Losing someone or something you have strong association with, relationship or love can impact the way we feel. Grief is a feeling and/or expression of intense sorrow, especially caused by the death (or departure) of someone, something (including pets) or loss of experience continuity (e.g. end of employment) from our life. Emotional reactions of grief can include anger, guilt, lowered self-esteem, social withdrawal, anxiety, sadness, and depression. Physical reactions of grief can include sleeping problems, changes in appetite, physical problems, or illness.
Grief is a normal human emotional response. Associated with grief there is also the socio/cultural/spiritual practice of morning (particularly regarding the loss of a loved one) that usually involve culturally determined rituals (structure) to help mourners to process of the end of life. Grief becomes an issue when it is prolonged, impacts causes significant decline emotional health or contributes to a defined mental disorder like major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complicated grief.
There is no correct pattern or length of time to work through grief due to its individual nature, however the risks of more detrimental impacts are known to be reduced where supported through the grief process. At Cath Adams Counselling we provide tailored and structured support programs to our clients to guide and management them through their grief. Our approach may include:
- Educating on the benefits and risk associated with grieving;
- Exploring loss and understanding their grief journey;
- Understanding grief-triggers, mourning and management;
- Giving focus to health self-awareness (i.e. when and how does grieving become unhealthy);
- Providing tools to promote good health (e.g. communication, diet, routine, relaxation and sleep) and facilitating emotional outlets (e.g. express grief-writing/art therapy, social interaction and exercise).