Grief Counselling
Grief counselling is for people whose life no longer feels organised in the same way after a loss. That loss may be the death of a loved one, but grief also follows separation, serious illness, retirement, family breakdown, relocation, suicide, and the quieter disorientation of an empty nest. Many people experience grief not as one clean emotion, but as a changing mix of shock, anger, numbness, disbelief, exhaustion, and longing.
At Energetics Institute in Inglewood, Richard and Helena Boyd offer evidence informed counselling for grief, bereavement, and trauma-related loss across Perth, the local area, and wider Western Australia. Their work is informed by psychotherapy, Somatic Psychotherapy, Core Energetics, and Integrative Body Mind Psychotherapy™. That matters because grief does not only affect your thoughts. It can alter breathing, posture, sleep, appetite, concentration, and your felt sense of safety in the world. A person may know their loss is real and still wait for footsteps in the hallway, a voice in the next room, or a message that will never come.
Grief Counselling Perth
People usually seek grief counselling Perth when the loss is no longer something they can carry quietly on their own. For some, the initial loss is recent and the system is still in shock. For others, the loss happened months or years ago, but ordinary life still feels strangely unreal. They may be going to work, seeing friends, caring for children, and functioning outwardly, while inwardly everything feels slowed, flattened, or painfully over-alive.
At our Inglewood practice, just off Beaufort Street, we often see grief shaped by very Perth realities. FIFO absences can intensify loss and unfinished goodbye moments. A sudden death can leave one partner holding family life together while still trying to understand what happened. Parents in the inner north and eastern suburbs may be grieving quietly while still doing school runs, work, and caring for everyone else. Others are carrying the grief of relocation, fractured families, or the emotional aftershock of serious diagnosis.
This is why our counselling does not rely on generic grief stages. We work with how grief is actually showing up in your everyday life.
How We Work With Grief
Our approach combines psychotherapy, grief work, and body-inclusive methods. That includes elements of Somatic Psychotherapy, Core Energetics, and Integrative Body Mind Psychotherapy, especially when grief is strongly affecting the body and nervous system.
This means we do not only ask what happened. We also pay attention to what your body is doing with what happened.
That may include:
- held breath
- pressure in the chest
- loss of energy
- agitation or collapse
- body numbness
- changes in appetite or difficulty to eat
- disturbed sleep
- trauma-like activation after a shocking loss
For one client, the most painful part of grieving was not crying. It was the nightly moment when her body still lifted in expectation at 6:15 pm, the time her partner used to come through the door. In sessions, the work was not only about talking through the story of the loss. It was about helping her notice the physical anticipation, the tightening through the chest, the frozen pause that came with it, and gradually helping her system recognise that the waiting reflex belonged to grief, not to the present moment. That is where body-inclusive grief work becomes specific and useful.
For another client, the presenting issue was “not coping” after an empty nest transition. What emerged was grief mixed with identity loss, old family wounds, and a heavy collapse in energy every afternoon when the house became quiet. Once the pattern was understood, the work became less abstract. We were not only discussing sadness. We were helping her track what happened in the body during the quiet, what memories surfaced there, and how to build enough internal structure that the silence no longer felt like abandonment.
What Grief Counselling Can Help With
Grief therapy is not about erasing loss. It is about making it more livable.
Our grief counselling may help when you are dealing with:
- the death of a loved one
- traumatic or sudden death
- suicide bereavement
- miscarriage or fertility-related grief
- separation or divorce
- loss of home or stability
- chronic illness
- career loss or retirement
- the emotional disruption of an empty nest
- family estrangement
- trauma responses linked to loss
- grief that has become entangled with anxiety, depression, or hopelessness
Grief can affect children, adolescents, parents, partners, and whole family systems in different ways. It can change sleep, attention, appetite, your sense of time, your faith in the future, and your ability to feel connected to other people. Good support makes room for all of that.
When Grief Needs More Support
Some people move through grief with support from family, community, and time. Others need more help. That does not mean they are doing grief wrongly. It usually means the loss is hitting more deeply, more traumatically, or in a more complicated context.
It may be time to seek support if you notice:
- persistent despair or hopelessness
- panic, dread, or marked anxiety
- ongoing inability to function in daily responsibilities
- intense isolation from friends or family
- trauma-like symptoms after a shocking death
- prolonged numbness
- inability to tolerate reminders of the loss
- excessive alcohol or other ways to cope
- a collapse in motivation, routine, or meaning
At that point, grief may need more than patience. It may need a trained counsellor, a clearer process, and a place where the loss can be approached with enough skill and respect.
Grief Related To Death And Grief Unrelated To Death
A lot of pages on grief only talk about bereavement after a death. That is too narrow.
People also come for grief after:
- relationship endings
- separation
- infertility
- chronic illness or disability
- job loss
- relocation
- family estrangement
- becoming an empty nest parent
- role changes after children leave home
- the loss of identity that can follow major life change
These experiences can disrupt the same emotional ground. The person has not only lost something external. They may have lost structure, belonging, identity, routine, sense, or hope.
That is still grief.
Meet Our Expert Counsellors at Energetics Institute
At Energetics Institute, Richard and Helena Boyd bring decades of clinical work in Perth to grief and trauma counselling. Their approach is not only conversational. It is psychotherapeutic, body-aware, and responsive to how loss is being carried emotionally and physically.
Richard’s work often suits clients whose grief has become entangled with trauma, collapse, or chronic nervous system strain. Helena’s work is often especially valued by clients who need steadiness, emotional clarity, and a way to stay connected to themselves while moving through profound loss.
Together, they offer a form of grief support that does not reduce suffering to platitudes. It stays with the real shape of the loss.
Grief Counselling Near Me
If you have been searching for a grief centre, grief support, or grief counselling perth, Energetics Institute offers in-person sessions in Inglewood and online support across WA, the wider local area, and Australia.
We support:
- individuals
- couples
- family members
- children
- adolescents
- carers
- workers affected by loss
- people grieving change, not only death
If you are feeling overwhelmed, you do not need to know exactly what to say before making contact. You can simply reach out and our team can help you work out the next step.
See Grief Counselling in Action
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