Our funeral division offers a free counselling service from our Danbury branch. The Danbury branch has held regular bereavement and aftercare support groups for over 15 years, and recognises that some clients have a need for more specific and in-depth counselling.
Award winning colleague Jill Rushbrook, Family Liaison Officer based at our Danbury branch, has a background in bereavement counselling and offers a personalised bereavement counselling service.
Funeral Operations Manager Craig Jackson commented: “The national bereavement service CRUSE doesn’t operate in Chelmsford and so, if people need more specialist support, their current option is to find and pay for services locally. Jill Rushbrook has an MBA in bereavement counselling and it was therefore only natural that we should look to utilise her skills in a more direct way.”
The loss of someone can be devastating and few are prepared for the impact of emotions afterwards. Bereavement affects people in different ways and there is no right or wrong way to experience it. However some people find the adjustment very difficult to cope with and when this feeling lasts a long time then bereavement counselling can help.
Jill explained: “Support is given in a one-to-one situation with a private therapist like me who is trained to help an individual explore their emotions over a number of sessions. This is quite an investment by the Society but we believe that it’s important for us to give our clients all the help they need to get them through a very difficult period.”
Sessions are 50 minutes each and are run in a private and comfortable room where everything that is discussed is kept in strict confidence.
Clients that used the service have found it has helped then immensely in the healing process. “I didn’t realise just how much grief I had inside. The sun has started to shine again for me,” said J D’Arcy from Chelmsford.
For further information, contact: 01245 221444 or email counselling@chelmsfordstar.coop