In times of tragedy and despair, Julia Samuel is the person to whom the nation turns. A grief counsellor and pioneer of paediatric psychotherapy, she talks about the effects of the pandemic, her friendship with Princess Diana – and helping families to resolve their conflicts
Every night, Julia Samuel goes to bed and silently recites a list of names. She begins with her nine grandchildren, then her three daughters, her son, their partners, and then her husband of 42 years – it’s a ritual she started, to look after her family. And then every morning she gets up, has a cup of tea, and goes upstairs to look after everybody else’s.
Samuel holds a unique place in the British psyche, one seeded before she was born (into the banking side of the Guinness dynasty) and one that grew in complicated ways with her appearance in the tabloids alongside her friend Diana, Princess of Wales, evolving again as she became a counsellor, working in the NHS at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, where she pioneered the role of maternity and paediatric psychotherapist, and founded the charity Child Bereavement UK.
