About our service

Kingston Bereavement Service is an independent charity offering one-to-one and group bereavement support to anyone who lives, works or studies in the Borough of Kingston upon Thames. 

All our counsellors are volunteers and are specially trained by us in bereavement counselling.  We have a diverse range of counsellors available to meet the different needs of people in Kingston (including those for whom English is not their first language).  Kingston Bereavement Service is an organisational member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and adheres to its code of ethics.

People can either contact us themselves or are referred to the Service by their GP as we are a registered provider to GPs within the Kingston Primary Care Trust.  We will take down some details over the phone and may arrange an initial appointment to discuss the counselling in more detail.  We will then allocate a counsellor who will make contact to arrange the first session.  We offer clients up to 10 sessions with the counsellor, although people may not need all 10 sessions.  For those who have had a particularly traumatic experience, the 10 sessions can be extended further at the discretion of our clinical consultant.

Counselling can be arranged during the day and evening throughout the week according to your availability. For counselling sessions, we usually use our fully accessible premises in Canbury Park Road, close to Kingston town centre and Kingston train and bus stations, but we can arrange sessions in your own home.

If you need to contact your counsellor between sessions, you can do so by ringing the office on 020 8547 1552.  If we cannot take your call immediately there is an ansaphone on which you can leave a message, and we will return your call as soon as possible.

Anyone living, working or studying in Kingston upon Thames is welcome to contact us to discuss bereavement counselling. If your GP is a Kingston GP and they send us a written referral, then your counselling will be fully funded, although donations are gratefully received. We ask people who come to us independantly to make a contribution towards the cost of their counselling, which is negotiated with the service.

If you would like to find out more about Kingston Bereavement Service, or feel you would benefit from receiving support from one of our counsellors, please do contact us.  Our office hours are 9.30 am to 2.30 pm Monday to Thursday.