Grief is an emotion that is extremely important. It is a natural emotion to loss or suffering. It is beneficial because it allows the mind to heal and adjust. It also allows others to understand the pain one is experiencing. Yet the loss of someone or something is far from beneficial. Grief merely as a reaction helps one overcome the loss and readjust. Grief comes in many forms and types of reactions. Some reactions are normal while other trajectories lead one down a road of complications. These types of grief can be concomitant, delayed, masked, extreme or result in depression. These pathological reactions to loss usually require counseling or medication. The reality most people experience healthy grief reactions and show resiliency in their return. This does not mean the grief vanishes but it does mean one is able to focus, adjust and conform their new life story to the loss. This is healthy grief and while the loss is horrible, the emotion itself is beneficial in a fallen world.
By Juan Espinoza
If you would like to learn more about grief counseling, then please review the program. The program in grief counseling is an excellent way to become certified. The Program in grief counseling has four core courses. Upon completion, qualified professionals are eligible for certification.
Grief Counseling Blog
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Getting Through Grief with Grief Counseling
Grief Counseling Gets Us Through Our Grief
Loss is something that we all go through, but it is always unexpected no matter how long we have had to prepare for it. Certain relationships in our lives are just so important that the death of one of the people can wreak havoc on the emotional state of the other. Death is not something that the human mind can comprehend, and sadness can threaten to take over a life and turn into the kind of chronic depression that debilitates a person. When you have lost a loved one and are finding that your sadness is becoming a depression that you just can not shake and if it is getting in the way of your every day activities, then it may be time to explore things with a grief counselor. This is a counselor who is specially trained in grief counseling to help people express their sadness and work through it without rushing them.
By Seth McGee
If you have any interest in taking bereavement counseling courses, then please review.
Grief counseling courses help with grieving
Grief counseling courses
Grief counseling courses can be very helpful if you have suffered the loss of a friend or family member. It can be hard to process the emotions that are associated with grief. Grief counseling courses can help you find your way through the grief so that you can move on with your life. It is important to take the courses seriously and embrace what they have to teach you. Everyone processes grief differently so it takes time to deal with what has happened. You can find these courses online and many hospitals hold them for people. It is a good idea for parents to get their children these courses because young children often have problems with processing their emotions. It can be beneficial for children to be able to talk about how they are feeling with a neutral third party so that they can communicate what they are going through and get some closure.
If you are interested in taking grief counseling courses, then please review. Qualified professionals can achieve certification after completion of the core grief counseling courses.
Griefs Greatest Pains: The Loss of a Spouse
Losing a Spouse
The loss of a spouse is one of life’s greatest pains along with the loss of parents or the loss of a child. One’s husband or wife is a life long friend and mate who went through ‘better or worst” and grew old with you in all the hills and valleys of life. The loss and sudden loss of this friend can be crippling to some. While many are not totally crippled by the loss, the severe sting and pain is intense.
In analyzing this loss, one must look at various components that will reflect the level of grief due to loss and whether or not the grief could become pathological. First, as in call cases of human relations, the attachment between the two individuals plays a key role in the reactionary grief to the loss. Obviously, spousal love is an intense attachment so in most cases, grief is intense and longer than a casual relationship.
Yet the intensity of the attachment differs from different couples. Grief Counselors need to identify the dependency factor in a client’s relationship with their deceased spouse. Some spouses are completely emotionally dependent upon the other. The loss of a spouse leaves them alone and terrified of the outside world. Another dependency is financial. Some spouses completely depend on their other for financial support or even physical support with house or yard work. When dependencies are greater, then the grief can become greater and adaptation becomes harder for the grieving spouse.
Another thing to consider is external support. Family is key for a grieving spouse. A spouse who has no children or grandchildren to support them in their grief will likely feel more alone and isolated. If a person has no support, a grief counselor should take special measures to keep in close contact with their client. In these cases, it is important to help these spouses become more self sufficient. It is also important that the grieving find support in support groups or church groups that can help them readapt to life. The sharing of the grief with others who have lost a spouse can help the grieving and also give them a reason to help others as well.
If proper measures are not taken, the grieving can become depressed or loss in grief. They will slowly dwindle from sight and some may even lose the will to live. This is especially the case with elderly spouses who have no family or person to love. These old souls become tormented by past memories and find no purpose or life mission, but see life as a remaining count down to their eventual demise. The reality is, these people still have a chapter to write in their lives and such depression is depriving them of their final years.
If you are interested in grief counseling certifications, please review the program.
Mark Moran, MA, GC-C, SCC-C
Grief Counseling Can Help
Grief Counseling Can Help
The death of a child is the greatest pain a parent, can experience in their life. This excruciating loss is amplified because it is unnatural. The natural process is to watch one’s children grow into adulthood and eventually pass away leaving them secure and prepared for the world. The death of a child or adult son or daughter goes against all that is natural. Grief counseling hopes to help those who lose a child or children. Grief counseling hopes to guide the parents through these difficult times and prevent complicated forms of grief from developing. The American Academy of Grief Counseling (AAGC) offers courses in grief counseling that can prepare counselors to help parents who lose their children or anyone experiencing grief. If you are qualified, you could become a grief counselor. Simply by taking the required courses, you could become eligible to become certified in bereavement counseling. If you are interested, you should review the grief program at AAGC and see if it correlates with your professional aspirations.
For the more information about grief counseling certificates please visit our webpage
Grief Counseling and Issues of Attachment
Grief and Attachment
A lot of literature about grief is overwhelmingly death orientated. This is a good thing in that death is a universal experience but it is not an everyday thing. True, the loss of a loved one permeates one’s daily life long after the event, but the actual event is singular and for the more fortunate, not nearly as regular. The reality is most people go to counseling for relationship loss. Grief counselors deal with many people who are devastated by divorce, a cheating spouse, a broken engagement, or the sudden change of not having that person to call, hold, or spend time with. These aspects are very common to the human experience. With proper guidance, the wounds become scars and help one grow emotionally and sometimes spiritually.
The loneliness and the un-needed anxiety people experience in finding a mate can be stressful enough for some, but when one truly believes they found the one, only to be shocked that everything was an illusion can be a horrifying change. Changes in life style from the tiniest schedule can shake the foundation of that person’s life. Even the smallest scent or image can bring a tidal wave of emotional imagery. Unfortunately there are no short cuts in this adaptation period. As so many grief specialists emphasize, one must do their “grief work”. They must experience the change the emotional pain that accompanies it. Of course, as death, there is the acceptance stage, the emotional stage of anger and mourning, and the final adaptation to the new situation.
A good grief counselor will guide the broken person through these phases and encourage emotional release in the healing process. Only after these initial steps, can the person utilize new meaning concepts to a new reality and properly place the lost relationship in its proper perspective of his or her life story. The question arises why does this adaptation take so long for some people? It all varies based upon the level of attachment. Attachment theory is a theory that was used in great depth with widows or widowers in their loss of a spouse. The same can be applied to broken relationships that do not involve death, but separation. The attachment will determine the length of the adaptation to the person. So, if someone was in a relationship for many years and suddenly the relationship ceased, one should expect a greater withdrawal and more intense and lengthy adaptation period. The opposite can be said for a short two month affair where there is little attachment and hence less adaptation.
As a grief counselor, it is important not to only deal with death but also every day pains of the heart. Proper understanding of attachment can help one assess the situation and lay a ground work for eventually adaptation and assimilation of the past into the person’s present. One can never give a time frame for recovery, but with a special guidance, a grief counselor can help a person understand the phases and steps and help them take the necessary steps for a happy future with someone else. You can learn more about grief counseling, including available grief counseling courses and online study and training programs by doing an internet search for the American Academy of Grief Counseling.
Mark Moran, MA, GC-C, SCC-C
Commeration of Loss: Memorial Day
Memorial Day Commerates Loss and the Grief Counseling Training Program
While grief strikes down many in this world, healthy recovery and adaptation are common elements in 80 percent of the population. Commeration is one such healthy practice of adaptation to loss. Commeration does not seek to hide the loss or escape it but accepts it. In this acceptance, the loss becomes part of one’s present life story in a healthy way without erasing the previous chapters.
Memorial Day is one such commoration tool that our country uses at a mass social level. It allows a grateful nation to remember the valor and honor of pass war heroes but also allow families to proudly commerate the loss of their loved ones.
This allows the family to proudly remember and honor their loss loved ones but also allow society to acknowledge the loss they experience and thank them for their loved one’s sacrifice. This is an extremely therapeutic for the individual and also very helpful at a collective consciousness for the nation.
So today, realize, that while watching John Wayne blast Nazis, or watching Clint Eastwood lead the Dirty Dozen, we are also remembering the grief of loss heroes on a universally social level.
God bless the United States and our fallen heroes, may their souls rest in peace. Amen.
If you are interested in the grief counseling training program, please review the program.
By Mark Moran, MA, GC-C, SCC-C
Greatest Grief: The Loss of A Child
Loss of a Child and a Certification in Grief Counseling
Within the circles of debate of emotional pain due to loss, many have speculated, and probably correctly, that the most intense emotional loss one can experience is the loss of one’s child. The ingredients for it are already present: Extreme attachment and an unnatural and unexpected event.
First, the attachment of a parent to a child is unequaled. Evolutionarily speaking, the drive for one to propagate and replicate one’s genetic DNA is a natural drive. In nature, the drive to protect one’s offspring is apparent. So at the first level, at the most instinctive levels of consciousness, one bonds with a child. Add to the fact that humanity is a rational and sentient species, then one can understand an even deeper attachment with one’s offspring. A spiritual connection develops and an intimate bond of nourishing and care forms between parent and child. The child’s first breath, sight, touch, word and movement is all intimately documented by the parent. This attachment while beautiful and good is also extremely fragile if broken. It is the ironic cosmic paradox of the universe: one can gain love but lose it. The greater the attachment, the greater the reaction to the loss of it- And there is no greater attachment than a parent-child bond.
Secondly, the loss of a child transgresses the natural order of life. A parent is meant to guide and watch the child grow into adulthood. As the parent ages, the son or daughter ironically then becomes the caretaker of the parent. Ultimately, children bury their parents, parents usually do not bury their children. This is especially harder on parents of children whose child dies in his or her youth, but the experience of pain is also great for parents who lose adult offspring . In addition to this, as in any loss, the traumatic nature of the event may also play roles in the pain of a parent, while also the situation of the parent. Is the parent older, alone, or financially dependent?
There is no doubt that the loss of a child is a devastating loss. From tradition, one can merely look at the Pieta which ironically beautifully captures the essence of anguish a parent can experience at the loss of a child.
If you are interested in Grief Counseling Education, please review the program. The Program in Grief Counseling Education is an excellent way for qualified professionals to earn a certification in grief counseling. A certification in grief counseling can be an excellent way to help others grieve the loss of a child.
by Mark Moran, MA, GC-C, SCC-C
Grief: How Physicians Deal with it
Grief When a Patient Dies
The medical community is not immune to grief reactions when patients die. In fact, many of them, especially oncologists confront the deaths of patients on an ongoing basis. How do they handle their grief when a patient dies? Do they handle it well or do they have difficulties in dealing with it? This article provides us with some insights which will help answer that question.
The article, “Cancer docs often deal with own grief, doubts when patients die”, by Lisa Esposito states
“(HealthDay) — Some cancer doctors may build up emotional walls — distancing themselves from the patients they can’t save — to avoid grief, sadness and even despair, new research shows.”
Full article: click here
Grief is a journey we all take sometime in our lives. For medical professionals it is an outcome of caring and is inherent in their career environment. Even professionals need help in dealing with their grief. Learn more about grief education, click here.
If you are interested in learning how to become a certified bereavement counselor, then please review.
New Grief Counseling Book “Devastating Losses”
The loss of a child is never easy, especially if it was from suicide or drug abuse. A new grief counseling book “Devastating Losses” takes a look at child loss due to suicide or drug overdose. The authors William Feigelman, Ph.D., John Jordan, Ph.D., John McIntosh, Ph.D., Beverly Feigelman, LCSW do an excellent job of combining research and clinic study with the stories and voices of the bereaved parents. The book further dives into the grief response of the loss and the best therapeutic healing techniques. For more on “Devastating Losses” please read the following:
New Grief Counseling Book “Devastating Losses”
Please visit the following link for a full description of the book
For more information on grief counseling please feel free to visit our webpage.
Our Grief Counseling Certification can help you learn the tools you need to learn to help others.
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