Counselling & Psychotherapy

Counselling for Carers

Caring for someone can strain even the most resilient person and caregivers are often prone to intense stress. With the focus being on the people they care for, their own needs can often take a back seat. It is really important, however, to give yourself the time to nurture and take care of yourself.

A counsellor is a qualified listener who can help you to acknowledge and talk through your thoughts and feelings, to regain a sense of perspective and to find ways to cope. It can give you the time and space to explore your own needs, increase self-awareness and the return of some measure of agency and control.

Bereavement Counselling & Psychotherapy

A bereavement is devastating and having the support of others is really important. Some people will have the help of family and friends, while others may need the support of a professional counsellor. Counselling provides a safe space where painful feelings can be explored and expressed. The intense feelings of sadness can be over-whelming and often the first task of bereavement counselling is to help to normalise what people are feeling. Counselling involves talking to a trained therapist, either one-to-one, in a group, or you may like your partner, a friend or family to come along.

Psychotherapy also usually involves talking to a therapist, although other methods may be used as well. There are a wide range of therapies including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Traumatic Grief Therapy, Complicated Grief Therapy (CGT), Group Therapy, and Art, Music and Play Therapy.  These therapies can help you to explore your feelings, including towards family and those close to you.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that helps people to learn more helpful ways of thinking and reacting. It focuses on the link between your thoughts, actions and feelings and how changing what you think, and what you do, can help you to feel better.

If you are grieving, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can help you to become more aware of any negative thought patterns that may be contributing to behaviours that make it difficult to process grief.

A CBT therapist will give you the space to explore what you are thinking about or feeling, and they will also give you tools to promote self-healing. These will include cognitive reframing (identifying negative thought patterns so you can take positive steps to change them), targeting behaviours (addressing unhelpful behaviours or habits and replacing them with helpful ones) and developing a new narrative (coming up with a new narrative and easing negative thoughts and feelings rather than dwelling on them).