Bereavement and the death of someone you love
The loss of a partner, parent, child, friend or someone who felt like family, sudden or long expected, still leaves a hole that words rarely reach.
Grief Counselling Cairns
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Soul Counselling · Grief Support · Cairns
Grief in the Far North deserves a place to be held
Whether you are in the CBD or along the Esplanade, out at Edmonton, Smithfield or Redlynch, or up on the Atherton Tablelands, grief can arrive in many forms. A death, the end of a relationship, a body or a future that has changed. Soul Counselling meets you online and by phone, wherever you are.
Book a free 15-minute assessment → Ask a question firstPrefer to talk first? Call 0479 144 561
For most people, grief slowly softens over months and years as they are supported and given room to feel it, yet around one in ten bereaved people carry a prolonged, stuck grief that is eased by professional help. The most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for 2020 to 2022 show that about 23.7 percent of Queenslanders aged 16 to 85, close to one in four, lived with a mental health condition in a single year, so struggling after a loss is far more common than the quiet around it suggests.
Sources: Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement; ABS National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020 to 2022.
Five-star Google reviews
People keep saying the same thing.
One conversation in, most clients say they’ve finally been understood.
“I truly felt heard for the first time in all my life and deeply understood.”
“When I came to Christina I was drowning in darkness… now I’m finally thriving again.”
“Due to her mediumship I was able to see core issues that I wasn’t able to recognise before.”
How grief might be showing up for you
- You feel numb one hour and flattened by a wave the next, with no warning about which is coming.
- Sleep will not come, or you wake at 3am with the loss sitting on your chest before you have even opened your eyes.
- You keep going for everyone else, holding the shift, the household or the family together, while nothing inside you has been allowed to stop.
- Small things undo you, a song, a smell, an empty seat, and ordinary tasks suddenly feel enormous.
- You no longer recognise your own life or direction, as though the person you were before the loss has gone quiet too.
In the long, close heat of the wet season, or when you are grieving far from where you grew up, all of this can feel heavier still. None of it means you are doing grief wrong.
How Christina works
How Christina holds grief with you
Grief is not a problem to be solved or a task to complete. It is love and loss with nowhere left to go, and what it needs most is space, a steady witness and enough safety to feel what is real. There is no rushing here and no timeline you are being measured against.
A place to land
Sessions are unhurried and led by you, so you can put down what you have been carrying and say the things there is no room for elsewhere. Nothing you feel is too much or too strange.
Witnessed, not fixed
Christina does not try to talk you out of your grief or tidy it away. She sits with you in it, helping you make sense of the waves without any pressure to be over anything.
Your own pace
Some sessions are full of words and tears, others are quiet, and both are welcome. You set the speed, and you can pause, slow down or return whenever you need to.
Go deeper
Read a little more before you reach out
This page can only say so much about something as tender as grief. Our longer writing goes deeper into what loss can feel like, why it has no correct shape, and what gentle support can offer. It may help you feel less alone before you decide anything.
Read the grief counselling blogRead when you are ready. There is no hurry.
What we can work through
Common grief themes we sit with
Grief wears many faces, and all of them are valid, whether or not anyone else recognises the loss.
Relationship endings and separation
The end of a marriage or partnership is its own grief, mourning not only a person but a shared future you had imagined.
Loss of health, ability or independence
A diagnosis, an injury or a body that no longer does what it did asks you to grieve the life and self you expected to keep.
Loss of home, identity and belonging
Moving away, leaving a community or watching a chapter close can quietly grieve who you were and where you felt you fit.
About Christina
The counsellor behind Soul Counselling.
Soul Counselling was founded in 2016 by Christina Feyes, a counsellor with training across psychology, social work and human services and more than ten years alongside people in their hardest seasons. She works with clients right across Australia by video and phone, including throughout Far North Queensland, and has written a book about death and loss called Realizing Death. She is a counsellor rather than a registered psychologist, and she does not diagnose, prescribe or treat.
What people often notice is the way Christina holds both the practical and the deeper layers of grief at once. She brings grounded clinical understanding and steady, down to earth counselling, and she also makes room for the emotional and spiritual questions that loss can stir up. You are met as a whole person, in the ordinary and the profound, without ever being pushed toward tidy answers.
Common questions
Before you book.
If your question is not here, the free 15-minute assessment is the easiest way to ask it.
Is grief counselling expensive?
Soul Counselling does not list fees on this page, because the first step costs you nothing. You begin with a free 15-minute assessment, with no card details and no obligation, so you can simply feel out whether Christina is the right person to sit with your grief. There truly is nothing to lose by starting there. If you decide to continue, everything is talked through openly and gently beforehand, so nothing about cost is ever a surprise and you are never locked into anything.
Do I need a referral to start?
No, you do not need a referral or a GP letter to reach out. You can contact Soul Counselling directly and book your free 15-minute assessment yourself, whenever you feel ready. Grief does not wait for paperwork, and neither should you have to. If you are already working with a GP or another service, that is completely fine and this can sit alongside it, but nothing formal is required to begin. You are welcome to make the first small step entirely on your own terms.
Are sessions online, and is there a Cairns clinic I can visit?
There is no Soul Counselling clinic in Cairns. All support is offered online by secure video and by phone, right across the Far North and the rest of Australia. For many people in remote and regional areas this is actually easier, because there is no long drive, no waiting room and no need to leave home while feeling raw. You can have your session from your lounge, your car or anywhere quiet and private. Christina’s only physical base is in Southport on the Gold Coast, but you never need to travel there.
Is it too late if my loss was years ago?
No, it is never too late. Grief does not expire, and it is very common for loss to surface again years later, sometimes triggered by an anniversary, a life change or simply the space to finally feel it. Many people come to counselling long after everyone around them has assumed they are fine. Whether your loss was last month or a decade ago, your grief is still valid and still worth tending. You are welcome to bring it here whenever it feels right for you, with no sense that you have left it too long.
Can you help if my family is far away or I could not travel for the funeral?
Yes. Grieving from a distance carries its own particular ache, especially when you could not be there to say goodbye or stand with your people at the funeral. In a place like Cairns, where so many have moved from elsewhere, this is a very familiar kind of loss. You may feel cut off from the shared mourning that others had. Christina can help you find your own way to grieve, honour and stay connected to who or what you have lost, even when the distance meant you could not be physically present.
Can online counselling really help from a remote Far North town?
Yes, and for many people it is the difference between getting support and getting none at all. When the nearest counsellor is hours away or booked out for weeks, online and phone sessions bring gentle grief support to you wherever you are, from the Tablelands to the Cassowary Coast to Cape York. The connection is warm and personal, and grief work translates well to video and phone. You do not need a perfect setup, only a quiet spot and a way to talk. The distance stops being a barrier.
What if I do not even know where to start?
That is completely okay, and very normal. Grief can leave you foggy, wordless and unsure what you even need. You do not have to arrive with anything worked out or explain yourself neatly. You can begin your free 15-minute assessment with nothing more than a sense that things feel heavy, and Christina will gently help you find your way in from there. There is no right way to start and no test to pass. Sometimes just saying out loud that you are struggling is enough for a first step.
What should I do if I am in crisis right now?
Counselling is not a crisis or emergency service, and there may be times you need immediate help. If your life or someone else’s is in danger, call 000 straight away. For urgent support any time, day or night, Lifeline is on 13 11 14. GriefLine offers specialised grief and loss support on 1300 845 745. For culturally safe support, 13YARN is available on 13 92 76 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Please reach out to these services first if you are in crisis, and Soul Counselling will be here for the ongoing, gentler work when you are ready.
When you are ready, there is a gentle first step
Start with a free 15-minute assessment, with no card and no obligation, just a quiet chance to see whether this feels right, so there is nothing to lose.
Book your free 15-minute assessment →Prefer to talk first? Call 0479 144 561
Grief support across Cairns
Grief support for Cairns and the Far North catchment
Cairns is a remote regional hub holding a huge catchment, from the CBD and Esplanade out to Edmonton, Smithfield and Redlynch, and reaching to the Atherton Tablelands, the Cassowary Coast, Cape York and the Torres Strait. Distances are long, local grief services are thin and waits can stretch out. In the heavy, humid stretch of the wet season, when heat and cabin fever close things in, loss can feel even harder to carry. Many people here also grieve while working the busy tourism and hospitality shifts, far from where their families are.
- You live in or around Cairns and cannot find timely grief support close to home.
- You are on the Tablelands, the Cassowary Coast or further north and travelling to a counsellor is not realistic.
- You work long tourism, hospitality or shift-based hours and need support that fits around them.
- You are grieving far from your home town or country, with little space to stop and feel it.
Sessions are held online and by phone across Cairns and all of Australia. You can also explore all Cairns counselling services.
Reaching the Far North
Gentle support that reaches across the Far North
Far North Queensland is home to a significant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, and for many people grief is held within culture, community and Country. Culturally safe, Indigenous-led grief support exists, and 13YARN on 13 92 76 offers a culturally safe space to yarn without judgement. Soul Counselling does not claim any cultural specialisation, and simply offers a warm, respectful place alongside whatever support already matters to you.
Christina is a qualified counsellor who works with grief gently and without any clock running against you, because grief has no timeline. Sessions are online and by phone at a pace you set, and you will never be pressured to be over your loss or to feel more than you do. You are welcome exactly as you are.