Chelsea · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Bereavement and grief counselling for Chelsea
When someone you love has died, even a walk down the King's Road or past Sloane Square can feel changed, and grief counselling sets aside a weekly hour for them and for you. Because my room is in Hove, a 90-minute drive away, sessions from Chelsea normally take place by video, at home, with an occasional longer meeting in person if you want it.
If you are thinking about ending your life, call 999 or the Samaritans free on 116 123, day or night. More urgent help is on this page.
The practical facts for Chelsea
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Chelsea by car
- About 90 minutes with clear roads (52.4 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free bereavement helpline
- Cruse Bereavement Support helpline, 0808 808 1677
- Fees
- £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90, £120 for 120. The first 15-minute call is free.
- Registration
- BACP registered member, no. 109340 (check the register); UKCP student member in advanced psychotherapy training.
When the Fulham Road visits stop
In Chelsea, a death often comes at the end of time spent on the Fulham Road.
The Royal Marsden, the Royal Brompton and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital sit close together, so the final months may have been a routine of wards, parking and waiting rooms. When that routine ends, it can leave a strange emptiness: no more visits, yet the buildings are still there, on the way to the shops or the bus. Other losses happen at a distance, a parent dying in another part of the country while you try to keep a London job going. An older resident may lose a partner after decades in the same flat, and the walk you used to take together along Cheyne Walk or the Embankment becomes hard to face. Grief can also turn very private in a district that prizes composure, which makes it easier to hide and harder to carry alone.
Grief counselling without stages or deadlines
Grief keeps no schedule, and I will not ask you to move through stages. We start wherever you are: perhaps with the person, the life you shared and the details nobody asks about now, or with the last weeks, if those are what keep replaying. You can bring anger at them, at the hospital or at yourself; guilt about what was said or left unsaid; and relief, which can arrive after a long illness and then bring guilt of its own. If the relationship was difficult, the grief can be tangled, and that belongs here too. After a death by suicide the questions can feel endless, and we can hold them without forcing answers. If you were their carer, your days may have lost their shape along with the person. Sometimes a glass of wine becomes the way through the evenings. Given my own recovery, we can talk about that openly, and specialist help with drink or drugs is available free from Turning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea. Bit by bit, and only as fast as you choose, we find a way to hold the loss while the rest of your Chelsea life carries on around it.
Losses that shape grief in Chelsea
After months at The Royal Marsden
When someone dies after specialist cancer care, grief can start long before the death, and the end of the hospital routine brings a loss of its own.
Losing a partner of many years
Beyond our sessions, the New Horizons Centre on Cadogan Street, run by Open Age, holds group activities where older residents living alone can find company again.
When you were the carer
Carers Network supports people while they look after someone; when caring ends with a death, the empty hours and mixed feelings have a place in our sessions.
Children grieving too
West London Action for Children on Gertrude Street offers free counselling to children, parents and grandparents, and bereavement is among the issues it helps with.
Free bereavement support for Chelsea
Cruse Bereavement Support has a Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham branch for local grief support. For grieving children, parents and grandparents, West London Action for Children on Gertrude Street is a free local option, while Central London Samaritans answer day and night when the loss feels too much. Our sessions can run alongside any of these, or follow on from them.
- Free bereavement helplineCruse Bereavement Support helpline0808 808 1677Free, from trained volunteers. Open Monday and Wednesday to Friday 9.30am to 5pm, Tuesday 1pm to 8pm.
- Free NHS talking therapyKensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies020 3317 4200Free NHS talking therapy for low mood or anxiety that has settled in after a loss. You can refer yourself, with no GP referral needed.
- If drinking or drug use is part of itTurning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea (Drug and Alcohol Wellbeing Service)0330 303 8080Free and confidential.
- Local organisationWest London Mind: Mind Within counselling (low-cost)Mental health charity.
- Local organisationCarers Network
- Local organisationChelsea Theatre community programme and Community Champions (World's End)
- Local organisationOpen Age, New Horizons Centre (Cadogan Street)
If someone at home is hurting, threatening or controlling you, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 2000 247.
If you need urgent help now
If you need help right now, please don't wait for a session.
Locally, the CNWL Mental Health Single Point of Access crisis line, London boroughs) is on 0800 0234 650.
What people in Chelsea ask before starting
Is there a Cruse bereavement service for Chelsea?
Yes. Cruse Bereavement Support runs a branch covering Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham, and its national helpline is listed on this page. Alongside the Cruse branch, or in its place, weekly one-to-one video sessions with me begin after a free 15-minute call, at an hour fitted around your week.
Is it too early, or too late, to start grief counselling in Chelsea?
There is no right time. You can start in the first weeks, while the funeral is still being arranged, or years later when grief returns unexpectedly. After the free call, we agree a first video session at a time that fits around work, family, paperwork or visits to the grave, and you set the pace from there.
Can I have bereavement counselling at home in Chelsea rather than travelling?
Yes, and from Chelsea that is usually the sensible choice. Over a secure link you can talk from your own sitting room, with their photographs or belongings close by if that helps, and no ride home from Hove to face once the hour ends. Meeting face to face means a 90-minute drive or a Southern train from Victoria to Hove, so it suits an occasional longer session rather than every week.
After months of visits to The Royal Marsden, I feel relief as well as grief. Is that wrong?
No. When someone has been seriously ill for a long time, relief often arrives alongside sadness: relief that their suffering has ended, and that the waiting is over. Guilt can follow close behind. All of these feelings belong in grief counselling, and saying them aloud to someone who will not judge you is part of the work.
How much do sessions cost, and is the first call free?
Sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for 120 minutes, the same in person in Hove or by video. The first 15-minute call is free, with no obligation to book. There is no NHS referral needed to see me privately.
Talk about them, from your own home in Chelsea
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.