Deborah Jacobs

DeborahJDeborah Jacobs is the founder and head practitioner of Holistic Haven Australia currently located in Adelaide. She is a Counsellor and Sex Therapist specialising in grief, loss and suicide bereavement. Over the past decade she has gained specialised training and experience in suicide prevention, intervention and postvention, as a volunteer Lifeline telephone counsellor, then as a first responder with Living Beyond Suicide – a program of Anglicare SA, which commenced in 2008. More recently she has also become involved as a volunteer with the Playford Suicide Prevention Network and helps at the Playford Suicide Bereavement Support Group in Elizabeth each month.

Deborah has a wealth of experience in the disability arena and has come to realise the need to look at everyone as an individual and their issues dealt with in the most holistic manner possible. During her years as carer to Brendan, she was heavily involved with a variety of disability organisations.

Following her son Brendan’s death in 2004 and several hospital stays for hernia and other operations, she realised how many people had their own stories of grief and loss which were still very raw even decades later in some cases. For some it was the loss of a loved one, but for others it was dealing with their loss of good health that they were grieving. It was at that time Deborah decided to study counselling so that she would be qualified to help such people. This also fitted in well with the holistic health approach and her training as a reflexologist and massage therapist, which she completed while seeking the right Counselling-training organisation.

Always interested in writing, Deborah worked as a reporter and editor at two community newspapers in Sydney, and had several articles published in various newsletters and parent magazines before turning her attention to this project. Coincidentally, recent and serious health challenges have called for some lifestyle changes that make writing a good field for her to once again focus her energy.

Connect with Deborah and follow her blog at deborahjacobs.com.au

Phone: 0475556265

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