This paper explores the in-between state of grief, when a mourner is suspended between the crushing reality of loss, the disbelief of that very same loss, and the unthinkable demand to carry on with living. Using George Saunders’s depiction of the bardo – the intermediate dimension between this life and the next – I propose the bardo as a metaphor both for the liminal space of treatment and for the mind of the grieving patient. I describe meeting my patient in the in-between spaces of Zoom, as he enacted his unsettledness in mind and body several years after the death of his first-born child. Following him in his back-and-forth rhythm, I joined him in a suspended state, caught between facing the reality of death and engaging in the vitality of life. I suggest that joining him in this way was a kind of witnessing, which allowed his tragedy to enter and ultimately transform the field of treatment. Countertransference images of peaceful death and contagious trauma are explored, highlighting the need for the analyst to tolerate vulnerability in the face of tragedy.