I write this Opinion to give the reader an idea of how a child of varying age groups may be expected to deal with the death of a close family member, I am a qualified Counsellor who specialises in counselling children who have been bereaved and also children who have been abused or display behavioural difficulties. This opinion is not supposed to be a definitive account or guide, but this may help you recognise the behaviour that children may possibly display who are going through such trauma. When a death in the family has occurred, I suppose most of us will wonder if their young child has even noticed or bothered about it, it wasn?t that long ago a fairly ...  Read the complete review

Having spent time working with the elderly in a nursing home and on care of the elderly wards in hospitals I have become very aware of the lack of counselling provision for the elderly, in particular bereavement counselling. As we become older we expect that people we are close to are going to die, but that does not mean that it is any easier to cope with. For many elderly people the death of a spouse is devastating, they may have been married for over fifty years and been very dependent on each other. Most of us know how distressing it is to have a relationship end after a few years, it is hard to imagine the pain of losing someone after a lifetime together. "The ..  Read the complete review

This is a brief very brief version of events and how counselling helped me cope. I haven't rated it star wise as it doesn't really apply. It swings from one star to five stars depending on your mood. How to start? As many of you will know my daughter Charlotte died suddenly last year aged eight. At first when she died I went onto a sort of autopilot, here but not really here. Then life improved indeed life has to go on or it would just be an endless downward spiral. Not me I was strong and kept my feelings under a tight control. However all was not well and I began at first found myself waking up in the small hours and being unable to ...  Read the complete review

This opinion, really is on general bereavement services and what should or shouldn't, is and isn't available. I am coming from this (unsurprisingly) from a personal viewpoint, so forgive any tendencies to melancholy! I thought of this as a friend of mine was writing a dissertation for her MA (Social Work) about the different services which exist for children who lost a parent or sibling. She asked me for my opinion, because I was eight when my mother died, and was good 'first hand' research material! She explained to me in some detail about the services which were available, for example the Child Bereavement Trust which provides ...  Read the complete review