The Lighthouse Club were contacted by a construction plant operator who has worked in the industry for over 20 years. He was extremely angry and upset after the breakdown of a long-term relationship.
During the relationship, he and his partner had suffered three miscarriages. Eventually they were able to have a child. A few years later, the relationship with his partner broke down and he had to leave the shared home.
This hit him very hard. He became angry and verbally abusive. He began to suffer from nightmares and struggled to cope day-to-day. He felt he could no longer carry on.
It became clear that the client’s behaviour, his anger and abusive language, were how he was expressing his grief. Our caseworker and the client worked together to agree some boundaries so that the caseworker could provide a listening ear and enable the client to talk about his situation in a reasonable way.
The caseworker also checked to see if there were other issues that could be affecting the client such as financial or physical struggles and to make sure that he was adequately housed after the relationship breakdown. The gentleman was then referred for counselling.
With the counsellor, he was able to work through his issues. He learned strategies to help him grieve and cope with the loss of his babies and his relationship breakdown. This also helped him to recognise appropriate behaviour and language and set boundaries to improve relationships going forward.
The client is extremely grateful for the support and would recommend that anyone who needs a listening ear should not suffer alone but give the helpline a call and he would not hesitate to do that if needed to in the future.
