One-on-One Counselling
Grief Counselling
Individual counselling can benefit people who have experienced the death of an important person by helping them process their emotions and the life changes that follow a death. Participants can also learn personal coping strategies to help recognize their loss while continuing to live a life that feels fulfilling.
Our One-on-One Grief Counselling program:
- Supports individuals ages 18 and older, residing in the Halifax Regional Municipality who have experienced the death of a significant person
- Includes four sessions per individual, free of charge
- Offers in-person, virtual, or phone appointments
How to Access
To self-refer, please call us to complete a short intake between the hours of 8:30 am and 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday.
Waitlist as of January 2025: Open for New Clients, with wait list of 2 to 3 months.
If you are currently on our waitlist or have recently been placed, we understand that waiting for support during a time of grief can be difficult.
We encourage you to explore the additional resources listed below.
We are here to help guide you to the support that’s most readily available during this challenging period.
If you’re in crisis or need to talk with someone right away, please reach out to the caring mental health professionals at the Provincial Mobile Crisis Team. They are available to offer support 24/7 at 1-888-429-8167.
FAQs
Grief counselling is available for people ages 16 and older, living in Nova Scotia, who have experienced the death of an important person. People at any place or timeline in their grief can access One-On-One Grief Counselling – the loss can be recent or from many years ago.
Our One-On-One Grief Counselling program offers four, 45 minute sessions. Each session is free with no cost.
All of our grief counsellors at Hospice Halifax are experienced, Registered Social Workers (RSW).
You can learn more about each counsellor through their team member profiles.
Sessions are available in-person, virtually, or via phone. Sessions are 45 minutes in length.
Counselling often involves standard talk therapy where the participants are given a compassionate space to talk about their feelings and emotions brought on by grief. A number of other strategies can be used, such as mindfulness or somatic work, based on the participant’s needs.
Grief counselling focuses on your relationship with an important person in your life who has died. Large losses often bring about smaller losses that people experience throughout their life.
In grief counselling, we will help you honour and share the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that you have about death and dying and any conflicting feelings you have towards your person’s death.
We believe that grief is a deeply personal experience and that there are no specific stages or a single path to process grief. We validate our community members’ experiences as unique, as well as their strengths and their paths to wellness.
Grief counselling can help you begin to create a space to better understand the relationship that you had with the person who died and move towards a feeling of greater wholeness and forward movement in your life.
