Hi
I’ve got my initial consultation with cruse for my counselling tomorrow. I can feel the anxiety starting as I don’t know what to expect. Has anyone had counselling with cruse, what do they ask at this initial talk. I assume it’s just telling them about my grief and about losing mark.
Xx
1 Like
Hi @Barbara61
Yes, I’m on with my cruse counselling at the moment. My assessment went really positively, obviously I cried my way through the whole thing, and couldn’t talk for a quarter of it but the lady I spoke to was so understanding and empathic, I just took my time it did take several weeks after my initial consultation to actually start receiving my counselling sessions, but I find everyone of them brilliant. I cry, I off load all my feelings and thoughts, they don’t just listen, I really feel that they hear me. I would really advise you go ahead with it, once you try it if you feel it’s not right for you they don’t mind you can just cancel, but you deserve it for yourself to give it a go
The most painful part for me is knowing no matter what I say they can’t change anything or take my pain away. The positive is that they do give practical advice and they listen, I’ve certainly got a new appreciation of how valuable listening is.
Hope it goes well 
i contacted them an they said they were not adding anyone else in my area.
1 Like
Pleased you are finding the counselling helpful. I know it’s not for everyone but I agree that I need to give it a go. Xx
Sorry to hear that you cannot get counselling with cruse. I’m in county Durham and tried a couple of places before I got cruse. Is there somewhere else you can try ?
Hope you manage to get some help xx
I am doing ok most of the time just s memories crop up every day to remind me of some of the things my wife Rebecca an me did together ,that i now do on my own. Just the same for everyone here.
first time is always the worst.
1 Like
Memories are everywhere aren’t they. Happy and sad xx
I contacted Cruse about 2 months ago and I haven’t had a response. I’ve been told by several people that locally to me (Devon) they are overwhelmed with requests and don’t have the volunteers to provide the service at the moment. I should stress that this is not from Cruse themselves but hearsay.
That’s not good not even responding to you. Within a couple of weeks of contacting them I did a group seminar. They showed a video about grief then we were in groups of 5 to discuss. All on zoom. Had a wait of about a month for this initial consultation then there is about 8 weeks wait for counselling to start. Hope you managed to get some counselling sorted with someone else xx
Hi @Barbara61, we really hope your consultation with Cruse goes okay today.
For those of you struggling to get a consultation with Cruse at the moment, we just wanted to let you know that we offer an online bereavement counselling service. This is a free service and sessions are held via video chat so you can attend from home. If you feel some one-to-one support may be useful, you can find more information about the service here: www.sueryder.org/counselling
Take care,
Seaneen
Online Community Manager
2 Likes
My phone call went well. Lady was lovely to talk to and she has made me feel better about the way I’m feeling. She thinks I’m doing ok and It was reassuring to know that I’m doing better than I thought I was and everything I’m feeling is normal in the grief process. I felt proud of myself getting through it without crying as I was feeling very anxious this morning and felt the tears weren’t far away.
I’m so pleased I went to the doctors when I did as the tablets (sertraline ) seem to be helping.
She thinks that I’m going along so well that I don’t need any sessions of counselling as i seem to be doing everything they would advise.
Onwards and upwards hopefully xx
1 Like