From Counselling to EMDR – Therapy after Suicide Loss
In the near seven-and-a-half years since my brother’s death by suicide, I’ve had counselling on 4 different occasions, with 4 different counsellors. The first bout of sessions began about 14 months after his death (after I sought it – it has never been offered to me). All of the session-groupings have opened with ‘we’ll have 6 sessions and see how it goes’ - ultimately I’ve ended up attending at least double that amount on two of the runs. Accessing these counselling sessions has involved being patient on waiting lists ranging from around 20 weeks (NHS) to 6 weeks (university student support) to 2 weeks (charity-provided). In my quest for relief, I’ve also had a series of aromatherapy massages and attended a Cruse/Samaritans ‘peer support group’ , both of these also assigned a 6 week timeline (6 is apparently the magic number). I’ve been prescribed anti-depressant medication on two different occasions, (without wanting to use tablets, might I say, as I think having a non-judgemental s