My identical twin girls, Lily and Elissa

My name is Maria Kontos, and I am a volunteer for Footprints and a trained counsellor specialising in baby loss and all things related to pregnancy. Here is my story.

On 5th October 2012 my precious identical twin daughters, Lily and Elissa were born at 27 weeks caused by TTTS. After fighting for their lives and being looked after in NICU, Elissa sadly passed away after 8 hours. Then 9 days later on the 14th of October, her sister Lily also lost her fight for survival. They were so beautiful and perfect in every way but just too tiny to survive.

Ever since they had died I wanted to create something positive from this devastating tragedy. The end goal was to help people going through the pain and heartache my family and I had endured. I started by climbing Mt Kilimanjaro just 8 months after the death of my daughters, raising money for a twin loss charity. After this I continued to raise money for various charities in their honour.

After Lily and Elissa died I was very fortunate to have Sharon as my befriender. She was amazing, so lovely and kind, which was much needed at a time where I felt isolated and lonely in my grief. Sharon and the bereavement group were a huge comfort, so supportive, and a safe place where my feelings were validated. This inspired me to become a befriender, and although it was heartbreaking to hear from others with a similar experience, it felt good to help someone through the same tragic loss.

During this time I had an amazing counsellor who helped and supported me through my grief as well as everything else in my life. He gave me the tools to be able to move forward, adjusting to live with my grief and life itself in my “new normal”. With the combination of being a befriender and my own personal therapy I was inspired to become a counsellor myself. Helping people like they have helped me has been incredibly rewarding. And since starting my practice I have had the honour of helping many people through tough times and I have seen them come out in a much better place.

I currently have my own private practice where I offer online and in person sessions. In my practice I work with clients presenting a variety of issues, with a special interest working with both couples and individuals that have experienced baby loss, single and multiple pregnancy loss, stillborn, multiple miscarriages, premature babies and TFMR, supporting them through their loss and trauma. In addition, supporting them with their anxieties around infertility, conceiving again after a loss, during a subsequent pregnancy after loss and any other pregnancy related anxieties as well as supporting parents with premature or sick babies in NICU.

Please feel free to contact me at: maria@mariakontoscounselling.com

If you wish to learn more about what I do please visit my website: mariakontoscounselling.com