What does it mean to lose someone or something of significance? How can we even be prepared for such a fundamental event? Being in therapy to work through bereavement and loss is a personal journey and unique to each and every one of us.

Writing a generalised statement about therapy and bereavement is harder than at first I thought: let’s take a look at why.

Are we talking about someone who has passed away, now existing in the realm of the dead, or are we talking about someone who has left us and are living on whilst you feel left behind at the cross-road of their departure?

Either way, we will be looking into the emotional state of the bereaver.

The spell-checker tells me that ‘bereaver’ is not even a real word, yet the bereaver’s experience is real. In bereavement counselling we work with what is real, to acknowledge whatever has happened to you in order to strengthen the possibility of coming to terms with it.

By ‘coming to terms’ I mean to either expel the loss which you carry around or to assimilate your loss into your living body so that your life may carry the memory of the lost one(s) with greater ease and with honour.