Grief and loss counselling, Geelong
If you have experienced the death of someone who was important to you, or have separated from your partner, you might be finding it difficult to adjust to the enormous changes happening in your life. 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 has to learn their own way of coping.
Grief and loss counselling may be able to provide support during these extremely difficult times. Talking about the loss of a person or a relationship often allows a person to adjust to their new life with all its changes – good and bad. Any loss has to be acknowledged and dealt with for us to move forward with our lives and eventually find acceptance.
There are a number of well-understood stages of grief and bereavement, with most people going through all these stages. Not everyone moves between them easily or smoothly, and sometimes you can get stuck on one stage and find it difficult to move on. These are particularly important times to undertake grief counselling.
The stages of bereavement and loss are:
- Accepting that your loss really has happened
- Experiencing the pain that comes with grief
- Making adjustments to life
- Consciously directing your energy and thoughts towards engagement in life.
So how can grief and separation counselling help you? It is designed to help you cope more effectively with the loss. Specifically, it can:
- Offer an understanding of the mourning process
- Explore areas that could potentially prevent you from moving on
- Help resolve areas of conflict still remaining
- Help you to adjust to a new sense of self.
Helen Handsjuk is a qualified psychologist who is can help you find a place for your loss so you can carry on with life and eventually find acceptance. She also offers sexual counselling in Geelong. To make an appointment you can email Helen, or telephone her on 0414 681 023.