About the California Grief Center
We believe grief isn’t just about death.
It’s about loss, change, and transition—the breakup, the move, the identity shift, the rupture in family or future. It’s the quiet ache after a diagnosis. The silence after a goodbye. The disorientation that comes when the life we knew suddenly disappears.
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Too many people are left to face the waves alone.
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At the California Grief Center, our mission is simple:
To offer meaningful, compassionate support—no matter where you are in the grief process. Whether it’s the rawness of fresh loss or the slow burn of long-term change, we meet you there.
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We serve individuals, families, and communities through:
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Therapy and coaching
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Workshops and retreats
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Public education and training
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Creative healing spaces like Catharsis Theater​
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Our approach is rooted in depth, not quick fixes.
In a world that rushes grief or avoids it altogether, we make room.
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Room to feel.
Room to speak.
Room to fall apart and come back together.
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Because when we tend to grief honestly, we’re not just surviving it—
We’re transforming through it.
About Brian, Founder & Clinical Director
Brian Stefan is a licensed clinical social worker, grief therapist, and former national security professional whose life and work center around one mission: helping people face what hurts and find a way through.
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He specializes in grief, traumatic loss, suicide, crisis response, and anxiety, with a focus on both individual healing and communal care.
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Before entering the world of therapy, Brian worked in intelligence and national security, responding to high-stakes crises and navigating the hidden grief woven through systems, missions, and lives. His transition to social work wasn’t a career change—it was a calling. Today, he brings that same steadiness, clarity, and presence to those navigating heartbreak, identity shifts, and life’s most difficult moments.
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Brian is the founder of the California Grief Center (www.caligrief.com), which offers individual therapy, group support, and large-scale healing experiences like Catharsis Theater, a transformative space for collective storytelling and emotional release.
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He is also a proud member of the clinical team at the Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center, where he provides therapy, crisis response, and community outreach in one of the nation's leading suicide prevention programs.
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In addition, Brian serves as Adjunct Faculty at California State University, Los Angeles, where he teaches trauma, grief, emotional healing, and therapeutic presence to graduate social work students—and mentors the next generation of grief counselors and mental health professionals. He also volunteers with the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office Crisis Response Team and Suicide Response Team, supporting individuals and families in the immediate aftermath of death, disaster, or loss.
