GRIEF AND LOSS COUNSELING
Are you devastated by the death of a loved one?
Are grief and loss issues affecting your relationships, family, work?
Are you dealing with aging parents with multiple health issues, their loss of independence, dementia?
Are you feeling the emotional pain of grief? Do you have feelings of anger, numbness, shock, sadness.
If you are having problems coping with the pain of your loss it may be time to consider grief therapy. You may feel that you should be over this by now. People may be asking you, "Why are you still so sad?" "Why can't you move forward?" You may feel that you are grieving appropriately. There is no right or wrong way to grieve. Grief is a process. There is no timetable. It is personal and individual. You can start to feel better and you don't have to go through it alone.
Grief counseling can provide you with a healthy way to develop positive coping skills. Some relief can be found through expressing your feelings. The use of resources through books, music, meditation, and art can create positive outcomes. Much of my therapy practice has focused on grief and loss issues, often working with the elderly and their families. With time and a caring, compassionate and sensitive approach you can heal and learn to cope with life's losses.
RANGE OF EMOTIONS
Denial - feeling that something isn’t true
Disbelief - unable to believe that something is true or real
Confusion - the state of being bewildered, feeling uncertain
Shock - a physical reaction to traumatic event
Sadness - an emotional pain relating to feelings of grief and loss
Anger - is a basic human response/emotion
Despair - the complete loss or absence of hope
Guilt - feeling you did something wrong
GRIEF is a natural response to loss. It is a powerful emotional feeling. How strong the feeling depends on the intensity of the loss. The more significant the loss, the greater the intensity of the grief. Even subtle losses can lead to a strong grief response. Subtle losses might include the elderly moving to a more supportive environment, retirement, selling the family home.
GRIEVING is personal and individual. It depends on the individual's personality, how one has coped with life's experience in the past and one's faith. Healing is gradual. There is no normal timetable. The process can take weeks, months or even years. It is best to let the process happen gradually.
MOURNING is the word that describes public rituals or symbols of bereavement. Symbols of bereavement might include the funeral, wearing black or flags being flown at half staff. Through mourning, grief is resolved. It is the process of detaching emotionally and having the ability to move forward and heal.
BEREAVEMENT is defined as the period of mourning following the death or loss. The length of time and process of the bereavement period is also highly individual. No two people respond in the same way to a loss. How you respond is influenced by ethnic and religious traditions, personal beliefs, type of relationship, cause of death, the age of the person who died, whether the loss is sudden or expected.
LOSS according to the Oxford Dictionary is the fact or process of losing something or someone. Loss is a part of life. It represents the end of something. These emotional wounds need time to heal. The only way to do this is to go through the grieving process.
As a therapist, I’ve helped clients heal and learn how to cope with their losses. Most people feel grief is only about losing a loved one. There are so many other types of losses. Moving from the home you’ve lived in for many years can be a loss. It may be the home where your children grew up or the family home where you were raised. The death of a pet can be very traumatic. Pets are a member of the family. Your dog or cat may have been with you as long as 15-20 years. They provided unconditional love and support. You need to grieve this loss. Even a welcomed retirement after years of working can cause feelings of grief. It may feel like a loss of your identity. Other issues you might grieve include: loss of independence due to health issues, becoming empty nesters, divorce or the end of a relationship, losing a job, loss of a cherished dream. Even subtle losses in life can trigger feelings of grief, such as graduating from college, or changing jobs. These are just some of the losses in life that need to be grieved. Whatever the losses, they are personal to you and deserve to be grieved. We can work together to give you the opportunity to develop coping skills. In time you’ll be able to ease your sadness, and come to terms with your loss.
If you are interested in setting up a free 15-minute phone consultation, send me a message through my free contact form.
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