Counselling and Therapy
ACT teaches a beautiful truth about grief. The intensity of your grief reflects the depth of your loss.
For this reason, the goal of therapy is to keep and honour the memory of what you have lost, allowing you to build lasting bonds, whilst beginning to regroup, rebuild and revitalise your future.
When we experience a devastating loss, our first instinct is to fight the pain. We might try to stay endlessly busy, or isolate ourselves to avoid feeling the weight of the void.
In ACT, the first step is recognising that fighting the pain isn’t helpful. It is the gentle realisation that strategies such as suppressing emotions are exhausting.
ACT invites you to drop the struggle, so that you can redirect that energy toward healing.
After a significant loss, your mind can become an echo chamber of painful, looping thoughts.
ACT teaches a skill called cognitive defusion to help you to step back from these thoughts.
Instead of becoming hooked and consumed, you can engage your mind in more helpful ways when feeling overwhelmed by such thoughts and emotions.
A major loss often shatters our identity and makes us question the point of everything. ACT can help you find your compass again by encouraging you to reconnect with your values.
While the person or situation you have lost cannot be replaced, the values you connect with can still be lived.
Acceptance and making room for grief, does not mean liking your new reality, approving of the loss, or giving up.
In ACT, acceptance means making room for your thoughts and feelings, allowing the sadness, anger, or longing to exist without judgement. You can feel profound emotions, but still take a deep breath, step outside, and engage with the world.
Grief tends to pull us into the past, replaying memories, or launch us into worrying about an uncertain future. ACT teaches mindfulness and grounding skills to help bring you back to the “here and now.”
Helping you to handle life again in smaller, more manageable chunks—this hour, this task, this conversation.
The ultimate aim of ACT is committing to action, taking concrete, values-guided steps to regroup, rebuild and revitalise.
This doesn’t mean making massive life changes overnight. Committed action after a loss needs small, incremental steps, which allow you to focus on your physical and emotional health.
Ultimately, in time, reaching the capacity to thrive, rather than just survive.
