Wandsworth · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Bereavement and grief counselling for Wandsworth
When a person you love has died, and life in Wandsworth expects you back at your desk before you've taken it in, grief counselling offers an hour each week that belongs to the person you've lost and to you. We meet by secure video, at whatever pace you set, with no stages to pass through and no deadline for feeling better.
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 Wandsworth
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Wandsworth by car
- About 81 minutes with clear roads (58.7 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Wandsworth Town, change at Clapham Junction for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- 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.
The streets that still hold them
Grief has a way of attaching itself to ordinary places.
The path across Wandsworth Common you always walked together. The ward at St George's Hospital in Tooting, or at Queen Mary's in Roehampton, where you sat through the last days and learned the names of the nurses. The platform at Wandsworth Town, where you stood on your first morning back at work and wondered how everyone else could look so normal. Around you the borough keeps its pace: the High Street fills, the trains run to Waterloo, the Town Hall carries on with its business. Inside, you may be sorting a wardrobe, answering cards, or lying awake in a flat on East Hill rehearsing a conversation that can no longer happen. Some losses are shared openly. Others are harder to speak about, such as a death while someone you love is serving a sentence at HMP Wandsworth, or a parent you had a difficult relationship with. Each of them deserves room.
Grief on its own terms, week by week
Grief counselling with me follows what is actually happening in your grief. There's no checklist of stages, and nobody is waiting for you to reach acceptance by a certain date. One week you may want to tell me about the person: their voice, their habits, the last ordinary day. Another week it may be the probate forms, a row with a sibling over the funeral, or the silence at home after the visitors stop coming. Anger, guilt and relief all have a place here alongside the sadness. Relief can come after years of caring, and guilt often follows close behind it. If the death was sudden, or by suicide, we go slowly and you decide what is spoken about. Sometimes grief and drinking get tangled, with a bottle opened most evenings because it seems to quieten the house. When those evenings by the Common start to concern you, the grief and the glass can be talked through side by side, with someone whose own recovery means the subject is met without judgement. Counselling won't hurry the loss along. It gives you somewhere steady to carry it, with someone beside you who sits outside your family and friends and has time to listen.
Losses that can lead someone in Wandsworth here
After the last days at St George's
Weeks of visits to St George's Hospital in Tooting can tie Blackshaw Road to the person you lost, so that simply passing it brings those days back.
When caring suddenly stops
When caring for someone in Wandsworth ends with their death, the hospital runs, medicines and night checks stop all at once. Wandsworth Carers' Centre is the borough's centre for carers, and sessions make room for exhaustion, guilt and relief together.
Grieving with someone inside
A death in the family while a son, brother or partner is in HMP Wandsworth can split grief between a visiting hall and an empty house. Both sides of it can be spoken about here.
Mourning someone whose drinking hurt you
Losing someone whose drinking had already cost the family a great deal can leave love and anger knotted together. In sessions the anger gets as much room as the love, and neither has to be tidied away.
Free bereavement support for Wandsworth
Wandsworth Bereavement Service helps borough residents after someone dies, and when you need a voice on the line without waiting, you can ring Cruse Bereavement Support's national helpline with no wait for an appointment. If grief brings persistent low mood or anxiety, Wandsworth Talking Therapies accepts self-referrals. Our video hour each week can sit next to any of them, for however long it stays useful to you.
- 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 therapyWandsworth Talking Therapies0203 513 6264Free 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 itWandsworth Community Drug and Alcohol Service (WCDAS)020 3228 1777Free and confidential.
- Local organisationWandsworth Carers' Centre
- Local organisationAllkind
- Local organisationWandsworth Emotional Wellbeing Service (Together for Mental Wellbeing)Community emotional wellbeing support for adults.
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.
The South London NHS Mental Health Crisis Text Service is another option: text 80991 or WhatsApp 0303 330 1511. Local drop-in crisis support: Tooting Recovery Café (Hestia) (check opening times before you go).
What people in Wandsworth ask before starting
Where can I find free bereavement support in Wandsworth?
Locally, Wandsworth Bereavement Service is there for people after a death, and nationally Cruse Bereavement Support takes calls on 0808 808 1677. Where grief has brought a heaviness or worry that stays for weeks on end, Wandsworth Talking Therapies takes self-referrals on 0203 513 6264, with no GP letter needed. Our weekly sessions can carry on whichever of them you use.
Do I have to travel to Hove for grief counselling from Wandsworth?
No. Hove is 81 minutes away by car, or a train from Wandsworth Town with a change at Clapham Junction, so we meet by secure video in your own home or any private spot you choose. Talking about them with their things around you can feel easier than doing it among strangers. Meeting face to face at Intergen House now and then is possible too, as a longer session booked ahead.
My mum died at St George's after I'd cared for her for years. Is it wrong that part of me feels relieved?
Relief after a long illness and years of caring is common, and it sits alongside love without cancelling it. It often arrives with guilt attached, which can make it hard to admit to family. In counselling you can say it out loud and look at what the caring years asked of you. It's worth asking Wandsworth Carers' Centre, too, what help it can give as that role comes to an end.
How soon can I start grief counselling from Wandsworth, and what if it gets too much before then?
You can start weeks after a death or years later, without any referral. When we speak for the free 15-minute call, you'll get a plain answer about which weekly slots are open and how soon one could be yours. If grief turns into thoughts of ending your life, please reach out that same day instead of waiting for our next session: text 80991 to reach the South London NHS crisis text service, or ring one of the urgent help numbers this page lists.
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're ready to talk about them, I'm here
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.