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about us

Our History

Petals was founded in 2011 by Karen Burgess, our Chief Executive.  Originally working as a counsellor within the NHS in Cambridge, Karen witnessed first-hand how critical her specialist counselling work was for bereaved parents. So when the funding for her role was cut, she was determined to keep it going.  And so Petals – which originally stood for Pregnancy Expectations Trauma and Loss Society – was born.  Since achieving charity status in 2013, the service has grown to the size it is today, with aspirations to expand nationwide.

 

 

Our Vision

Every parent in the UK has easy and timely access to specialist counselling following baby loss.

Our Mission

To provide and promote specialist counselling for parents across the UK following baby loss.

How We Will Do This

We are working towards providing a nationwide specialist counselling service for parents affected by any of the following:

 

  • Miscarriage

  • Poor pregnancy diagnosis

  • Termination for medical reasons

  • Stillbirth

  • Neonatal loss

  • Antenatal anxiety following a previous loss/losses

We are also working to mainstream specialist baby loss counselling so that it is included with best practice in all UK maternity settings

 

Our Values

We are committed to supporting the psychological recovery of parents who suffer baby loss

At the heart of our practice is the belief that our counselling intervention is relevant and beneficial to the clients that we support. 

We are pioneers in our area

By continuously developing our specialist counselling approach – and building on trusted methods that we know work from our years of experience – we are able to provide the most effective and relevant counselling service to parents following baby loss. 

We put parents at the centre of all our work

Trust, compassion and respect are the principles that we unquestioningly apply to all our interactions with parents. As well as providing our clients with a safe and confidential environment to talk freely about their trauma and loss, our expertise enables us to be adaptable, so that we can tailor our approach to the individual needs of bereaved parents.

We are committed to providing the highest standards of counselling intervention

We ensure that our counsellors are experienced and have specialist perinatal counselling training.  All Petals Approved Counsellors are required to be registered on a Professional Standards Advisory Register for Health Professionals to undertake contracted counselling sessions.

We strongly believe in equality of access to healthcare services for all parents following baby loss

As well as our ambition to expand our own service nationally, we are committed to working in partnership with others to ensure that all bereaved parents have access to the full range of support that they may need in both the short- and long-term.