Trauma, grief and bereavement counselling in Canterbury
A safe, unhurried space for loss and for difficult experience, at the pace you choose, and no faster.
If you are having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, please see urgent help or call 999. Grief and trauma can bring these thoughts, and that does not mean anything has gone wrong with you.
What you might be carrying
People arrive here after very different things. What they tend to have in common is the sense that it has not been possible to put it down.
- A bereavement, recent or long ago, that has not settled
- Something that happened to you that you have never fully said out loud
- Childhood experiences you are only now recognising as harm
- The end of a relationship, or of the life you thought you were having
- Reactions that seem out of proportion to what is happening now
- Numbness, or the feeling of watching your life from outside it
You do not need to recognise all of these, or be able to explain why. Get in touch and we will work it out together.
How this work is done
You will not be asked to tell the whole story, and certainly not at the first session.
Trauma work goes wrong when it moves faster than the person can hold. So the pacing is yours. You decide what to bring and when, you can stop at any point, and "I do not want to talk about that today" is always a complete answer here.
- Nothing before you are ready: recounting an event is not the goal, and not always necessary
- Steadiness first: the work is only useful if you can leave the room able to function
- Grief has no timetable: there is no point at which you should be over it
- All of it is allowed: including anger, relief, and the feelings that seem wrong to have
- You set the pace: every session, not just at the start
What to expect
Knowing roughly how this goes makes the first session easier to walk into.
The first session
We talk about what has brought you, in whatever detail you want. There is no requirement to go into the difficult material at all, and many people do not.
How long it takes
That genuinely varies, and anyone who tells you a number in advance is guessing. Some people work over months; grief in particular tends not to be quick.
Where we meet
Our Canterbury room, securely online across Kent, or walking outdoors. Some people find the intensity of this work easier side by side.
Questions people ask
Practical answers about starting, what sessions are like, and what it costs.
How do you make sure trauma counselling does not become overwhelming?
How can bereavement counselling help with grief?
It happened a long time ago. Is it too late to talk about it?
Are your practitioners qualified to work with trauma and grief?
You can bring as little of it as you like
The first conversation is about whether this feels like the right place, not about what happened to you.