About Griefscope CIC

Griefscope CIC is a Community Interest Company that I set up with the aim of providing accessible grief relief through 1:1 counselling, groups and creative workshops within the community. Grief can be a lonely experience, so an important aim of these sessions is to restore a sense of connection, whether this is within the privacy and spaciousness of a 1:1 therapy relationship, or between understanding others in a supportive group environment. 

As a social enterprise, Griefscope CIC exists to provide benefit to the community. Any profits, and 75% of 1:1 grief-related session fees are reinvested to benefit the community through Griefscope’s social objectives. 

These are:

• To provide grief relief through 1:1 counseling, therapeutic groups and creative workshops within the community
• To contribute to wider research about what truly supports people with their grief
• To offer support to people who work or volunteer in caring roles involving death, dying, grief and loss, who are themselves experiencing personal grief

Griefscope sessions – finding your way after loss

My approach to grief therapy is grounded in personal lived experience, training, years of professional work and on-going research. I work with grief from the perspective of personal meaning-making, in which an important part of grieving is about understanding what the person or loss meant to us and how this shaped our sense of identity and being in the world. This understanding can support us to be with our loss, while continuing to move through life and relate to others.

I am also actively researching what truly helps people with their grief. This will feed back into the sessions I provide, as well as contributing to wider understanding of grief and loss support.

Grief is a painful yet natural response to loss, however it can also come with additional layers of suffering. For example, there may be practical challenges such as financial struggles and lack of support, or complexities and trauma surrounding our relationship with the person, or the way they died. 

We also bring our existing personal histories to any new losses, and it can feel as though older grief has been reawakened by a more recent loss. 

All Griefscope sessions include supported time to talk about the person who has died, or the loss that has been experienced. 

All will include optional creative activities, which may range from gentle self-expression in collage, words or drawing, to making or writing something that represents something about the person, relationship or loss.

What’s on offer

1:1 therapy I am a BACP-accredited counsellor offering short and longer term work, talking therapy and creative interventions. Fees for individual counselling sessions are here

1:1 workshop to explore a loss or bereavement. This could be right for you if you would like to spend time focussing on a particular loss or bereavement, but are not looking for a course of therapy sessions right now.

The cost of this session includes an introductory call to help me structure the time to your needs. The content of the session is tailored to you, and includes time to talk about the person who has died, or the particular loss that you have experienced. There is the option to make or write something in memory of the relationship or loss.

Small group programme exploring grief surrounding a bereavement or other loss in a small, supportive group. (4 people per group, 6-8 sessions). These sessions offer the opportunity of company and connection with others, and gentle, no-pressure creative activities. We will spend some time with our losses and how we are experiencing grief, and consider how to identify and care for our own needs, including loneliness and managing other relationships.

For more information please get in touch, or email sara.griefscope@gmail.com

Directors

In addition to myself as Founder and Director, I am very happy to have 2 other Board Directors who support and advise Griefscope CIC.

Helen Leigh-Phippard

Helen Leigh-Phippard has used mental health services and Talking Therapies on and off for more than 25 years. She is an Expert by Experience in mental health and has worked with MIND, Health Education England, NHSEngland, NICE, her local NHS Trust and the Psychological Professionals Network over more than 20 years. 

Helen has been a mental health trainer for MIND and currently teaches nursing students and aspiring and trainee psychologists as a Visiting Lecturer at several regional universities. 

Helen is also an artist who teaches classes with Artist in Residence Co-op.

She is disabled due to a range of complex health conditions including chronic pain and lives in Brighton.

Trish Janes MBACP (Accredited)

Trish has been a Counsellor for the last 26 years. She has extensive experience in working with loss and bereavement, including miscarriage, birth trauma & stillbirth, and health issues including cancer. She works from a trauma-informed base and offers creative therapies. 

Trish loves this work and feels she continues to learn every day. She is also a Supervisor and trainer, and worked on University level counselling training courses as a Lecturer / Tutor for 13 years. 

Trish is interested in ecological issues and enjoys being “in the green” of nature.