I was in the early stages of my counselling career when the first lockdown was announced. As clients and classes moved on to Zoom, I was also working in bereavement, supporting families as they said their goodbyes to loved ones who died during that period.
Throughout that time I noticed a shift in how people dealt with their grief; in some cases though distanced, people felt a greater communion as the world mourned… yet others felt that their sorrow was undermined by the outpouring of sadness on a national and international scale. Though often our reactions to bereavement are actually quite “normal”, navigating our loss in isolation meant that I witnessed instances of prolonged grief and difficulty in finding acceptance as the whole world seemed upside down.
It caused me to reflect on people’s reactions specifically in that bizarre time and also celebrate clients compassion, generosity and resilience in the hardest of times. I wrote about this on the website lifedeathwhatever.com and my musings were later included in the brilliant book by Louise Winter and Anna Lyons, We All Know How This Ends, a profound but practical guide to rethinking the one thing that's guaranteed to happen to us all. This is a book about life and living, as much as it's a book about death and dying.
If you’ve been affected by Covid-19 due to bereavement, illness, job loss or you’d just like to explore your feelings around what has happened in recent years or your thoughts on death and dying, contact me at hello@hjmcounsellingtherapy.com
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