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Grief is a normal experience for most people in life.  However, even though people can have similar reactions, grief is a highly individual experience.  There is no right or wrong way to grieve and no set time scale. It is important to allow yourself time to come to terms with loss.

Someone’s reactions to a death can be influenced by many factors, for example:

• cultural or religious traditions;
• personal beliefs about life after death;
• nature of relationship ended by death (e.g. partner, family member, or friend);
• the cause of death;
• the person’s age at death;
• if the death was sudden or expected;
• thoughts about our own death.

You may experience some, or all, of the following feelings and emotions, and in no particular order:

• Shock and numbness
• Sadness
• Guilt
• Anger
• Shame
• Loneliness
• Depression

Some people experience physical sensations when they grieve, such as:

• Tiredness, sleeplessness, bad dreams
• Loss of appetite or increased appetite
• Being forgetful / loss of concentration
• Difficulty breathing / choking feeling
• Muscle tension / headaches
• Anxiety / feeling of panic
• Nausea
• Dizziness / palpitations / shaking
• Changed interest in sex

We are a charity who offers counselling and support to anyone over the age of 4 years old who is struggling with the impact of bereavement, significant loss or life-changing/limiting illness.

We also offer counselling for people with anticipatory grief, which is the grief we feel before a bereavement; you may feel anticipatory grief because someone close to you has been diagnosed with a terminal illness for example.

Our Counselling Service holds accredited status with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), which is a quality standard and means that we work within their ‘Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions’. You can find out more about the BACP on their website.

For more information regarding our services, you can contact us at our Head Office –

The Dove Service
The Dudson Centre
Hope Street
Hanley
Stoke-on-Trent
Staffordshire
ST1 5DD

Dove Buddies is our Social/Friendship Group for adults who have experienced bereavement or loss and may be struggling with social connections, loneliness and isolation.

The aim of Dove Buddies is to forge new connections, to offer a place to meet others who understand what it feels like to suffer a significant bereavement or loss and to get together with them on a social basis.

You can help the Dove Service in a number of ways:

Visit our Fundraising Page for ideas on how you can raise money for the service and to download our Fundraising Fack.

You can make a donation to the Dove Service via our Home Page or at our Head Office where we sell second-hand books, cards, pin badges, and more.

If you would like to volunteer for us, you can find the application form on our Opportunities Page.

Follow our Social Media pages and like, or share our posts to help us reach more people who need support.

Please follow the Llnks to our Social Media Accounts below.