A dissertation presented on the availability of Pastoral Care and Counselling for mothers whose previously normal, healthy children, developed epilepsy and became intellectually handicapped. The dissertation covers the mothers' reaction to their children's condition, the support they did or did not receive through Pastoral Care and Counselling and the theoretical perspective on pastoral care and counselling. Finally, the dissertation offers a challenge to the Church to seek ways of forming support groups to those suffering from grief. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2003.