Join Andy Langford, Julia Samuel and Dr Paquita De Zulueta as they discuss how COVID-19 and the associated limitations to our day to day interactions, are impacting those who are bereaved during this time and what this means for therapists who may be asked to work with these issues.

The panellists bring with them extensive experience across a range of specialisms; Andy is Chief Operating Officer at Cruse Bereavement Care, Julia has over 30 years’ experience working as a bereavement psychotherapist in a range of settings and Paquita is a General Practitioner and CBT therapist incorporating mindfulness and compassion focussed therapy.

Part one

Part two

Counselling and bereavement joint statement

This joint briefing, produced with Cruse Bereavement Care, considers experiences of bereavement and the importance of structured community-based bereavement support in meeting people who have been bereaved.

About the presenters

Andy Langford

Andy Langford is the Clinical Director for Cruse Bereavement Care, having worked in the fields of homelessness, mental health, substance misuse, ageing and children.  Andy has been accredited with BACP for 14 years, and has practiced independently and as part of an agency.  He has also directly managed counselling services.

Andy has a particular interest in bereavement, suicide and working with those bereaved through suicide.  Andy has been involved major incident management and emergency response (having worked in the context of the London Bridge attack and the Grenfell Tower fire), and also with teams on change management and self-care.

Julia Samuel

Msc, MBACP (Snr Accredited) UKCP Registered Psychotherapist 

Julia is a leading UK psychotherapist. At St Mary's Hospital Paddington, she established the post of psychotherapist for Paediatrics, where her role for 25 years involved seeing families who have children or babies who die, and where she trained and supported the staff.

In 1994 she worked to help launch and establish The Child Bereavement UK and as the The Founder Patron was involved and in many aspects of the charities work, having a key role in fundraising, strategy and training. She has stepped back from active involvement now.

In 2016 Julia was awarded an MBE in recognition of her services to bereaved children and in 2017 Middlesex University awarded her an Honorary Doctorate.

In 2017 Julia published Grief Works which was a bestseller in the UK and has been published in 17 countries. In March 2020 she published This Too Shall Pass: stories of Change Crisis and Hopeful Beginnings and is a Sunday Times bestseller.

She also has a private practice where she sees families and individuals for many different issues.

Paquita De Zulueta

Paquita worked for 35 years as a London-based GP till 2019 and has a special interest in mental health, migrant health, clinical ethics and professional wellbeing. Paquita is honorary senior clinical lecturer at Imperial College, and currently works as a private and pro-bono CBT therapist (PGDipCBT 2008), EMDR therapist (2019), coach and mentor (ILM level 7 diploma 2015). She runs seminars and workshops on resilience and compassion in healthcare, as well as seminars, lectures and articles on clinical ethics and compassion in healthcare. She is a Schwartz Round facilitator for Imperial College NHS Trust & is currently supporting clinicians on the frontline and others in the community.

CPD certificate

Download your CPD certificate: Working with bereavement and complex grief (PDF)

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Handouts

Download Dr Paquita De Zulueta's handout of references and notes for further reading (PDF)

Additional handouts will follow soon.

References and links

Below are brief notes on references made by our presenters during the session. You can also download Dr De Zulueta's handout above for more detailed information.

During the livestream, you mentioned lots of useful resources within the chatroom and asked us to compile them. We've rounded all the details up and listed them below. The below references are suggested for you by your fellow therapists based on their professional experience.