Bereavement and Loss

We all know that we are born, that we live - and then we die.  Mostly, we manage to deal with the fact that we are mortal and get on with...

At various times in our lives we will be faced with deciding how best to support family, friends, colleagues - and sometimes strangers - who are in distress.

How we deal with loss is fundamental to our mental and emotional well-being.

Most families have secrets of some sort. Unwelcome truths are withheld, lies might be told and the burden of information that must not be shared is carried around. The weight of keeping such secrets - or a sense that something within the family doesn't quite add up - can lead to distress leaking out into daily life causing anxiety and psychosomatic symptoms. How might therapy help? Common Family Secrets Common secrets within families include withholding information about: p

I frequently come across examples of how unprocessed feelings associated with a distressing event or circumstances are passed down...

Many of us are prompted to come to therapy for one of two reasons: when something in our lives goes seriously wrong; or feelings such as anxiety (fear), anger and sadness become overwhelming. The last thing we want is for therapy to make us feel even worse. Getting Over The Hump (So To Speak...!) At first, and also perhaps just before we embark on a major change, spending time in the therapeutic space can feel very uncomfortable. Finally, we find ourselves facing difficulti

When someone close to us dies, two things have to happen : we need to attend to the - often unfamiliar - feelings that we are faced with; and we need to get on with living our lives. Most of the time, we work through a period of mourning with the support of friends and family. Sometimes, however, grief becomes complicated and we can end up feeling both overwhelmed and stuck. Having somewhere safe to talk things through can help. When Grief Gets Stuck There are many reasons w

When we are going through a difficult time in our lives we often turn to those closest to us for comfort and advice. Talking to friends...

I'm a bit of a Grinch when it comes to positive thinking . When we are sad I don't think it is helpful to feel like we always have to...

Is there a right way to grieve? I think the simple answer to this question is ‘no’. People grieve for the loss of their loved ones in all sorts of different ways and usually find their own path through the untidy mess of feelings that often follows death. However, I do believe that some ways of grieving can prove to be better than others. In my experience of working with people who have been bereaved, the best outcome seems to come about when: we are able to accept our feeli

Pets can mean so much to us . They give us love, companionship, routine and, for example, in the case of dogs, exercise and all-weather fresh air. Often an integral part of the family, they can leave a very large hole when they die or we can no longer care for them and need to give them up. How might therapy help us process feelings of profound loss? When people come to therapy with problems associated with any form of bereavement or loss, a common theme is a belief that they