Hackney · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Bereavement and grief counselling for Hackney
When someone you love has died and the borough keeps up its usual noise around you, bereavement counselling offers one steady hour a week that belongs to the loss. Hove sits roughly 97 minutes' drive from Hackney, so the sessions would be on secure video, at whatever pace you need, with room for every feeling grief brings.
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 Hackney
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Hackney by car
- About 97 minutes with clear roads (72.3 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.
Grieving in a full flat, in a busy borough
Grief in Hackney often has to happen in small spaces.
If you rent a room in a shared flat in Dalston or Clapton, the only place to cry may be your bedroom, with housemates on the other side of the wall who never met the person you lost. Hackney is a young borough, so losing a parent in your twenties or thirties can make you the first among your friends to go through it, unsure who to tell or how. This is also a diverse borough, and a death may mean a funeral in another country you couldn't reach, or customs of mourning that people at work don't recognise. If someone spent their last weeks at Homerton University Hospital, a walk along Homerton Row can bring it all back. And when a death was by suicide, the questions it leaves can feel impossible to say aloud. Each of these is a real loss, and each deserves space to be spoken about without having to explain yourself.
What we do with grief in the sessions
There is no correct order to grief and no deadline for it, so each session starts from wherever you are that week. You might want to talk about the person: their laugh, the arguments, the last message still on your phone. You might need to talk about the practical things that fall on whoever is left, from registering the death to clearing a rented flat with a landlord waiting. Anger, guilt and relief belong here as much as sadness, particularly if you were their carer or the relationship was complicated. If the death came without warning, perhaps through a call from Homerton or a knock at the door, we move gently, and the details stay yours to share or keep. Grief can be tangled with faith, family expectations or a culture with its own ways of mourning, and we make room for those too. Sometimes a drink, or something stronger, becomes the way through the evenings. Having come through recovery myself, I can hear about that without any shame attached. Grief doesn't get fixed, but carrying it alongside someone can make it feel less crushing.
Losses that can weigh heavily in Hackney
After a death by suicide
Grief in Pieces, Mind CHWF's suicide bereavement support and part of Safe Connections, is there for those left behind, and weekly counselling with me can sit next to it.
Care from St Joseph's Hospice
If your person was looked after by St Joseph's Hospice in Hackney, its adult bereavement service may be open to you as well, beside counselling with me.
Caring, then suddenly not
When years of caring end with a death, you lose a role and a routine along with the person. Tiredness, relief and guilt can all arrive at once, and all of it can be said here.
Grief far from home
If the funeral took place abroad, or your family mourns in ways colleagues in Hackney don't recognise, counselling gives your own way of grieving room without needing to explain it.
Free bereavement support for Hackney
Alongside our sessions, St Joseph's Hospice in Hackney runs an adult bereavement service, and Grief in Pieces at Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest supports anyone bereaved by suicide. For a voice on the phone, the Cruse Bereavement Support helpline covers the whole country, and when low mood or anxiety lingers months after a loss, City and Hackney Talking Therapies, run by Homerton Healthcare, accepts self-referrals.
- 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 therapyCity & Hackney Talking TherapiesFree 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 itCity and Hackney Recovery Service0345 144 0050Free and confidential.
- Local organisationCity and Hackney Wellbeing NetworkMental health charity.
- Local organisationSt Joseph's Hospice, Hackney: adult bereavement service
- Local organisationCity & Hackney Carers Centre
- Local organisationCentral London Samaritans
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.
Local drop-in crisis support: City and Hackney Crisis Café (check opening times before you go).
What people in Hackney ask before starting
How soon can I start bereavement counselling from Hackney?
As soon as you'd like to, or months and years after the death; any point after a loss is a reasonable time to reach out. We'd begin with a short free call where you can tell me a little about who died, then agree a weekly video time. You won't need a referral, and I'll tell you plainly when a space is available.
Where can I get free bereavement support in Hackney?
St Joseph's Hospice offers an adult bereavement service in Hackney, and Grief in Pieces from Mind CHWF supports people bereaved by suicide. Cruse Bereavement Support also takes calls from anywhere in the country, Hackney included, at no cost. City and Hackney Talking Therapies takes self-referrals when low mood or anxiety settles in after a loss. Any of these can run beside private sessions.
Can I have grief counselling online from a shared flat in Hackney?
Yes. Since Hove is roughly 97 minutes from Hackney by car, video is how we'd normally meet. Pick a time when the flat is quiet, or use headphones and sit somewhere with a door that closes. Talking about a death from your own room, with their things around you, can feel easier than sitting in an unfamiliar office.
My brother died by suicide. Is there anywhere in Hackney that understands that kind of loss?
Grief in Pieces, run by Mind CHWF as part of Safe Connections, offers suicide bereavement support, and you can see me for counselling at the same time. Losing someone this way often brings questions, anger and guilt that are hard to voice elsewhere. If losing them has left you thinking about ending your own life, turn to the urgent help box on this page now, and the City and Hackney Crisis Cafe is another place you can go.
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.
When you want to talk about who you've lost
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.