Bereavement and loss - making all feelings right
With more than 30 years of combined experience as a nurse, working in the patient safety field and as a practising therapist, as I have evolved personally and professionally, so has my approach to supporting people who have experienced major life changes. This has included terminal illness and bereavement. Whilst practising as nurse for 10 years, I was privileged to care for many patients at the end of their lives and as they transitioned, as well as supporting their loved ones. Whilst working for a patient safety charity for 17 years, I managed a service which supported people who had been bereaved or injured as a result of a medical accident. After my own experience of breast cancer 11 years ago, I also practised hypnotherapy for two years at a cancer support centre.
It is since becoming a therapist over the last eight years where I have been able to most effectively support people who had been through significant life-changing experiences. It has given me the opportunity to work with clients in a way that has facilitated their experience of bereavement and loss as a catalyst for positively transforming their lives.
The death of a loved one or someone close can be profoundly heart-opening, giving rise to a whole spectrum of emotions, some of which may also relate to past experiences that may have been too painful or difficult to fully feel through at that time. There can sometimes be a self-expectation that we should behave or feel in a stereotypical way. There is no one way - it will be a unique for each one of us.
When a loved one passes, it can be a time of incredible peace or a time of intense grief, shock, numbness or a mixture of many emotions, including fears about our own mortality. There are no emotions that are off limits or wrong. Whatever you are feeling, you are meant to be feeling, but we are human and may sometimes suppress or resist painful or uncomfortable emotions in order to try and protect ourselves.
All feelings are meant to move, and when held back, our bodies will try and grab our attention by sending us messages, sometimes in the form of physical disease or seemingly out of the blue panic attacks. Specialising in anxiety and stress management, I have helped many clients who have presented with a sudden onset of anxiety symptoms or panic attacks, months or even years after a bereavement.
My approach is to support people in making it right, whatever it is that they are feeling, using a combination of counselling skills, breathing and relaxation techniques and hypnosis to help them to be more present within themselves, then co-creating a narrative that enables them to feel more at peace and self-supported.
If you would like to find out more, please don’t hesitate in contacting me through my website www.mygrowingspace.co.uk, email angllouise5@talktalk.net or call me on my mobile 07790 166 943.
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About Louise Price
Louise Price is an Integrative Hypnotherapist based in Monmouthshire, Wales. Using a combination of effective techniques and approaches, Louise specialises in Anxiety and Stress Management, including Post Traumatic Stress, Bereavement Support and Hypnobirthing. She can also help you with many other issues.
