Emotional Support

Our Individual and Family Support service will help you, your family and carers throughout your time with us.

We also hold support groups and offer spiritual care.

Emotional Support

END OF LIFE CARE AND PLANNING SEMINAR

If you have had a diagnosis of a life-threatening health condition, you might not know where to turn for information and guidance about your health, finances and spiritual needs. Come and meet our team of professionals, here to help you.

Join us to explore how to approach planning for your future. Sometimes we don’t express our wishes to loved ones for many different reasons. Talking about the future can feel frightening and we can have worries about the unknown.

We are holding END OF LIFE CARE AND PLANNING SEMINARS in April 2023 and September 2023 to help you explore your future from a spiritual, medical, relational, financial, legal and practical point of view. Join us in the safe sanctuary of our beautiful Butterfly House environment for an afternoon where you will hear from all of the speakers, followed by a Q&A and a limited number of one-to-one appointments with panellists. We very much hope you can join us for this exciting event.

All sessions are on Wednesdays from 1pm to 3 pm on the following dates :-

- April 26th 2023

- September 27th 2023

The event is free to South Bucks Hospice patients and their families and is £5 for non-patients. For tickets please click here.

Here are a few comments from past participants:

“It was really helpful having the professionals there to explain the type of support that is available. I wouldn’t otherwise have known”.

“It was lovely to hear from a range of different people about the various aspects to think about and lovely to be able to interact with speakers, a good balance”.

“The information was really helpful and made me think about the importance of leaving wishes etc in writing. Also how this would help my family”.

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Emotional Support

Bereavement Listening

Almost half of the emotional support we offer at South Bucks Hospice is to those who have been recently bereaved.

In response to this, from January 2022, we are launching a brand new Bereavement Telephone Listening Support Service.

Our bereavement listeners will phone every week for up to three months to help support anyone who has lost a loved one to a prolonged, advanced life-limiting illness, with a GP in the South Bucks area.

Our leaflet on Bereavement Listening Support can be found here.

For more information about our Bereavement Telephone Listening Support Service email listening@sbhospice.org.uk.

patient group: 11:30am-12:30pm and 1-2pm Every Thursday

Positivity Art Group

Is a mindful space to explore and express your artistic side through watercolours. The group is not a structured art class and is not art therapy. It meets you where you feel you are, artistically, and asks nothing more than you bring yourself and a curiosity to see colour and form emerge on your paper at your own pace. The group will empower you to find what you would like to explore and invites you to express your own subject matter and style, as well as providing gentle and supportive conversation and community.

Here are a few comments from our participants:

“Before lockdown I had been attending Butterfly House as a day care patient once a week. Now I really look forward to the online art class on a Thursday afternoon. Seeing and chatting with people helps my mental health as I'm in the clinically extremely vulnerable group and have been shielding for a long time.

“Painting together and chatting in a relaxed manner helps to take my mind off my continuous cycles of cancer treatment and side effects. Nature themes are my favourite to paint. I find nature is very soothing. It's fun to show each other our finished art pieces at the end of the sessions." - Paulette Rackstraw

“I was a little apprehensive about joining the group as I had always considered myself to be less than skilled in producing artwork. In fact, if it wasn’t for this online workshop, I would have probably never picked up a paintbrush to paint a picture ever again. I had not attempted to paint a picture since leaving school in 1965.

“However, I have been pleasantly surprised with myself and on the very first week I completed a picture of a robin, by copying the image sent by Juliette. Since then, I have produced a new picture every week and have felt a tremendous feeling of accomplishment, considering this has been something I have achieved, whilst living alone during lockdown. I would like to express my grateful thanks for having the opportunity to be involved in such a positive experience.” - Heather Green

Butterfly illustration above by Heather Green.

patients, carers and newly bereaved partners: Six week course four times a year

Mindfulness

Come and learn how to live in the moment and learn techniques to help with anxiety and emotional regulation. Also a great opportunity to meet and chat with like-minded people in a small, informal group session (maximum number six per group).

Week One: What is Mindfulness? How can it help me?

Identify where you are on your journey to peace and wellbeing. Why be mindful? Exploration of mindfulness principles and introductory activities. Where am I on my unique ‘bridge’ of life?

Week Two: My Body and Me : Body Awareness and Self Compassion

Introduction to body scan activities and learning compassion and self-love for body. Particular attention to the role of sleep in healing, awareness of ‘stacked trauma’ and how to release it’s impact on the body.

Week Three: My Mind and Me : Imagination as Healer

The power of the imagination to heal, the role of nature in visualisation. ‘Journey to the garden of my heart’ guided visualisation. Finding a ‘safe place’ in my mind.

Week Four: Regulating my emotions: Keeping anxiety at bay

Explore how to put together an emotionally regulating tool kit using your five senses. How to have mindful activities at the ready in times when you need emotional regulation. How to be mindfully attentive and intentional about who we allow into ‘our circle of love’.

Week Five: Gratitude, Journalling & Creativity : ‘Learning to live in the moment’

Exploration of the power of gratitude, the benefits of journaling and finding hidden inner creativity. Mindful painting exercise today to learn to trust the process of what may emerge.

Week Six: Where Am I Now : Preparing for the way ahead

Reviewing the tools learned over the weeks, a time to share in our group what we feel we want to take forward and what we want to leave behind. Where am I now on my ‘bridge’?

Here are a few comments from our participants:

“The clarity of each segment of the course was outstanding.”

“Meeting others at different stages of their journey & listening to & supporting one another. Whilst at this session, it felt less lonely. I also learned to accept my sadness and grief as necessary without guilt. The coping tools were super.”

Encouragement Group: open to patients, 1-2pm every third Monday of the month

My Story, My Song

A monthly spiritual/ faith sharing group for people of all faiths or none, for participants to share a song/ piece of music, the message of an inspirational book, or a poem, that encourages them in their journey and that they feel they would like to share with others. A group for all patients, enabling the development of expression and reflection.

Here is some feedback from one of our participants:

“Well run. Friendly. Opportunities to speak openly”

open to newly bereaved partners: Six week course, three times a year

Navigating Life After The Storm

A great opportunity to meet and chat with like-minded people in a small, informal group session (maximum number six per group). A course free to all partners who have lost their life-companion

Here are a few comments from our participants:

“I would recommend this to anyone who has lost someone.”

“Very encouraging, thought provoking, fun at times and life changing.”

“It felt like a safe haven and I could be myself and honest about feelings."

“It was good we were small in number. It enabled sharing, having too many would be more difficult.”

“Being in a group helped to get an understanding of where others are at in their stage of grief.”

“The sessions really help.”