Grief, Loss & Change
As a specialist in grief, loss and change, I bring with me extensive personal and clinical experience, alongside a wealth of training and knowledge, to support people in their journey to heal and thrive after loss.
While grief is most commonly associated with death, there are over 40 life events that can cause feelings of grief. Some examples include; divorce or separation, estrangement, moving home or away, changing job/career, natural life transitions, pregnancy, infertility, and changes to identity – to name just a small few!
Grief is a natural response to change & loss but navigating grief alone can feel overwhelming, messy & confusing. We often hear “time is a healer” but unless we are intentional with our healing during that time, we can get stuck in our grief process and life can start to feel like “Groundhog Day”, as we stay stuck in survival mode.
Working with a therapist to support you in your grief, can provide you with the knowledge to understand what is happening for you, both in body and mind. This allows us to develop more awareness of what is happening for us, enabling us to make more intentional choices that support our healing process.
In the same way I believe in Post-Traumatic Stress, I also believe in Post-Traumatic Growth because I’ve lived it too. I understand on a deeper level, the overwhelm, disconnect, anger, confusion and deep sadness that comes with grief, loss and trauma. You can read more about My Story and how therapy helped me to thrive. It is this, that makes me deeply passionate about supporting other people to navigate the depths of grief, loss and change. I will never underestimate the privilege, of watching the people I support, learn to compassionately sit with their feelings, step out of the shadows of their experiences, and begin the journey of rebuilding their lives. Being trusted with their story and walking alongside them, as they begin to live a more connected, meaningful and purposeful life, will forever be one of my favourite things about being a therapist.
For grief insights, please visit my blog.
Young Adult (18-30) Bereavement
If you have been bereaved as a young adult or you are grieving a past loss while navigating through this stage of life, you might be facing some extra struggles on top of the usual challenges faced in your twenties and thirties.
Young adulthood is similar to school, in that we often compare ourselves to friends and peers as a way to check we are where we think we should be – whether that’s jobs, careers, relationships, children, etc.
If we are bereaved and/or grieving, we are less likely to feel we “belong” in our existing peer groups and this can feel threatening to our nervous system.
We might also have some extra challenges to face, it can feel as if our sense of freedom has been taken away during this time and we may now be grieving a lost future as well as what was.
If you’re grieving during young adulthood, I bring with me personal experience, extensive research and clinical experience, which means I can provide you with a space to safely lean into your grief, make sense of what you’re experiencing (both in body and mind) and learn how to intentionally heal the pain of grief & loss.