke Regional Hospital, and providing home health care. That background is why she takes time to understand what happened, what the days look like now, and what kind of support fits.

Read Meredith's full story →

You don't have to carry this alone.

If this season has been heavier than you can manage on your own, we'd like to meet you.

Meredith personally reviews every appointment request and confirms within one business day.

See what to expect at your first visit →