Grief and Loss Counselling

We all experience grief and loss during our lives. Losing a job, a pet dies, a parent dies, a child dies, our car is stolen, we lose our purse. All of these have an effect on us. Some more than others. How we cope with that grief and loss will depend on many factors.  Such as, whether the loss was expected, sudden, over a long period, our own previous experience of loss and so on.

It is thought that there are stages to our grief. Kubler-Ross devised the five stages of grieving.  These stages include

·       Denial – where the person refuses to believe what has happened.

·       Anger – where the person begins to blame others for their loss

·       Bargaining – The person will try to take place within the individual or if they are religious – their god. For example, they will try to make a deal to stop the tragic event happening.

·       Depression – the person may feel listless, tired, guilty, believing everything is their fault.

·       Acceptance – the final stage of grief, where the person comes to accept what has happened.

People do not always go through these phases in a linear way. A person may move from one stage to another. For example, they may move from the anger to bargaining stage, then something happens and they go to the anger stage again.

When the person has moved through the five stages effectively, then they can hopefully move on with their lives. This is not to say that they will not still experience upset and grief at their loss, but that they are able to continue to move on with their lives.

Sometimes, people are not able to move beyond their grief and their grief becomes “complicated.” 

A complicated bereavement can take many forms, such as pathological grief, chronic morning or no grieving at all. They may have thoughts of their own death or hallucinations (hearing the dead person). 

Conflicted grief can arise when the relationship with the deceased was ambivalent. For example, the bereaved may have loved and hated the deceased person. This can lead to sadness and guilt about their feelings for the person who has died.

Chronic Grief can arise when the survivor was totally dependent on the deceased person to soothe and support them, so by hanging on to their grief, it is as though they are hanging on to the deceased person. With chronic grief, the grief also lasts far longer than we would expect.

As we said before, not all grief and loss is to do with the death of a person. It can relate to things, jobs, life style, pets, the loss of their dreams in life and anything of importance to the person.

Anyone who works with people who are experiencing grief and loss in their lives will find it useful to learn about the stages of grief and how you can support people who are grieving.

Tracey Jones

Tutor

STUDY GRIEF COUNSELLING ONLINE WITH ACS DISTANCE EDUCATION

Learn more about supporting people through their grief and loss.   Grief is a term used to describe all the thoughts, behaviour and feelings that occur after someone goes through a bereavement. If you work or support people dealing with loss this course should benefit you. ·Supporting people through their grief can be an important part of your job.·You may have suffered grief in the past yourself.·Gain confidence in supporting people with bereavement.·Save yourself time and money by distance education.·Learn about different responses to grief for different ages, stages & cultures. This course provides a sound basis for understanding and working with people who are experiencing grief.  Develop your understanding of appropriate practices and procedures for Grief Counselling. Topics covered include: Nature and Scope of Grief, Stages of Grief, Grief and different age groups, Adjustment to Bereavement, Abnormal Grief, Preparing for Bereavement, Long-term Grief, etc

http://www.acsedu.com/courses/grief-counselling-871.aspx