Sarah Lewis

Caregiver Counselling, Dementia Support, and Grief

Caring for someone you love who has dementia or Alzheimer's disease can be incredibly complicated. You may be juggling medical decisions, changing family relationships, work, parenting, and the everyday responsibilities of caregiving, all while watching someone you love gradually change. It's exhausting, and sometimes it feels like no matter how much you do, it's never quite enough.

I'm Sarah, a Registered Clinical Counsellor with a Master's degree in Counselling Psychology. I've worked in healthcare since 2006, and my counselling practice focuses on supporting caregivers and families navigating dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and other life-changing health conditions.

I support caregivers who are experiencing:

• Caregiver stress, burnout, and emotional exhaustion.
• Guilt, resentment, frustration, and the feeling of never doing enough.
• Difficult family dynamics, including sibling conflict and changing parent-child relationships.
• The challenges of balancing caregiving with work, parenting, relationships, and their own well-being.
• Anticipatory grief, ambiguous loss, and the emotional impact of watching someone they love change.
• Grief and bereavement following the death of a loved one.

Grief doesn't always begin when someone dies.

For families affected by dementia, grief can begin long before death. You may find yourself missing the person your loved one used to be, even while they're sitting right beside you. This is sometimes called ambiguous loss, and it can be incredibly difficult to understand or explain to others.

Caregiving can also mean grieving parts of your own life: the relationships, opportunities, independence, and plans that have changed or been put aside. These losses matter, too.

My work includes supporting caregivers through these experiences, as well as providing grief counselling after their loved one has died. The end of caregiving can bring a complicated mix of sadness, relief, guilt, exhaustion, and uncertainty. You deserve support through all of it.

What can you expect from counselling with me?

I believe counselling should be a space where you don't have to hold everything together. You can bring whatever you're feeling, without judgment or expectations about how you should be coping.

My approach is compassionate, collaborative, and practical. Together, we'll unpack what's weighing on you, identify your priorities, and develop realistic tools for navigating difficult emotions, decisions, and relationships.

You don't need to become stronger or more resilient. You're already doing so much. My role is to support you, help you care for yourself along the way, and offer a space where you can breathe.

I offer counselling in Burnaby and virtually throughout British Columbia, with a free 20-minute consultation to see whether we're a good fit.