Anyone used CRUSE?

[CinemaParadiso]

It's been just over a year since my Mum died. I went to see the GP recently & she suggested I should contact CRUSE for bereavement counselling (she didn't think there was any counselling specifically aimed at bereavement that she could refer me to ). I emailed them on Friday & haven't heard anything back so am wondering whether to ring them but don't want to seem impatient IYSWIM? Does anyone have experience of using them? How long did you wait for counselling? Can you choose to have 1-to-1 counselling (rather than groups)? Did you find it useful?

TIA!

Hi, so sorry to hear about your Mum.

I used cruse 10 years ago when my fiancée died. It did take them a couple of weeks to get back to me, I left a message on there answering machine if I remember rightly. I had one on one counselling at home with a lovely woman. It didn't feel so much like counselling, but more like sharing how I was feeling with a sympathetic ear. Personally I found it a great help as I didn't want to burden my family and friends all the time and was a great way to off load.

Hope you find someone to talk to about how you're feeling soon.

So sorry to hear about your mum.

I had counselling from Cruse when my mum died 11 years ago, they were lovely and it really helped. As hmmSleep said, I found it useful just to have someone outside the family to talk to and unburden myself without feeling like I was burdening them/making them upset too. It did take a few months to finally get to see a counsellor though as they were very busy.

I then trained as a Cruse counsellor a few years ago (I don't do it anymore, since kids got in the way!). It is a very warm and friendly organisation, and the training was very in-depth and professional. All counsellors are volunteers, the ones I trained with all seemed to be either people who had experienced bereavement and wanted to use their experience to help others, or people training to be therapists/counsellors who wanted to get some more experience.

At the branch I worked at we used to go to people's homes to do one to one counselling, but some branches do have an office with a counselling room where people can go instead.

I'm sure they won't mind you calling to follow up on your email. There is also lots of information on their website that might be helpful in the meantime here

Well done for taking the first steps and going to your GP, hope you get some help soon xx

Yes I saw a Cruse volunteer for about a year after my Mum died. As others have said it was more like talking to a lovely sympathetic friend rather than counselling as such. It was enormously helpful to be able to say whatever I wanted without thinking I was going to be judged or that I might upset someone. I think I phoned and left a message and then someone called me back. I had a lady visit me every fortnight for about an hour for a year. HTH.

My son and I had counselling with CRUSE when his Dad died and then again when my fiance died.

The lady we saw was absolutely lovely. It took a little while to get the counselling sorted, but once it was, was a real help.

Thanks everyone for your replies. Its nice to hear people had such a positive experience with CRUSE. Finally plucked up courage to ring them & spoke to a lovely lady. It turns out their administrator who answers emails is on holiday, hence no reply to my email. So am now on the waiting list for counselling & feel quite positive about it.

CinemaParadiso

Good luck with this - hope it helps.