Support for Families and Carers at Upside Stories
Caring for someone you love can be meaningful and fulfilling, but it can also bring loss, exhaustion, and a sense of isolation.
Carers’ Compass offers a 10-week individualised program for family members and friends who are supporting someone with health challenges, especially dementia.
Together, we explore how to navigate the emotional load of caring while also making space for your own needs, goals, and wellbeing. We can help with managing stress, coping with guilt or grief, improving communication and relational connection, finding new meaning and purpose, and rediscovering balance in your own life.
For added support, we include educational packs and between session activities with optional check-ins. Carers’ Compass offers a supportive foundation, with six-sessions recommended over 10-weeks. Each session is billed one at a time, so you can take a break, stop, or continue beyond six sessions based on your needs.
Being a carer can be meaningful and filled with love, but it can also bring guilt, grief, and burnout.
In these sessions, we help you navigate the emotional load of caring for someone living with dementia, while also making space for your own needs, goals, and wellbeing. You’re not alone — more than twice as many dementia carers experience depression, compared to non-carers, so reaching out for support is a caring move for both you and your family.
We also know that, alongside distress, dementia carers can experience personal growth — including newfound strengths, wisdom, compassion, new perspectives on life, spiritual growth, and relational appreciation — with the right support.
We Provide a Compassionate Ear, Practical Tools, and a Growth Approach for Carers
In therapy, you’ll learn strategies for managing stress and anxiety, coping with feelings like anger or guilt, improving communication with family or healthcare providers, and setting healthy boundaries.
We also support you through grief and loss that can come with caring (including ambiguous loss, and anticipatory grief). Sessions often involve exploring your caregiving story – honouring the challenges you’ve faced – and recognising the growth, strength, and new meaning that has emerged along the way.
The Upside Approach
You’ll find a warm, non-judgmental space to vent and process the complex emotions of caregiving.
Together, we’ll explore coping strategies and self-care routines that fit your life. With a growth-focused approach, we also support practical problem-solving (for example, navigating family dynamics or accessing community resources).
Our aim is that you leave sessions feeling heard, supported, and empowered with new perspectives to sustain and inspire you in your caring chapter.
