Thoughts, Stories, and Support Through Grief and Healing

I’ve wanted to write about this for a long time, but something inside me has always made me hesitate. Perhaps part of me has been anxious about addressing this topic as a grief therapist, and about how people might respond. But here goes. Relief. It’s an emotion we don’t often associate with grief. In fact, it can feel almost taboo. As a society, we can struggle to acknowledge that, for some people, some part of them may experience relief when a loved one dies. “GEMMA, YOU CA

When I qualified as a counsellor twelve years ago, I didn't set out with a clear plan to become a grief counsellor or trauma therapist. Like many big decisions in my life, the path I followed was shaped by my own personal experiences. My decision to specialise in this area began with a book: Staring at the Sun by psychiatrist and existential therapist, Irvin D. Yalom. It may sound cliché, but this book genuinely changed my life. The title comes from a seventeenth-century prov

I decided to write a blog post about my experience of delivering EMDR online, as it’s something I get asked about a lot. Some people are sceptical about the effectiveness and safety of EMDR online, and that’s understandable. After all, EMDR is a trauma-focused therapy, which can involve working with distress, overwhelm, dissociation, and complex presentations. Many therapists and clients have questioned whether this kind of work can be done safely through a screen. So, is EMD

Starting EMDR therapy can feel a little uncertain, and that’s completely normal. Many people are curious, nervous, or unsure about how it works, especially if you’ve never tried it before. When I first trained in EMDR over seven years ago, I felt the same way: sceptical, curious, and intrigued all at once. If you’ve read about EMDR, heard someone talk about it, or even seen a celebrity mention it, you might know it’s often used for trauma, anxiety, or past difficult experienc

Over the past three years of working as a pet bereavement therapist, I’ve listened to many stories. Different animals, different families, different circumstances. And yet, without fail, one powerful theme shows up every single time. Guilt. Alongside guilt often sit blame and an overwhelming sense of responsibility. In all my years working with grief, I have never encountered another form of bereavement where these feelings are so intense, so persistent, and so deeply entwine

September has arrived, and with all that comes with a new month, I am reminded that precisely one month from now, my beloved dog Bruce left this world two years ago. I miss him. As I start to write more, I can feel a heaviness around my chest begin to rise, and tears start to form in my eyes. It doesn’t last long, but it’s there. This reminds me of how my grief has moved, how it has changed shape, and how I can sit longer in my fuller memories (not just his death), with the

I have been a qualified counsellor and psychotherapist since 2014, seeing clients with different problems and challenges from trauma to relationship issues, anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. I love my job, especially witnessing those profound moments with my clients. I also love animals, having had dogs for most of my life, as well as other pets. Over the years, I have considered combining my work as a therapist with working with pets, but I wasn’t sure how

I will never forget reading a comment on a Facebook post about six years ago about a person’s experience of losing their pet. Amongst many comments of sympathy, there were the odd responses about ‘it just being a dog’ and telling the person to ‘get over it’. I even saw a comment that said, ‘it’s not like you lost a member of your family…’ You see, here’s the thing: for many of us, our pets are family, sometimes our only family, or our best family! At the time, I recall

Understanding EMDR Therapy EMDR stands for ‘Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing’ and is a form of psychotherapy originally developed to treat trauma and PTSD. Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR helps clients process distressing memories by engaging the brain in bilateral stimulation—usually through guided eye movements, tapping, or auditory tones. This process mimics the natural way our brains process information during REM sleep, helping to “unstick” painful memorie

Bruce, my Kerry Blue Terrier, was my soul dog. He was born in 2011, and he lived until he was twelve and a half years old. Bruce was not an easy dog; he was a terrier and I, and everyone else knew it! Loving and affectionate to those he knew, not a fan of people or animals he did not know – especially cats, dogs, the window cleaner, the postman…basically everything. He had attitude and character, and he was a bit of a handful, but he was my dog, and I loved his terrier attit

It was a cold day in November, and we were staying at an Airbnb in North Wales. It was our third day, and we had been walking most of the day. As we rested for the evening, I noticed that Bruce, our nine-year-old Kerry Blue Terrier, was unusually tired. He had done a similar walk the day before, and the day before that, but he was used to that. Or so he was before this trip. His tale was curled under his hind legs, and he was more subdued and tired. You may think, ‘ Well, of