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Emotional And Spiritual Aspects Of
Grief Counseling
By Steven Andrews
Grief is a process that involves a person's emotion,
spirituality, physicality experienced after a tragedy or
loss, such as divorce, separation or sudden death of a
loved one. It is crucial to help grief-stricken persons
to cope up with this emotion and not end up depressed
that may result to catastrophic ending such as substance
abuse or worse, suicide.
Generally, grief has two types, the normal and abnormal
grief. Normal grief results to an expected demise. On
the other hand, abnormal grief (also known as traumatic
grief) is the consequence of sudden loss, may it be
traumatic or unexpected. Abuse towards a griever can
also be a cause of abnormal grief. Even though the
severity of the two types of grief is not the same,
however, the two can be cured through grief counseling.
One may seek professional help from a grief counselor to
handle this.
Grief counseling may be done in a formal and informal
setting, depending on the discretion of the grief
counselor. The therapist has an extensive expertise of
the grieving process. He or she has advanced
comprehension on psychology, social work, medicine,
human emotion and other interconnected discipline. The
role of this person is to evaluate (through studying the
patient), provide education, mentoring, emotional
assistance and support. The counselor should empathize
with the client's emotion and should have a listening
ear.
When the counselor can't handle the grief of the client,
a clinical intervention may be done. Clinical
intervention is carried if the client can't handle the
issues on their own. Therapy of grief involves the full
participation of the griever. No matter how good the
coaching of the counselor is but if the client is
non-receptive, then clinical intervention is made. This
technique can be carried out individually, by group,
through self help books, evaluation and training
programs, and the most drastic way, admission to a
psychiatric hospital.
Dealing with the pain can be done without seeking
professional help. There are several ways to deal with
this. Forming support groups comprising family, closest
friends and even members of the church can comprise this
support group. These people can provide ways and means
to provide closure and catharsis to the grieving person.
Another way of seeking non-professional help is by
keeping busy. Exercising, resting and getting involved
in worthwhile activities will channel all the emotions
to these endeavors and keeps the mind occupied.
Grief counseling may or may not require professional
help. Letting the griever feel that there are people
willing to help will surely make a difference. |
