About Bereavement Counselling and Support

Bereavement is something that we all experience at some time in our lives and each and every loss is a unique experience. When someone important or close to us dies we may experience a wide range of feelings:

  • Initial shock or disbelief – “this can’t be real.”
  • Sensing, hearing or seeing the person who has died
  • Sadness, despair, distress
  • Yearning and searching for the person who has died
  • Loneliness, isolation
  • Depression
  • Anger
  • Relief
  • Guilt – “if only …”
  • Physical symptoms
  • Confusion
  • A wish to escape from the pain of loss

All or some of these feelings may seem to engulf us and can be experienced in any order and re-occur as we try to adjust to our new situation without the person who has died. There is no right or wrong way to grieve just as there is no time limit to the grief process.

We don’t “get over” our loss, we hopefully learn to adjust to life without that person in it anymore, taking one hour, one day or one week at a time, grieving at our own pace and in our own way.

Even after a long time, maybe years later, our lives may still be affected by our bereavements.

Though family and friends can be supportive, it may sometimes be difficult to share the deep feelings of grief with them. We may try to protect those we care about from the impact of our grief, perhaps what we need to talk about seems too heavy to burden our friends and family with.

This is when it can be helpful to talk to a counsellor, someone who is experienced and trained to hear you without judging or giving advice, someone who can listen to your pain and grief without trying to “make things better”.

Several years’ experience working as a bereavement counsellor and regular specialist training in this type of counselling enables me to walk confidently and compassionately beside you on your unique grief journey.

If you aren’t sure whether counselling can help you with your bereavement, please call me for an informal chat, with no obligation to take things any further if you decide that counselling isn’t for you at this time.

Bereavement Groups

Maybe you would prefer to attend a local bereavement group, meeting for an hour and a half each week, for a set number of weeks, to share your experience with others in a similar situation. These groups can be very helpful and supportive, offering the participants the opportunity to empathise with other group members and share different perspectives of the grieving process. Please call me if you might be interested in this alternative support and I can give you more information.

Please visit my resources and links page for websites and literature that you might find helpful and informative.