Losing someone you love is always painful and we all need time to mourn at our own pace. For some people, the death of a loved one can be too much to bear and they find themselves overwhelmed by grief; unable to adjust to life without the person they’ve lost.
Life changing events such as divorce, moving to another city or redundancy can have a huge impact on us. Our normal lives can become fragmented as routines and habitual pastimes have to be radically altered to fit our new circumstances.
Mourning the passing of an old way of life is as important as mourning the death of someone close to us. You may find that you need a channel to explore feelings of anger or rejection, or you may feel isolated and alone in your new life.
If you are struggling after a bereavement it may be that you are feeling depressed, or you may be surprised by your response. It’s not uncommon to feel angry or relieved when someone close to us dies but these feelings can be confusing, and difficult to live with.
Counselling after a bereavement can provide you with a safe and non-judgemental space for you to explore how you have responded to your loss or your own feelings towards death and could help you to move on with your life.
Counselling could help you to adjust to your changed circumstances by giving you the space you need to cherish your past while looking forward to the future.
Bereavement counselling helps those who have lost someone they love, usually through death. Bereavement and loss can also be experienced when you are made redundant, move house or lose a friendship.
You may feel some of the following emotions –
During bereavement counselling, we will begin the process of coming to terms with your loss, what it means for you and how you may experience your life after the loss. This work is done completely at your own pace.
If you have experienced the death of someone who was very important to you, you might be finding it very difficult to adjust to the immense changes happening in your life right now. Grief can shake everything up – your beliefs, your personality, and even your sense of reality.
Bereavement is the time we spend adjusting to loss. There is no standard time limit and there is no right or wrong way to feel during the bereavement period – everyone must learn to cope in their own way.
Grief, although normal, can manifest in a huge range of unexpected ways. Some people get angry, some people withdraw further into themselves and some people become completely numb. Sometimes, grief can turn into something more serious – like depression.
Bereavement counselling may be able to provide support during these very difficult times. Talking about the loss often allows a person to adjust to their new life with all its changes – good and bad. Keeping things bottled up or denying the sadness could prolong the pain. Any loss has to be acknowledged for us to move forward. Bereavement counselling tries to help clients find a place for their loss so they can carry on with life and eventually find acceptance.