"Stairway to heaven drawn by bereaved student"

Coping with life after a loss can be incredibly difficult. Grief affects people in many different ways and taking time to talk about your feelings and understanding the grief process can help to adjust to a number of changes that will have an impact on your daily life.

Sometimes it helps to talk to someone who is not in your immediate family and has training in dealing with the bereavement process. My time spent at Myton Hospice as a volunteer counsellor enabled me to gain invaluable experience in helping families and individuals with the loss of a loved one.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross pioneered the five stages of grief as part of a framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. I work with this framework to acknowledge some of these stages of grief's terrain making us better equipped to cope with life and loss. However, grief is as unique as you are, so honouring your journey and healing process is paramount in my counselling practise.