Counseling for Grief
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Grief occurs when there is a loss. Loss can manifest itself in many ways, whether it's the death of a loved one or a pet, or the loss of a pregnancy, a job, a home, a relationship, or an ideal situation. Grief is an extremely individualized and unique process for the person experiencing it.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross developed the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. These stages give us a framework for grief as a process. But they also give us the false idea that there is a finite beginning and end to the process. And that simply isn't the case for most. Most people move through the stages but vary the order. Some move past one stage to the next only to go back to the beginning. Some skip stages altogether. But almost always when we grieve any loss in life, there is never a true "acceptance" in the sense that "I'm over it and it no longer is relevant to me." Anything or anyone dear to us remains in our consciousness, and will reappear at times, even though we've accepted its loss. So in this way, grief can be an ongoing process applicable to lots of different kinds of life situations. Counseling can help at any phase of the grief. |
Blog Posts About Grief |