Bereavement

Bereavement

[Name]

[Institution]

[Instructor]

[Course]

Bereavement and Grief : Counsellling and Therapy

Introduction

Bereavement and grief impacts people on many levels : emotionally biologically , sexually , economically , socially , and spiritually . In essence , all aspects of a bereaved person 's life are affected by grief The lack of emphasis on the personal toll of therapy may lead to unprepared therapists conversely , having a personal preparedness for dealing with death issues , rather than simply being trained in tactics seems to predict more effective work with grieving persons and improved self-efficacy on

the part of therapists

This provides extensive research on the bereavement and grief therapies . First , it examines various definitions of grief and bereavement and differences between them . Then a variety of theories related to these processes are scrutinised and presented . Then different therapeutical approaches coping with bereavement and grief are explored After that subject of this study is examined through lenses of two classical psychotherapy theories : Person-Centred and Cognitive Therapy Finally , an integrated approach based on previous ones is presented Some conclusive remarks are also added

Definition of Bereavement and Grief

Morgan (2000 ) and traced the words bereavement and grief back to the French word ravir and even further , to its root , the old Frisian word reva , which means to steal or to rob . Thus , in experiencing loss , one feels an acute sense of deprivation of a significant person in one 's life . Morgan (2000 ) stated that grief is the price we pay for love it is the price we pay for security it is the price we pay for a sense of warmth and for a sense that our lives have meaning (p .1 . Simply expressed , grief is the little kid inside of us protesting . Grief is that little kid inside of us thinking that if I yell loudly enough , if I scream loudly enough maybe my loved one will come back (p .1

While the terms grief and bereavement may be viewed as synonymous , some authors make a distinction between them , generally defining bereavement as "the objective situation of having lost someone significant (Stroebe , Hansson , Stroebe Schut 2001 ,

. 6 . Grief is defined as the reaction to bereavement , the "severe and prolonged distress that is a response to the loss of an emotionally important figure (Weiss 2001 ,

br 47 . Parkes (1970 ) offers a more detailed definition

Grief , it seems , is a complex and time-consuming process in which a person gradually changes his view of the world and the places and habits by means of which he orientates and relates to it . It is a process of realization , of making psychologically real an external event which is not desired and for which coping plans do not exist (p . 465

While grief is the internal experience of thoughts and feelings in response to the loss , bereavement can be described as the loss itself and the process that expresses the internal experience of grief (Worden 2002 . Thus , a person may be bereaved in having experienced a loss , but not directly experiencing grief , as in...