This guest blog was written by Professional Help Associate Counsellor Amrit Sagoo; MA (Existential Psychotherapy), MNCS (Accred); MBACP (Reg). Vulnerability in therapy “What happens when people open their hearts?” “They get better.”  – Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood Opening your heart in therapy takes courage. It is not easy. It is not easy sitting in the client’s chair for your first…

This guest post was written by Professional Help’s Head of Counselling Joanna Williams; MA, Advanced Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy, MNCS (Accred), MNHS.   The Reluctant Hypnotherapist   Back in Autumn 2013, I found myself sitting in a circle of people in a hotel conference room, at the beginning of the thirty classes and three…

This guest post was written by one of our wonderful Associate Counsellors Amrit Sagoo; MA (Existential Psychotherapy), MNCS (Accred); MBACP (Reg). Bearing witness in the aftermath of violence I work with stories, stories that are often dark and despairing as they understandably would be in the aftermath of violence. Yet I know through my work…

      We are pleased and proud to announce the launch of our new service ‘GriefChat‘. Griefchat is a way of connecting bereaved people directly to bereavement counsellors through a live chat programme, hosted on ANY website. We’ve developed this service as we know that so many organisations and businesses would like to provide…

Being something of an ageing rock chick, I was deeply shocked and saddened to hear yesterday of the suicide of Chris Cornell, ‘grunge’ rock pioneer from the early ‘90s and one of my teenage (and beyond!) personal heroes. Here was a man with the world at his feet. Rich beyond most of our wildest dreams,…

I once worked in an organisation where the culture was quite literally to stop when you dropped. The leaders set such a pace that the rest of us were either drawn into patterns of working that were either deeply unhealthy (does anyone really need to answer their emails at midnight?) or pretty devious – with…

What is an Employee Assistance Programme? An Employee Assistance Programme is a way of ensuring that your staff members can access advice and support when they need it most. Our EAP offers employees a listening ear and a practical, down to earth source of support for any issue that is affecting their mental wellbeing and…

(This post was originally written for an industry blog, but will hopefully be of interest to others in funeral and end of life care organisations). Do you sometimes wish you could do more for bereaved families? Not in the sense of the actual funeral arrangements, which naturally will be carried out to the best of…

The do’s and don’ts of communicating with bereaved people Building on the previous post, here are our ‘top tips’ for communicating with bereaved people. DO’S DO show that you know what has happened: say how sorry you are, by letter or phone or as soon as you next see them. Sometimes a handshake or a…

Grief is not an illness. But we know that if a bereaved person continues to struggle with their loss and is not able to access good support at the right time, then it can sometimes become a health issue. There is simply not enough bereavement support available in our local communities; no matter how many…