With so much negativity surrounding video games, it is good to hear some healthy benefits of them. This is especially true in the case of grief. Video games allow individuals to live their emotions through other avatars. This can also be a very beneficial experience, especially in grief.
Video games can help individuals cope with grief. Please also review our Grief Counseling Certification
The article, “How Video Games Help Us Process Grief” by Dana Folkard looks at how video games help the gamer deal with and express grief. The article states,
“We need a distraction from grief, something that has the potential to re-connect us with life. For some, video games can serve this purpose. For others it may be strenuous gym workouts, work, eating, drinking, walking, gardening and so on.”
Many role playing video games give the person the escape they need from grief. It enables them to live life through another, experience loss through others and relate with the character.
Play therapy has always been a beneficial tool in helping children in counseling. Expressing grief is no different. Children are able to express grief and trauma through play. A counselor is then able to help the child express the grief in a productive way through play therapy.
Play therapy is an excellent way to help children communicate grief. Please also review our Grief Counseling Training
The article, How play therapy can help children heal, by Karen Marley looks at the benefits of play therapy. She states,
“Play therapy is an evidence-based practice that helps a child build a greater sense of self. When engaged in play therapy, a child uses his or her entire self – mind and body – to express unconscious fears, thoughts, wishes and feelings.”
AIHCP offers a certification in Child and Adolescent Grief Counseling which can help prepare counselors for dealing with child grief. Please review our full Grief Counseling Training and see if it matches your academic and professional needs.
National tragedies from natural disasters to shootings are hard for the collective national well-being. They bear down on millions of people creating a hybrid of emotions that affect everyone from rage to sadness. Collectively, an anxiety exists in America of where and when the next national tragedy will occur. Almost weekly, an unnecessary and devastating shooting occurs where innocent individuals die. This ultimately has an affect on Americans.
National tragedies can cause collective grief. Please also review our Grief Counseling Training
First, Americans are affected collectively. They are saddened by the death of innocent people and also enraged at injustice of these incidents. This leads many in collective national grief to expressing themselves politically and publicly. The nation seeks answers but also grieves. Everyone grieves differently and activism is a major venue for many Americans to voice their grief, anger and frustration.
Besides the collective grief and therapeutic methods to combat this national grief, many Americans also experience this grief on a personal level. New fears emerge within everyone. Whether at worship, school, or shopping, the fear of a masked gunman is always in the back of the mind of Americans. This anxiety associated with this national grief is something that all Americans must face. Some Americans will deal with this anxiety by closing themselves up, or others will be proactive and always be vigilant and alert. Other Americans will look to arm themselves to regain that loss sense of security that has been stolen.
Whether through activism for better gun control laws, or through utilizing one’s right to bear arms to defend oneself, the psychological reaction to national grief and tragedy will have profound effects on how Americans cope with these continuing losses.
Of course, the ultimate reality is those who experience these losses directly, whether a survivor of an attack, or a family member who loss a loved one in an attack. Survivors will face a multitude of issues associated with grief, ranging from PTSD to survivor guilt. The attack will be replayed in their minds constantly. What could I have done differently? Or I should have died not my friend! These thoughts will all become thoughts tormenting the survivor. Some survivors will also deal with secondary losses, such as an injury that will haunt them for the rest of their lives, or be tormented mentally with flashbacks from the traumatic event. The road to recovery for a survivor of a shooting is not an easy one indeed
As for family members, a myriad of grief thoughts will cross through their mind. Not only is the loss unexpected, but it is also traumatic and illogical. These family members will face years of torment and second guessing on “why”? This is not an easy fix for these family members either. They will undoubtedly undergo profound changes and look to cope with grief years after in different ways.
After the initial sting, depression and complications of such a horrible loss, family members may look to remember or try to create better laws to try to make some sense for the illogical and unexplainable loss of their loved one.
Bad things can happen and how we handle it is what matters most. Please review our Grief Counseling Training
We already see this anger and coping towards social ills and bad laws by family members in the news, as many of them, as well as survivors, become public figures for gun control laws. This in many ways is the new role they have inherited and a way to make sense out of chaos and remember the lost of their loved one. Whether misdirected or a good idea, gun control laws will remain a central theme in these shootings. Whether it is better control of gun sales, or better laws against those who misuse guns, the public and political spotlight becomes for both sides a way to push an agenda. Sometimes, individuals who are victims of these crimes will use this as a way to heal, while unfortunately many others may be used by various lobbyists to further agendas.
Despite the national grief and agendas, those who suffer these crimes will have a hard and steep uphill battle in dealing with their grief. It will not be an easy journey but one that is necessary in healing and also understanding their new chapter in life. It is a chapter they will not want but a chapter they nonetheless will need to read. As a nation we need to read it with them and help them.
If you are interested in learning more about Grief Counseling Training or would like to become certified in Grief Counseling, then please review the program and see if it matches your academic and professional needs.
Only look at the news and almost everyday a heartbreaking tragedy is occurring. Religious and school shootings, natural disasters, and unneeded death are all far too common. This leaves a mental mark on society as a whole and a universal grief that all deal with. It is difficult enough to deal with national grief but sometimes very bad things occur to us as well. In those cases, we have to deal with grief associated with great tragedy as well.
How do we deal with grief and religious tragedy such as in Pittsburgh?
The article, “How Do You Deal With The Grief After A Sudden Tragedy?” looks at a variety of opinions on how to deal. The article and video states,
“The Pittsburgh synagogue massacre has shocked the nation and devastated the victims’ families. The grieving process can be a long one, but psychiatrist M. Katherine Shear says there are several things people need to do to be able to move forward in their lives after a loss like this.”
To learn more about helping others face grief in the wake of tragedy please review our Grief Counseling Training and see if it matches your academic and professional needs
A sad story of grief of a mother whale who lost a calf. This story shows the universal nature of grief even in nature and how more advanced animals experience it and share it collectively. Please also review our Grief Counseling Training to learn more and possibly become certified in Grief Counseling
The article, After 17 Days And 1,000 Miles, A Mother Orca’s ‘Tour Of Grief’ Is Over, by Jenny Gathright states,
“After carrying her deceased baby for at least 17 days and 1,000 miles, an orca mother has shown signs of returning to normal.
She was seen Saturday with fellow members of her pod, chasing a school of salmon. She is no longer carrying her baby, and she looks healthy.”
To read the entire article, please click here to review
A very painful loss is having a stillborn for parents. Many also suggest to let the family mourn with the body of the deceased newborn. This is a traumatic time, especially for the woman who carried for nine months
The article, A very private grief: the parents breaking the stillbirth taboo, Source; The Guardian states
“Chris and his wife Danielle were delighted when she fell pregnant, and he recalls “getting to know” the baby in the womb. “I talked to him and played him music. I got stuff for him.” All seemed well and the couple had several scans until, at 25 weeks, Danielle became aware that the baby was not moving.”
Here’s a test question for you: Which of the following grief related behaviors is abnormal? A. A father who visits his son’s grave every morning B. A widower who continues to wear his wedding ring 5 years after his wife’s death C. A woman who refuses to part with her deceased mother’s belongings D.
Good article. Loss is a unique thing. While there are some signs of complicated grief, usually due to circumstances and prolonged and consistent intensity, we can pretty much say this article is right on about the fact that grief affects us all different and to jump the conclusion something is not normal is not a good thing to do. Only 10 percent of grieving experience abnormal grief.
My last memories of my grandmother are from my wedding in November of 2005. To be honest, I wasn’t thinking very much about her at the time because (1) I was getting married and (2) I was still coming to terms with the terminal cancer diagnosis my mother had received a month before. I like to believe that had known it was the last time I’d see my grandmother, I would have made more of an effort to remember everything about her or to say something even remotely meaningful…but who knows.
Losing a grandparent is a great loss. For some it may not be as powerful but for many grandparents play a pivotal role in their youth. It is a loss that forms many of our young lives
These are my own thoughts based on my own personal reality living here without my child. Trust me, I do not know the way so I am making no predictions for anyone based on my own personal two plus year nightmare. Sugar coating the loss of my child is impossible as my heart spits out this painful reality.
Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are flooded with tributes, messages of condolences and solidarity for victims and for France, with #PrayforParis and #PrayersforParis top trending hashtags
The grief for a nation can be a strong social grief. Social grief can affect individuals as people try to understand unneeded hate and destruction. Much like 911, these attacks have the same social grief affect on a collective society. Social media has an ability to show forth its goodness in showing solidarity among all people of the world for this attack. This is a good thing for once from social media
