Beyond Bereavement
Bereavement Counselling and Grief Support

What is bereavement counselling?

Bereavement is an experience that touches everyone, but it is an event that no two people will experience in exactly the same way.

Bereavement counselling is a form of 'talking therapy' which offers you a safe space to talk about your feelings around the loss that you have experienced or the loss that you anticipate. It can be an opportunity to address issues, whether emotional, spiritual, or practical, that perhaps are causing you distress, and helping you to find solutions to difficulties whilst facilitating a way for you to move forward and beyond bereavement when the time is right.

At a time of bereavement many of us feel the overwelming desire to talk about and explore our relationship with the deceased person, especially during the early stages, and often this is easier to do with someone who is impartial and uninvolved. Bereavement counselling can fulfil that need.

Many years after a bereavement we can realise that we still carry issues that have not been properly recognised, addressed and dealt with. It can sometimes actually take another bereavement for us to realise that there is unfinished business concerning a past loss. Bereavement counselling can help you accept and understand the dynamics of this and assist in helping you to reach closure on incomplete grieving and therefore move on and beyond bereavement, to a new, albeit different life.

Whilst many of us can readily identify with the devastating effect the passing of a loved one can bring, society sometimes fails to recognise the heartbreak caused where the death of a much loved pet is concerned, again this is where bereavement counselling can provide a service based on equality of feeling and your right to mourn a pet.

Talking about our bereavements, whether human or animal, allows us to express our grief, which can help start the healing journey through grief. No one can bypass the grieving process, and for many people coming to terms with the death or anticipated loss of a loved one can be a very confusing time when they wonder if what they feel is 'normal'. Grief can be a lonely journey, even with the support of close family and dear friends, and this is where bereavement counselling can offer something extra - a commitment to walk beside you while you complete the journey, a supporting presence should you falter, and clear signposting to ensure you get all you need to make it through.

I am experienced in helping clients who have experienced difficulties with :

Accepting a loss

Family issues following bereavement

Isolation enhanced grief

Moving on after a bereavement

Disenfranchised grief

Spiritual issues

.....and many other issues.

Perhaps you have very specific needs. It could be that you have issues with the care or treatment a loved received prior to death, the reporting of a death/inquest by the press, or inner conflict concerning organ donation, or the post-mortem procedure. Whatever the problem I will endeavour to help you resolve it.

Perhaps you are grieving the anticipatory loss of a person who is terminally ill and are trying to deal with feelings related to the expected loss. Again grief counselling can be of help to you, especially if you feel that others do not understand or appreciate the powerful emotions evoked by the prospect of losing a loved one.

It could be that you feel that your grief is not acknowledged and recognised, perhaps because you are the surviving partner of a same sex relationship, or were in an extra marital affair - this grief is termed 'disenfranchised' grief and can often be a barrier to satisfactorily completing the grieving process. It is very important that such grief is recognised and that it is understood that your grief is valid and you have a right to be sad. Talking therapy in the form of bereavement counselling can help you deal with your feelings in this context.