Grief, Loss and Change Counselling in Albany

We tend to speak about grief as if it belongs only to bereavement. In truth it arrives with all kinds of loss and change: the end of a relationship, a diagnosis, leaving a place or a role that shaped you, becoming a parent, or watching life turn out differently from how you had imagined. Counselling holds space for whatever your loss is, and for the fact that it may not look the way others expect.

What grief and change can look like

Grief is rarely just sadness, and it rarely moves in a straight line. It can be tender one day and sharp the next, and it often carries feelings we do not expect. It might look like:

• Functioning perfectly well on the outside, getting through work and errands, while feeling hollow, flat or far away underneath.
• Waves that arrive without warning, a song, a smell, an anniversary or an ordinary Tuesday that suddenly brings everything to the surface.
• A tangle of feelings that sit oddly together, relief alongside sorrow, anger alongside love, guilt for the moments you feel okay.

There is no correct way to grieve, and no schedule you are failing to keep. Whatever you are feeling, or not feeling, makes sense.

How counselling with Rene approaches grief and loss

Rene does not see grief as a problem to be solved or a set of stages to get through. Her role is to walk alongside you, so you do not have to carry it in silence or perform being okay. Together you make room for the whole of it, the sorrow and also the memories, meaning and love wrapped up in what you have lost.

Some of the work is simply having your loss witnessed by someone who will not flinch or hurry you. Some of it is finding ways to keep living alongside grief rather than waiting for it to disappear, and gently exploring what a changed life might hold. There is no pressure to reach acceptance or to be grateful. You set the pace, and you decide what you want to look at and when.

What to expect

There is no pressure and no fixed number of sessions. The first appointment is a gentle conversation about who or what you are grieving and what you need right now, with no expectation to hold yourself together. From there, you and Rene find a pace that suits you, and you remain in control of it throughout. If counselling does not feel like the right support, that is entirely okay.

Appointments are available in person in Albany, Western Australia. When leaving the house feels like too much, which grief can often make it, the same support is available through secure online counselling across Australia.