Dr. Barbara Hanna, LMFT - Rebuilding after Loss - Healing Relationships
Dr. Barbara Hanna, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
“We’re wired for connection — and through it, we grow."
If you’ve experienced loss—whether through miscarriage, stillbirth, the death of a child, or the loss of a partner—you know how deeply it can shake your life and your closest relationships. The grief you carry can create distance, confusion, or silence between you and the people you love most.
I’m here to support you—whether you’re coming as an individual, a couple, or a family—to help you rebuild connection after these profound losses.
Together, we will:
• Explore the complex emotions you’re feeling—sorrow, anger, guilt, confusion—and help you find ways to hold them
• Honor the unique way you and your loved ones grieve, even if you experience it differently
• Work on rebuilding safety, trust, and honest communication
• Navigate changes in intimacy, roles, and family dynamics that loss can bring
• Find hope and meaning while holding space for your grief
Healing after loss isn’t about forgetting or “moving on.” It’s about finding a way to carry your grief while rebuilding the relationships that matter most to you. Together, we’ll create space for both your pain and your hope — so you can reconnect with yourself and your loved ones in a way that feels authentic and healing.
Here is a bit more about how I approach this work.
Loss reshapes the landscape of our relationships—not only with the person who has passed, but with ourselves, our loved ones, and the way we move through the world. Whether you're grieving a miscarriage, the death of a child, or the passing of a partner, the ripple effects of grief touch every layer of life. As a systemic therapist, I don't just focus on the pain of loss itself—I help you explore how that loss intersects with your relationships, your history, your culture, spiritual/religious beliefs and your identity.
In our work together, we will honor the uniqueness of your grief while also looking at the broader systems that shape how you mourn, heal, and reconnect. I draw on systemic interventions to uncover the patterns that may be silently guiding your emotional responses—family roles, generational beliefs, cultural narratives, and unspoken expectations that can either hinder or support your healing.
A big part of how I work involves the difference between two kinds of change:
• First-order change is about small tweaks — trying to fix things without really shifting the deeper patterns. It can help in the short term, but often leaves people feeling like they’re stuck in the same old cycle. (ex: changing behaviors without addressing the reason behind the behaviors)
• Second-order change goes deeper. It’s about changing the system itself — shifting the way you relate to yourself, to each other, and to the problems you’re facing. It’s transformational change, the kind that leads to real, lasting difference.
In therapy with me, I aim for second-order change.
Not just coping better — but truly growing into new, healthier ways of living and loving.
Rather than treating grief as something to "get over," I help my clients move toward integration—finding ways to live in relationship with their loss, while also restoring or redefining connection with those still present. This may mean navigating the complexities of a partner’s different grieving style, healing disconnection with surviving children or siblings, or exploring how a parent's death reawakens old family dynamics.
In the wake of profound loss, I believe that relationships—both with others and within yourself—can be heal and grow. Through a collaborative, compassionate, and systemic lens, I walk alongside you as you begin to make meaning, reclaim voice, and rediscover connection in a world forever changed.
Credentials
- Bachelor of Art (BA) - English & Psychology - Rutgers University (New Jersey)
- Master of Science (MS) - Marriage & Family Therapy - Seton Hall University (New Jersey)
- Doctorate in Couple & Family Therapy (DCFT) - Drexel University (Pennsylvania)
- Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in New Jersey - #37FI00229500
- Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in New York - #001951
Before opening this private practice, I worked in many different settings: (1) community mental health seeing clients of various presenting issues and various different ages, (2) community mental health focusing on sexual assault survivors, (3) several different private practices focusing primarily on couples and families, (4) in-home/in-community therapy working with children and their families. Before working as a clinician, I also worked as a counselor at a domestic violence agency, working primarily with victims of domestic violence.
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