Bereavement counselling gives you a confidential space to talk about the person who died, make sense of reactions that can feel frightening or out of character, and find a way to live alongside the loss. It is not about getting over someone or grieving faster.
Grief is personal and there is no correct timetable for it. Our therapists offer bereavement counselling in Dublin, Galway and online, so you can find support wherever you are in Ireland.
What bereavement counselling is and how it can help
Bereavement counselling is talking therapy focused on loss. A counsellor will not tell you how to grieve, hand you a plan or try to tidy your feelings away. Some people expect to be given advice, or hope a few sessions will switch the pain off and speed things up. The work is slower and more useful than that; you get a steady, private relationship with someone who is not part of your family and does not need you to be fine.
In practice that can mean:
- Somewhere to talk about the person who died, including the things you cannot say to the people around you.
- Room to look at guilt, anger or regret without being hurried towards forgiveness.
- Help adjusting to changed roles and routines, such as running a house alone or becoming the one who holds the family together.
- Support with what often travels alongside grief: anxiety, low mood, poor sleep, trauma after a sudden death, a shaken sense of who you are, or strain in a marriage or a family.
How effective is it? The honest answer is that outcomes vary. A meta-analysis of 31 randomised trials, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, found that psychological support reduced grief symptoms, with larger effects for one-to-one work and for people whose grief was intense or who were at least six months past the loss. For you, that means counselling is most likely to help when grief is heavy, long-lasting or getting in the way of daily life. It does not mean anyone needs to be in that place before asking for support.
The stages of grief, and why you may not fit them
You have probably heard of the five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross first described them in 1969 from her work with people who were dying, not as a timetable for the people left behind. Many people recognise some of these feelings, move back and forth between them, or do not identify with the model at all. The HSE's guidance on coping with grief puts it plainly: there are often no clear stages, and your reactions are your own.
Grief also lives in the body and in behaviour. Sadness, numbness, disbelief, anger and irritability are common. So is relief, especially after a long illness, and relief often brings guilt with it. Tiredness, vivid dreams, broken sleep, a lost appetite and an inability to concentrate on work are all ordinary parts of grieving. We have written more about other ways of understanding this in two models for understanding grief.
For a smaller number of people, grief stays intense and disabling for a long time. Prolonged grief disorder is now a recognised condition: the American Psychiatric Association describes persistent longing or preoccupation with the person who died, lasting well beyond what your culture or faith would expect and affecting your ability to function, and estimates it affects roughly 4% to 15% of bereaved adults. Depression can look similar but tends to colour everything, not only thoughts of the loss. We would never try to label you from a page like this. The HSE advises seeing your GP if your grief is intense and does not ease, or if anxiety, depression, guilt or despair will not lift. You can read more in our post on when grief becomes complicated.
Grieving a person, a child or the future you imagined
We offer counselling after the death of a partner, parent, sibling, child, friend or anyone who mattered to you. When a death is sudden, violent or by suicide, grief can be tangled up with shock and intrusive images, and our trauma therapy can sit alongside bereavement work.
Parents who lose a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death, or a child at any age, grieve the person and also the life they had pictured: the first day at school, the birthdays, the grandchildren. Those milestones keep arriving on the calendar, and each one can reopen the loss. We think that grief for the future deserves as much room in therapy as grief for the past. Our post on miscarriage as a silent loss may help too.
Grief can also start before a death. If you have cared for someone through a long illness, you may have mourned them for months while still looking after them, and then feel exhaustion, relief and sorrow all at once. Those mixed feelings are normal, and talking about them is often easier with someone outside the family.
Children grieve differently from adults, often in bursts and through play. For younger children our child play therapy gives them a way to express what they cannot yet put into words.
When to think about bereavement counselling
You can come to counselling whenever you want support. You do not need to wait until things are unbearable, and there is no rule that you must let a set amount of time pass first. It may be worth reaching out if you notice:
- You cannot manage work, meals or basic routines.
- You are pulling away from people and staying isolated.
- Guilt or regret feels overwhelming.
- Memories or images of the death keep intruding.
- Your relationships are under strain, or you are drinking or using more than before.
- The grief is still intensely distressing and is not shifting.
Counselling is not only for a crisis. Many people come months or years after a death, around an anniversary, or when a new loss stirs up an old one.
If you or someone you know is at immediate risk, call 112 or 999, go to your nearest emergency department, or call Samaritans free on 116 123. The HSE lists urgent and emergency care options.
What happens in counselling, in Dublin, Galway or online
In a first session with us, you can talk about who died and how, what feels hardest now, and what you would like from counselling. Your therapist will explain confidentiality and how they work, and you can ask anything. It is also a chance to sense whether this person feels right for you, because that fit matters.
Later sessions may involve sharing memories, noticing what triggers waves of grief, finding ways to cope with the hard days, and exploring how to keep a meaningful connection with the person who died while rebuilding your daily life.
| Option | What it involves |
|---|---|
| In person in Dublin or Galway | Private face to face sessions at the Dublin or Galway centres, useful if home feels too full of the loss. See our locations. |
| Online counselling | Secure video sessions from anywhere in Ireland, with no travel. You need a private space and a decent connection. |
| Telephone Counselling | An alternative where offered, or when video feels like too much. |
Our current fees are on our prices page, and we keep a low-cost counselling option for people who would otherwise go without.
Free and specialist bereavement supports in Ireland
We would much rather you got support somewhere than went without. These services are free, and the HSE's bereavement supports page lists them in full:
- Irish Hospice Foundation Bereavement Support Line: freephone 1800 80 70 77, Monday to Friday, 10am to 1pm.
- Samaritans: 116 123, any time, for anyone struggling to cope.
- Text About It: text TALK to 50808, 24 hours a day.
- Childline: 1800 66 66 66, any time, for young people up to 18.
For bereaved parents, Anam Cara, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Ireland and A Little Lifetime Foundation offer peer support. The Irish Childhood Bereavement Network has guidance for anyone supporting a grieving child. After a suicide, the HSE's suicide bereavement page points to the Suicide Bereavement Liaison Service, the You Are Not Alone booklet, and Safe Harbour, a storybook for children. If cancer was involved, the Irish Cancer Society offers free counselling and a support line on 1800 200 700.
Helplines, peer groups and reading are valuable, and for many people they are enough. Counselling is different: an ongoing relationship with a trained professional, shaped around you.
FAQs
How much does bereavement counselling cost in Ireland?
Private fees vary by provider. Ours are on our prices page, and we offer low-cost sessions. Some health insurance plans and workplace assistance programmes cover part of the cost, so it is worth asking.
How do I find a qualified bereavement counsellor in Ireland?
Look for membership of a professional body such as the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP), the Irish Association of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy (IAHIP) or the Irish Council for Psychotherapy (ICP). You can refer yourself; you do not need a GP letter.
How long does bereavement counselling take, and how soon after a loss can I start?
You can start whenever you feel you need to, even in the first weeks. Some people find a handful of sessions enough; others prefer longer-term work. You and your therapist review this together.
Is bereavement counselling confidential?
Yes. What you say stays between you and your therapist, with narrow exceptions, such as a serious risk to you or someone else, which your therapist will explain in your first session.
You can contact Mind and Body Works to ask about bereavement counselling in Dublin, Galway, or online. It is fine to ask about a therapist's approach, qualifications, fees and availability before you decide. Reaching out does not mean you are grieving the wrong way. It means you do not have to carry this loss alone, and whenever you feel ready, you can get in touch with us.