Grief Counseling Certification Blog on the Loss of War in Ukraine

Posted on March 23, 2022 by Dominick Flarey

War is the ultimate failure in dialogue. Violence is never justified against another yet throughout history war has been used as a vehicle of violence against countless billions. War in many cultures is seen as a punishment from above and a sign of sin. The Horseman of War is one of the four riders of the Apocalypse spreading hate, violence and death in many of these cultures. In others, war is attributed to the god of war.

Loss and grief from war is always extremely traumatic. It leaves death imprint and deep trauma to those who experience intense loss. Many suffer from PTSD. Please pray for Ukraine

Ultimately war comes from human beings because of greed, envy and hate. It is an absence of reason and a cruel extension of diplomacy by force. With it comes death, loss and suffering at a grand scale. This is especially true for wars that disregard civilian life and human decency. Ironically, war can be justified if for defense and it can also be carried out within a a code of conduct, but rarely does that matter, when even the “just” can fall to blood lust in battle. War has no victors but only those who mourn the loss of life, property and future.

In Ukraine, war has again come to Europe. Loss is everywhere at a traumatic level. The loss is incomprehensible for the victims of the war. The people and soldiers who experience the death and destruction are victims of war’s evil spell. Many experience losses of children, spouses, parents, or pets. Beyond the loss of family, many have lost their entire life savings, as well as future. There is no house to return to due to the bombs, but only ash. Within Ukraine there is also a loss of identity, where the nation itself fights for its very existence.

This type of death mark and traumatic loss will haunt the people of Ukraine for the rest of their lives, well beyond the calendar end of the war. The scars, the trauma, the loss, and the horrendous destruction cannot be forgiven much less forgotten. These poor souls who survive the physical pain will forever be haunted by the emotional and mental pain of this war.

The severe trauma of death imprint is one symptom which will cause a high level of PTSD within the general population. The sound of the bombs and missiles, the rolling of tanks, and the sound of gunfire will haunt civilians and soldiers alike. With no safe haven, these victims will suffer to come to grips with the unprocessed trauma that was witnessed in their own cities. The death imprints of dead in the streets, bodies unburied, and the smell of the dead, will haunt adults and children alike. The pure genocide of a town will imprint itself on the minds of so many. Not only will the loss of loved ones and home be relived, but also the moment itself.

Furthermore, in any mass destruction, there will be a multitude of individuals who suffer from survivor guilt. They will feel guilty they lived and a loved one did not, or they will regret what they did or did not. This will haunt them as they relive the moments of the war. For these civilians, the trauma may be far worst than for a soldier because war should never come to one’s home.

Total destruction of war leaves one asking why? The grief and loss of war is severe. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification

The mere thought of this also terrifies those from afar. Mentally, most of Western Europe is witnessing the grief of refugees, while others witness the carnage on television. This is creating a fear within the general population of earth of a potential great war, where what is occurring will happen throughout the world. The anxiety and fear of a greater war ending in a nuclear holocaust between the West and Russia is awakening anxiety, anger, fear and grief.

This war is only to real not only for those who are suffering from it and fighting in it, but also those witnessing it from afar. Seeing small children die, or civilian homes destroyed from missiles afar all awake a fear to everyone else. Anyone with empathy can feel the pain but also the fear of sharing that experience. Many are experiencing an anticipatory grief with fears of losing loved ones in a major conflict. A once never conceived idea of massive loss and pain is now potentially materializing for many people throughout the world.

This war will no doubt scar a generation. Many will need counseling to deal with trauma, PTSD, and depression. The type of loss and inhumane bombing taking place in Ukraine is not something one simply forgets. It is not a type of loss that can be rationalized. It is unnecessary and shocking. It is an evil with no purpose perpetrating by an evil man. This is the hardest type of loss for individuals to process. The question of why and how? Individuals will never fully understand why their lives have been torn away never to be the same. Their lives are the things of nightmares.

Many from afar suffer anticipatory grief and the fear of nuclear holocaust.

These are the types of losses that war produces. War creates such horrible and unimaginable loss of loved ones and homes and crimes against humanity that the human brain cannot fathom it. The trauma is fragmented and never able to be processed in a healthy way. Instead, the loss haunts and creates this horrible imprint upon those who experience it.

Grief Counselors and licensed counselors and other therapists will need to help individuals process the pain of loss well after the conclusion of this war. This will be no easy task as many will remain depressed and numb to the cruel atrocities this war has created. In addition to treating PTSD and depression, individuals will need treated for a variety of anxiety disorders and substance abuse issues that will result from attempting to escape the pain. Crisis Counselors will have to help individuals find some hope, despite the horrible despair and suicidal ideas that may enter their minds. How does one rebuild from this war? The hopelessness will be very real in these souls and it will take well trained mental health care professionals to help these individuals find hope.

It will also take the rest of the world to give hope through time, prayers and financial donations to help rebuild lives. Buildings can be rebuilt, but for others, loss of limbs, or loss of family cannot. Some will never find the peace despite this aid but will have to learn to cope with the loss of a loved one, son, daughter, sibling, parent or dear friend, even a devout pet.

Please pray for Ukraine and peace in this world.

Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Grief Counseling.

Grief Counseling Certification Video on the Nature and Purpose of Sadness

Posted on March 15, 2022 by Dominick Flarey

Sadness and its social expressions as well as interior manifestations help the body react to loss and help the body find the interior and social aid it needs to adjust to that loss. So while many hate to be sad, it is an important step in resolving loss and becoming adjusted to the loss. Anything worth of value that is taken will always cause this reaction of sadness in loss.

Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification as a grief counselor

Please also review the video below

Grief Counseling Certification Video on Ecological Grief

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Dominick Flarey

When devastation occurs in nature, there is a sense of loss. When individuals lose natural resources, their is a collective and ecological grief. Some cases are more acute, while others represent a universal problem that affects all human beings on earth.

Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification Program and see if it meets your academic and professional goals

Please also review the video below

Grief Counseling Certification Blog on Prolonged Grief

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Dominick Flarey

Acute levels of grief that persist and refuse to lessen in intensity are complications and not part of the normal grieving process. Obviously we think of depression, but there is also Prolonged Grief Disorder which is persists beyond 6 months of the loss. Individuals facing complications with grief, need to see a licensed therapist.

Prolonged Grief Disorder is a complication of grieving. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification

The article, “What Everyone Should Understand About Prolonged Grief Disorder” by Deborah Seranl looks closer at this complication of grief. She states,

“Prolonged Grief Disorder will vary in intensity, but for children and adults, grief reactions occur most of the day, nearly every day. For children, the death which caused this experience must be 6 months or longer, and for an adult, 12 months or longer. Individuals who experience Prolonged Grief Disorder have significant distress in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. Emotional numbness, loneliness, identity disruptions (who am I without you) and a marked disbelief about the death leaves many feeling life is meaningless. ”

To read the entire article, please click here

Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification and see if it matches your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in grief counseling.

Grief Counseling Training Video on Grief and Identity

Posted on March 1, 2022December 17, 2024 by Dominick Flarey

Many individuals lose identity with grief. A loss limb, or a loss of a loved one that they identify with. A father or mother may no longer feel like a parent if they lost a child. Grief can transform one’s identify of self.

Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Program and see if it meets your needs. The Grief Counseling Training is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals.

Grief Counseling Training Program Video on Therapies for Children and Grief

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Dominick Flarey

There are numerous therapies to help children better communicate their grief. They can express through multiple outlets of creativity to help them express the grief and issues that haunt them. Counselors can help children through a variety of methods.

Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Training Program and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification as a grief counselor. Please also review AIHCP’s Child and Adolescent Grief Counseling Training

Please review the video below

Grief Counseling Certification Blog on Integration of Loss

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Dominick Flarey

Learning to integrate grief into life is critical to loss adjustment. Loss causes change and learning to incorporate that change is part of healthy grieving and adaptation. Those who struggle to incorporate grief into their life narrative struggle with life and suffer from complicated grief. It is important to always remember, the pain of loss will never leave because true love can never die, hence learning to live with the pain of loss is the key to life itself.

Learning to integrate grief into life is difficult. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification

The article, “What Does It Mean to Integrate Grief?” from “What’s Your Grief” takes a closer look at how to integrate loss and grief in life. The article states,

“Integrated grief is grief that exists within your life, as an ongoing part of your life, without overwhelming or dominating your life. I know, at this moment that might feel unfathomable. But as you learn to carry the complex emotions of grief and you change your relationship with grief, slowly the chasm will close between grieving and ‘functioning’. ”

Please click here to review the entire article

Grief Counseling Certification Blog on Near Death Experience

Posted on February 23, 2022 by Dominick Flarey

Near Death Experience or NDE are mysterious and empirically unexplainable experiences individuals near death can experience. It is still a mystery as to if NDE is a proof for a metaphysical afterlife or a lack of current understanding of the brain and its unknown processes when responding to possible death. For now, they are accepted as something that is unexplainable and not to be connected with psychosis or any type of mental pathology but a legitimate experience some individuals face when dealing with death.

Near Death Experience or NDE has certain qualities associated with it that differentiate it from other mental states such as dreams or hallucinations. It NDE, there is an out of body experience that occurs, or a autoscopic episode. This episode is when one is unconscious and the trajectory if not corrected will lead to physical death. During this unconscious state, one can experience lucid visions outside one body. To qualify as an NDE, a 16 question survey must score at least a 7 in value.

Are Near Death Experiences metaphysical and spiritual episodes or some unknown yet reaction of the brain to death? Please also review AIHCP’s Pastoral Thanatology Program as well as AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification

Among the many questions include the level of consciousness one felt during the episode. Was the experience equal or greater than normal conscious behavior. This is a key element in differentiating from a dream state or a hallucination. During these states, individuals under anesthesia are able to comprehend things around their unconscious body that the brain should not be able to sense. This type of mental ability questions whether the soul is experiencing a metaphysical experience or if there is some unknown power of the brain yet known to science. Many who experience NDE are able to relate things regarding those around them while they were unconscious that the brain should not be able to observe or sense. In fact, the senses are even more acute and sharp during NDE. Blind individuals are able to see things in some studies, as well as individuals who can see but see more so in deeper colors and understanding than any mere human eyes. In other cases, NDE patients also understood the thoughts of others around them.

Science looks to explain some of these feelings and sensations when the body is in crisis. Russel Noyes, a famous psychiatrist, who researched NDE, pointed out that the body when in crisis experiences various adaptations. There is a sharp mystical awakening to more vivid images, as well as a depersonalization with emotion and a detachment. Also, there is a hyper-alertness with sharper vision and hearing that helps the person survive. Could these abilities be amplified near death?

Most who experience NDE, which is around 1/3rd who have close clashes with death, firmly believe it was a real experience. They return in many cases more peaceful and guided. They look to implement life changes and have less death anxiety itself. The experiences are also multi-cultural and do not differ between Western and Eastern religious codes. Even children with little predisposed religious ideals, experience the same and often beyond their natural understanding. Individuals who are not religious also share similar experiences.

During these religious experiences, many experience a calm and bright light, and in some cases see lost loved ones but others can experience nothingness or more frightful visions. Some see torture and hellish images. They experience upon their return a call for conversion or a scared traumatic response. Others try to explain it away.

Grief Counselors, or more so licensed professional counselors are needed to help individuals discuss and resolve their NDE experience. It is important that the counselor understand that it is not a pathology but to be on the look out for pathological reactions to the experience. Counselors also must be open to the individuals interpretation. Since there is no rational explanation, it may very well be metaphysical or also tied to unexplainable brain functioning that is firing off an array of visions that science cannot understand. It is critical to listen and accept the story of the individual with an NDR and how it relates to that particular individual.

Gaining the trust is key. Individuals, may think they are crazy, or noone will believe their story. It is important to reassure the patient that this is phenomenon is a real experience although unexplainable by science and that their visions are not crazy or pathological. It is essential to help the individual integrate the experience into their life story. Unless pathological reactions occur when extreme anxiety or dangerous new behaviors arise, the person should be encouraged to share and incorporate the experience into their life in a healthy way. There is no treatment since it is not a pathology itself and there is no true medication because the incident is beyond comprehension.

Near Death Experience is a universal experience across cultures. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification

Those of belief may accept the experience as a religious experience. This is not pathological but acceptable. The reality is it may very well be a metaphysical experience beyond the scope of science and to marginalize it and categorize it against the will of the patient is counter productive. It is best to co-exist with the experience from wherever it came and allow it produce the healthy changes one needs in one life. Ultimately, there may be an explanation or it may be metaphysical, or it may be a mixture of both, but since they are universal and non pathological, it would be prudent to merely care more about how one reacts to the experience in counseling than to define it for the patient. How the patient defines it is the patient’s choice.

Death and dying is a mystery. It is the final chapter of observable existence. NDE is merely another element of it and how we see death beyond the grave and the many spiritual questions that burn within our mind and how our body reacts to death itself.

Please also review AIHCP’s Pastoral Thanatology Program

“Near-Death Experiences Evidence for Their Reality” by Dr Jeffrey Long, MD

“Near-Death Experiences and Psychotherapy” by Dr Linda Griffith, MD

“Death Society and Human Experience” by David Kastenbaum, PHD

Grief Counseling Training Video on Sojourning with the Bereaved

Posted on February 22, 2022December 17, 2024 by Dominick Flarey

Sojourning requires walking with the bereaved and sharing in the journey. It involves empathy and compassion. It involves taking an active part in helping the person heal and making it a personal goal and desire for oneself.

Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Training and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Grief Counseling.

Grief Counseling Certification Video on Sojourning with the Bereaved

Posted on February 15, 2022 by Dominick Flarey

Helping comfort those through grief is the primary role of the grief counselor. Walking with one through grief though is even deeper. It is in many ways a type of ministry where one helps the individual understand their grief but also show the empathy needed to help one emotionally deal with it. It is a partaking and sharing.

Please review the video below