Counselling for grief & loss

I'm Tracy Simpson, a Registered Member MBACP, and I offer grief and bereavement counselling in person in Barnsley and online across the UK. If you're not sure what you need right now, this page will help you work out what to do next, including whether a free service might suit you better than counselling with me. Both are fine.

A relationship ending is a loss too, even without a death. If that's what's brought you here, you might find the individual support on my relationship counselling page speaks to your situation more directly, alongside what's below.

There's no right way to grieve, and no set time it should take. Some people feel the full weight of it straight away. For others it surfaces months later, or in waves that arrive without warning. Whatever shape yours takes, it's allowed, whether or not you recognise every reason above.

Counselling gives you somewhere to set it down for a while and be heard, without having to manage how anyone else is feeling. We go as gently and as slowly as you need. It isn't a medical treatment and it can't promise a particular outcome or a fixed timeline for how you should feel. You'll have space, and time, without judgement.

Sessions can help with:

• Making sense of what's happened, at your own pace
• Grief that feels stuck, delayed, or more complicated than you expected
• Adjusting to daily life without someone or something you counted on
• Grief that others around you don't seem to understand or have space for
• Finding a way to carry the loss alongside everything else you're managing

I'm a Registered Member of the BACP (45587) and an Accredited Registrant with the NCPS (NCS20-00911), and I work within the BACP Ethical Framework. I work integratively, drawing on person-centred, psychodynamic and CBT approaches depending on what's most helpful for you.

What happens in sessions

You can start with a free 10-minute call, or book a session straight away if you already know you'd like to. The call has no forms and no commitment. You tell me a little about what's going on, I tell you how I'd work with it, and you decide whether it feels right.

If you go ahead, sessions are 50 minutes, weekly or fortnightly, in person in private counselling rooms near Barnsley town centre or by video. There's no fixed number of sessions and no contract tying you in. Some people come for a handful of sessions around a particular loss. Others stay longer, especially where grief connects to other things going on. We review it together as we go.

What you tell me is confidential, with the standard exceptions every counsellor works to around serious risk of harm. I'll explain exactly how that works before we begin.

If it's someone you love

Watching someone you love grieve, or feeling shut out of how they're grieving, can be hard in its own way. You're allowed to get support for yourself too, whether or not they ever have counselling.

Your options, in full

Private counselling with me is one source of support, not the only one. Here's the full picture for bereavement, so you can decide what's right for you.

Cruse Bereavement Support. A free national charity specifically for bereavement, with trained volunteers and a helpline.

NHS Talking Therapies. Free, and you can usually refer yourself without going through your GP first, if you're registered with a GP and aged 18 or over (16 in some areas). Barnsley Talking Therapies takes self-referrals on 01226 644900.

Your GP. Worth speaking to if grief is affecting your sleep, appetite or physical health, or if you're not sure whether what you're feeling has tipped into something that needs medical attention.

You're not limited to just one of these. If you're not sure what's right, that's exactly what the free 10-minute call is for. I'll say if I think another route would serve you better.

Where I work

I see people in person in private counselling rooms within the South Yorkshire Physiotherapy Centre, Day Street, Barnsley, S70 1NW, and by video anywhere in the UK.