Ealing · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Bereavement and grief counselling for Ealing
Grief can arrive all at once or creep up months later, and in Ealing it often has to fit around trains, work and everyone else's routines. Bereavement counselling with me gives it a steady weekly place, at your own pace and with no stages to get through. My room is 93 minutes' drive away in Hove, so from W5 we would mostly talk over a secure video link, with Hove visits whenever you want one.
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 Ealing
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Ealing by car
- About 93 minutes with clear roads (76.1 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.
Walpole Park benches and the road to Southall
In Ealing, grief tends to ambush you in familiar places.
A bench in Walpole Park where you used to sit with your dad, the path across Ealing Common you always walked together, the Broadway Centre in December with one fewer present to buy. If the person you love spent their last weeks at Ealing Hospital, which stands on Uxbridge Road in Southall rather than in Ealing itself, the bus along that road can bring it all back. Life in a major metropolitan centre also rarely pauses for long. Elizabeth line trains still pull out of Ealing Broadway, work wants you back once the funeral is done, and at the University of West London on St Mary's Road the coursework deadlines stay exactly where they were. For some, grief comes loudly and at once. For others it stays muffled for months, then breaks through on an ordinary afternoon in Pitshanger or Northfields, long after friends have stopped asking how you are.
Room for guilt, anger and relief, not only sadness
Grief counselling with me starts with the person who died and what they meant to you, then follows wherever you need to go. There is no sequence to work through and no point by which you should feel better. Sadness has its place, and so do the feelings that often stay unspoken: anger at being left, guilt over a missed visit or a last argument, or relief when a long illness or a hard relationship has ended. If you cared for a parent or partner for years, you may be grieving a role and a routine as well as a person. After a sudden death, or a death by suicide, the decision about what we discuss and at what point stays entirely with you. Grief and drinking can get tangled too, with the glass at night that began as a way to sleep. We can look at that openly and without judgement; I am in recovery myself, so it is familiar ground. If grief ever leaves you thinking you would rather not be here, say so to me, and reach for the crisis numbers on this page whatever the hour.
Where an Ealing loss can leave you
Those final hospital visits
Last visits to Ealing Hospital on Uxbridge Road can replay for months: the car park, the corridors, the phone call you dreaded. Counselling gives you space to go over them slowly.
Hospice care through Meadow House
If the person who died was cared for by Meadow House Hospice, ask its bereavement service what it can offer you; weekly grief counselling with me fits around whatever they provide.
When years of caring end
After the caring stops, the quiet days can feel strange and purposeless. Ealing Carers Hub may still be a useful contact while you adjust, and counselling gives that emptiness somewhere to go.
Grieving through a university course
A death during your studies at the University of West London does not pause essays or exams. A weekly hour by video gives the loss its own protected time.
Free bereavement support for Ealing
Bereft Bereavement Support, an Ealing charity with offices on The Broadway, has offered bereavement counselling to adults in the borough since 1999 on a donation basis. There is also the bereavement service at Meadow House Hospice, the free national helpline from Cruse Bereavement Support, and Ealing Talking Therapies, which welcomes self-referrals when low mood or anxiety follows a death. Whichever of these you contact, our sessions can carry on beside it.
- 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 therapyEaling Talking Therapies020 3830 5640Free 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 itRISE (Recovery Intervention Services Ealing)0800 195 8100Run by Change Grow Live (lead provider). Free and confidential.
- Local organisationWest London MindMental health charity.
- Local organisationEaling Bereft Bereavement Support
- Local organisationMeadow House Hospice bereavement service
- Local organisationEaling Carers Hub
Private counselling with me can run alongside any of these; you do not have to choose one or the other.
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 West London NHS Trust 24-hour mental health helpline (Single Point of Access) is on 0800 328 4444. Local drop-in crisis support: Circle (West London Mind children's crisis café) (check opening times before you go).
What people in Ealing ask before starting
Is it too soon, or too late, to start grief counselling in Ealing?
There is no right moment. You might get in touch within a fortnight of the funeral, or years later when an anniversary or another loss brings an old grief back. After a short free call, I offer whatever weekly times are open, and there is no waiting list. If now feels too early, you are welcome to come back when it feels right.
Is there a bereavement charity in Ealing I could contact as well as you?
Yes. Bereft Bereavement Support has counselled bereaved Ealing residents since 1999 and asks for a donation at each session according to what you can afford. Meadow House Hospice has its own bereavement service, and Cruse Bereavement Support runs a free national helpline on 0808 808 1677. Private sessions with me can fill a gap while you wait, or run alongside.
Can grief counselling work over video from my home in Ealing?
Usually, yes. Talking about someone who has died can feel easier in your own room in Ealing, with their photo or a cup of tea beside you and no 93-minute drive home afterwards. Use headphones if others are in the house. If you would rather sit face to face, we can arrange an occasional longer session in the Hove room.
My mum died at Ealing Hospital and I keep going over her last days. Is that normal?
Going back over the final days, especially in a hospital, is very common after a death, and it can feel relentless. In counselling we can look at those memories at a pace you choose, including any guilt about a conversation you wish had gone differently. Should those hospital memories start to flood you, or you begin to feel unable to carry on, turn to the urgent help box on this page as well.
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 the person you have lost, from W5
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.