Dealing With The Death Of A Loved One? Lean How Grief Counselling Can Help Overcoming The Loss.
Tags: counselling, counsellor, death, Depression, family, grief, health, Lifestyle, loss, Mental Health, mourning, psychology
Counselling for grief involves talking about the loss and so enables the person to come to terms with the loss over time.
Grief can be caused by a number of upsetting events. In addition to the death of a loved one, events such as news of a fatal illness, marriage breakdown or loss of a job can bring on grief.
Counselling provides time to explore issues and other factors that occured that can help or hinder the process of adjusting to the loss.
Grief is undoubtedly one of the most painful experiences we as humans have to go through. As we live our life, we go through many small losses that can assist in handling the inevitable large losses. When a loved one has been ill for a long time, we feel great sorrow when the death occurs. But when a death is sudden, our world turns upside down and we feel confused and deny the death. This is termed a complicated grief reaction, brought about because there was no time to emotionally prepare ourselves.
Grief counselling is usually conducted after a death in the family, but may also be helpful in grief-provoking situations such as death of a pet, a job loss, the diagnosis of a terminal , marriage breakdown or another reason. Grief counselling works to overcome the feelings of loss. Grief counselling can be undertaken either individually or in groups.
When a we lose someone close, we most likely receive much attention initially from close friends and family. But soon most people will move on after a few weeks, especially so when the loss is not so close to them. The grieving person however may not be ready to “move on”. In this situation counselling is most beneficial, especially if the death was unexpected. Counselling gives the grieving person a mechanism to continue to adjust to the loss and receive assistance that may not be available from friends, family or wider peronal network.
Grief counselling is especially important for those who may have had a difficult relationship with the deceased person or are socially a little isolated or had emotional issues previous to the loss.
Grief counsellors realise that grieving is a process that cannot be rushed. Counselling may also remind the person that the feelings or choices they make while grieving are quite normal and natural. The aims of grief counselling differ to counselling undertaken to change behaviour. Rather, the goal of the grief counsellor is to be “there” for the bereaved when they are most vulnerable. This is sometimes called compassioning by counsellors.
Most frequently, the grief counsellor helps the person by simply listening in an active manner and by demonstrating empathy. Then assisting the person to find coping mechanisms to deal with the grief.
For further free information on grief counselling visit Stockport Counselling Service. To find a Local Counselling Service.
