Compassionate psychotherapy for grief, loss and life’s most difficult transitions.
“Llumus held space for our family with extraordinary compassion during one of the hardest times of our lives. We felt genuinely seen, supported and never alone in our grief.”
— Jo S., LLUMUS CLIENT
Llumus offers specialist psychotherapy across grief, loss, and end of life — whatever the context, whatever the setting. Below you will find an overview of the three streams of our work.
You are welcome to reach out if you are unsure which is right for your situation; a brief no-obligation conversation can usually clarify things.
Our Service Streams
1 - Individual & Family Psychotherapy
For individuals and families at any stage of life — navigating grief, anticipatory grief, bereavement, or for those receiving palliative care.
Grief does not follow a timeline and it does not require a 'reason' that others would recognise. People come to Llumus after a death, during a terminal illness, in the wake of significant loss, or simply when they are carrying something they cannot carry alone.
One-to-one psychotherapy is the core offering. Sessions are tailored to the individual — to what is present, what is needed, and what the person is able to engage with at this point in time.
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Individuals grieving a death — recent or long past
People supporting a loved one through a life-limiting illness
Those navigating anticipatory grief — before a death has occurred
People approaching the end of their own life
Family members experiencing complicated or unacknowledged grief
Those whose grief has not been witnessed or named by others
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In clinic — Inner West Sydney
Telehealth — available across Australia
Specialist psychosocial support for residential aged care providers, residents, and their families — across the full arc of the aged care journey.
Grief in residential aged care does not begin at death. It begins at the door. Research shows that more than half of residents develop depression or anxiety after admission — most with no prior mental illness. For families, the deepest loss is often the sudden end of their role as primary carer: a grief that begins at admission, deepens through decline, and continues well beyond death.
Llumus provides specialist psychotherapy across the three critical transitions in residential aged care:
2 - Residential Aged Care
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Loss of home, independence, identity, and routine. Llumus begins here — before any medical decline — with individual psychotherapy for residents and biographical conversations (Your Life, Your Story) that help people feel known as whole human beings, not only as care recipients.
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Deteriorating health, dementia, changing communication, anticipatory grief. Llumus supports residents and families to make meaning, explore values-based care, and stay connected across this passage. Legacy and end-of-life planning work (Your Life, Your Wishes) deepens here.
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The final weeks, the death itself, and the grief that follows. Llumus offers continuity of support through death and into early bereavement — for families who need it.
What an engagement includes
Individual psychotherapy for residents and family members
Your Life, Your Story — biographical conversations and a Who I Am / What Matters care summary
Your Life, Your Wishes — values clarification and end-of-life legacy work
Family communication and mediation support
Early bereavement follow-up
Documentation aligned with Strengthened Quality Standards requirements
For providers
Llumus works in partnership with residential aged care organisations across Sydney. Engagements are structured to complement — not replicate — the work of lifestyle and pastoral care teams. Olivia is available for provider consultations before any formal engagement begins.
3 - Palliative & Hospital Settings
For people receiving palliative care in hospital, hospice, or at home — and for their families — at any stage of a life-limiting illness.
Olivia brings counselling and psychotherapy to people who are facing death — not to prepare them for it in a scripted way, but to accompany them in whatever is present. This might be fear, or grief, or unfinished relationships, or the desire to make meaning of a life. It might be something that has no name yet.
She also supports families at the bedside — through the disorientation of watching someone they love approach death, through the practical and emotional weight of being a carer, and into the early days of bereavement after the death itself.
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People with a life-limiting diagnosis who want psychological support
People in palliative care units or hospital wards seeking therapeutic accompaniment
Family members supporting a loved one at end of life
Families in the first weeks of bereavement following a palliative death
Those for whom the dying process has raised existential, relational, or spiritual questions
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In residence — at palliative units and hospital wards in Sydney
In clinic — for those who are well enough to travel
Telehealth — for family members at a distance
Our Fees
Llumus is a private practice. Sessions are offered at the following rates:
These sessions may include a travel fee to cover time and distance. This will always be discussed and agreed in advance.
In-residence sessions
outside of inner Sydney
$165 per session.
In residence (home, hospital, or aged care facility) — $185 per session.
In clinic or telehealth
Please contact us for rates.
Provider & organisation partnerships
Some Private health insurance extras policies cover sessions with a PACFA-registered psychotherapist. Worth checking with your fund directly.
Medicare Psychotherapy is not covered under Medicare's Better Access scheme.
A note on cost: If fees are a concern, please raise this when you get in touch. Olivia is happy to have that conversation.
Medicare & Private Health rebates
Ready to take the first step?
Reaching out can feel hard. I'll do my best to make it easy.