Services
Grief & Loss Counselling in Narre Warren
There's no single way to grieve, and no wrong way either.
I'm happy to talk through your situation and how I work, to see if it feels right for you. Call me on 0479 171 121.
A Space to Grieve in Your Own Way
Losing someone can touch every part of your life: your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, physical health, and relationships with others.
I offer a non-judgemental space to talk through your relationship, what that person meant to you, what life looks like now that they're gone, and how you find your way forward without them.
More Than One Kind of Loss
Grief is a natural response to loss, most often the death of someone close to us, but also the loss of a relationship, health, identity, a pet, a pregnancy, or a future that was expected but didn't happen. Sometimes grief builds up over time too, especially when several losses happen close together or you haven't had the chance to fully process one before the next arrives, and that cumulative weight can feel harder to place than grief from a single loss.
I can support you through all forms of grief and loss, in a way that fits you and how you experience it.
There is no single right way to grieve, and no fixed timeline. Grief can show up as sadness, anger, guilt, relief, numbness, or a mix of all of these, sometimes all in the same day. My role is to walk alongside you as you find your own way through it.
Signs Grief Counselling Could Help
- Grief that feels stuck, or as intense today as it was months or years ago
- Avoiding reminders of the loss, or being unable to think about anything else
- Difficulty accepting the reality of the loss
- Intense guilt, anger, or yearning that isn't easing
- Withdrawing from relationships, work, or activities you used to enjoy
- A loss that isn't being acknowledged or supported by the people around you
- Wanting a safe, unhurried space to process a loss, even a long time after it happened
Grief Therapy and Counselling
Grief work doesn't follow a script, but sessions tend to move through a few natural stages as we get to know your loss, whatever form it's taken, and find what actually helps you carry it.
Getting to Know You and Your Grief
In our first sessions, I want to understand your loss, whether that's a person, a relationship, your health, or something else entirely, and how grief has been showing up for you since.
Read more ↓Making Sense of It
Together we look at the different sides of your grief, sadness, anger, guilt, relief, or numbness, and find language for what's often hard to put into words.
Read more ↓Finding Your Way Forward
We work toward a way of carrying your loss that lets you live fully again, remembering your loved one without being consumed by the loss.
Read more ↓Early in Grief
Over Time
The grief circle never gets smaller. What you lost stays just as significant. But over time your life grows around it, new experiences, new people, moments of joy again.
Because your life is bigger, grief takes up less of your day to day, even though it's still entirely there.
Forms of Grief and Loss I Support
Grief takes many forms, not all of them following a death. Here's how they tend to group.
Loss Through Death
Bereavement
The death of a parent, partner, child, sibling, friend, or other loved one.
Sudden or Traumatic Loss
Sudden, traumatic, or violent loss, including suicide bereavement.
Anticipatory Grief
Grieving in advance of an expected death or decline.
Complicated Grief
Complicated or prolonged grief that hasn't eased with time.
Loss Beyond Death
Disenfranchised Grief
Losses not widely recognised or socially supported, such as miscarriage, pet loss, or estrangement.
Ambiguous Loss
Loss without closure, such as estrangement, dementia, or a missing person.
Non-Death Loss
Divorce, infertility, chronic illness, job loss, or loss of identity and independence.
Cumulative Grief
Compounded grief from multiple losses.
When Grief Becomes Complicated
For most people, grief eases gradually over time, even though it never fully disappears. For some, grief stays just as intense for much longer than expected, and starts to get in the way of daily life. This isn't a sign of doing grief wrong. It's something the right support can make a real difference with.
Sometimes a loss carries its own trauma: a sudden or violent death, or last images that sit closer to trauma memories than to the person you knew. When that happens, grief can get interrupted every time you think of them, pulled back into the moment of loss instead of being able to sit with who they were to you. This is often part of what makes grief complicated or prolonged. I'm trained in EMDR Therapy, and where trauma is tangled up with a loss like this, I use it to help process those traumatic memories, so grief can move again and you can remember your loved one fondly rather than being pulled back to how they died.
Grief is not something to get over. It is something you learn to carry differently, until it becomes part of how you move forward rather than what holds you back.
Counselling Sessions
I offer 60 minute sessions, in person in Narre Warren or via telehealth Australia-wide.
Wondering about cost? Session fees and private health insurance rebate details are on the Fees page.
Whatever form your loss has taken, you don't have to carry it alone. Call on 0479 171 121 or Contact Me.
Common Questions
Grief & Loss Counselling FAQs
Grief counselling is professional support for people processing the death of a loved one or another significant loss. It helps you understand your grief, work through difficult emotions, and find your way toward a life that has room for both the loss and what comes next.
There is no fixed timeline for grief. For most people, the intensity gradually eases over the first one to two years, though grief can resurface around anniversaries, holidays, and other reminders indefinitely. If it stays just as intense for much longer than that and starts to affect your day to day life, it's worth reaching out. That's more common than people think, and it responds well to support.
Grief is a natural response to loss that usually comes in waves and is focused on the person or thing lost. Depression tends to be more persistent, low mood affecting most areas of life, and can occur alongside grief or independently of it. A counsellor can help clarify which you may be experiencing and the right support for it.
For a small number of people, grief doesn't ease the way it usually does. It stays intense and starts to get in the way of everyday life well beyond what feels expected. This is a real experience, not a sign you're grieving wrong, and it responds well to the right support.
Yes. When a loss involves trauma, such as a sudden or violent death, grief can get interrupted by trauma memories every time you think of the person. I'm trained in EMDR Therapy and use it to help process those memories, so grief can move again and you can remember your loved one without being pulled back to how they died.
Disenfranchised grief refers to loss that isn't openly acknowledged or socially supported, for example miscarriage, pet loss, the death of an ex-partner, or estrangement. Because these losses often go unrecognised by others, grief counselling can provide a space to process them fully.
Yes. Grief and loss counselling also supports non-death losses such as divorce, infertility, job loss, chronic illness, and loss of identity or independence, which can trigger a genuine grief response even without a death.
Yes. Thoughtful Strides Counselling and Psychotherapy offers grief and loss counselling via telehealth Australia-wide, as well as in person in Narre Warren, Victoria.
It helps to have support while you grieve.
You don't have to do this alone.