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Counseling Course For Grief & Bereavement

(A Course Design)

RationaleLosing someone or something you love is very painful.After a significant loss, you may experience all kinds ofdifficult and surprising emotions, such as shock, anger,and guilt. Sometimes it may feel like the sadness willnever let up. While these feelings can be frightening andoverwhelming, they are normal reactions to loss.Accepting them as part of the grieving process and

allowing yourself to feel what you feel is necessary forhealing.

There is no right or wrong way to grieve but there arehealthy ways to cope with the pain. You can get throughit! Grief that is expressed and experienced has a potentialfor healing that eventually can strengthen and enrich life.

In Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy (1991), the clinician and researcher William J.

Worden, Ph.D., makes a distinction between grief counseling and grief therapy. He

believes counseling involves helping people facilitate uncomplicated, or normal, grief to

a healthy completion of the tasks of grieving within a reasonable time frame. Grief

therapy, on the other hand, utilizes specialized techniques that help people with

abnormal or complicated grief reactions and helps them resolve the conflicts of

separation. He believes grief therapy is most appropriate in situations that fall into three

categories: (1) The complicated grief reaction is manifested as prolonged grief; (2) the

grief reaction manifests itself through some masked somatic or behavioral symptom; or

(3) the reaction is manifested by an exaggerated grief response.

Does a person need "specialized" grief counseling or grief therapy when grief, as a

normal reaction to loss, takes place? Are people not able to cope with loss as they have

in the past or are individuals not being provided the same type of support they received

in previous generations? Individual and family geographic living arrangements are

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different in the twenty-first century than in past years. People have moved from rural to

urban centers, technology has altered the lifespan, and the health care decisions are

becoming not only more prevalent but often more difficult. Cost and legal issues become

factors in some cases. Today, ethics committees in hospitals and long-term care facilities

are available to help families and health care providers arrive at common ground.

Traumatic and violent deaths have also changed the bereavement landscape. What had

helped individuals and families in the past in many situations has eroded and the grief

and bereavement specialist, or the persons, agencies, and organizations providing those

services, is doing so in many cases out of default. Grief counseling is used not only by

individuals and families, but in many situations by schools, agencies, and organizations,

and in some cases by entire communities affected by death.

Can Sources Other than Professionals Act AsCounselors?

Social worker Dennis M. Reilly states, "We do not necessarily need a whole new

profession of . . . bereavement counselors. We do need more thought, sensitivity, and

activity concerning this issue on the part of the existing professional groups; that is,

clergy, funeral directors, family therapists, nurses, social workers and physicians"

(Worden 1991, p. 5). Although there are professionals who specialize in grief counseling

and grief therapy, there are still many opportunities for the bereaved to seek support

elsewhere.

Churches, synagogues, community centers, and neighborhoods were (and in many cases

still are) the "specialized" support persons. Cultural traditions and religious rituals for

many bereaved persons did and still do meet their needs. In the past, friends, family,

and support systems listened to one another and supported individuals through the

death of their loved ones, during the rituals after the death, and during the days,

months, and years after the death. Although American culture is used to having

immediate gratification, not everyone processes grief at the same rate. Some cope and

adapt to a death sooner, while others, based on similar factors and variables, may take a

longer period of time.

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