Counselors Help Community Heal from Loss & Grief

Counselor Dee Brandon

When someone you love dies or a traumatic death happens in your community, your world may start spinning. You don’t have to go through it alone.

Suncoast Hospice’s Center for Loss and Healing offers a broad range of counseling and support groups for those who’ve experienced loss and grief. Services are available to anyone in the community and provided based on an individualized fee scale.

Help with Loss of Loved Ones

Deangelis “Dee” Brandon, MSW is one of the center’s counselors who help people find their grounding and healing. She has served with Suncoast Hospice for 15 years, including working as a children’s counselor with one of our care teams and a counselor with our Stepping Stones children and families program.

In her role with the center, Dee does grief counseling with adults, children and families and works with support groups. Her mission is to help them find understanding and peace.

“I love what I do because I get to help people, which may mean holding their hands, bringing them coffee or listening to their stories. It may be a widow or widower or someone who’s dealing with a loved one’s sudden, unexpected death, such as a heart attack, suicide or accidental overdose. They want somebody to listen to them, help them problem solve and let them know that everything they’re going through is ok. It’s ok if they don’t want to eat or they want to cry,” Dee said.

Support with Traumatic Events

Her work also includes support for people who’ve been newly diagnosed with an illness, as well as crisis intervention, grief–in–the–workplace and other traumatic loss counseling.  

“We do a lot of crisis intervention, including counseling when there are shootings in the community. We reach out to police officers, firefighters and other professionals and give them education and support because they’re on our front lines and see a lot,” she said.

She helps others in the community who’ve been shaken by traumatic news stories. “That news may trigger something, so they’ll come in for a few sessions. Some examples include the recent sinkhole event or loss of homes or family members’ loss of homes. Those can be traumatic. We’ll get referred to families and give them support or information they can take to their loved ones.”

Do you think counseling might help you or someone you know?

Please call 727–467–7423 any time for information or visit our events calendar for a listing of our support groups.