Counseling: Using the Miracle Question and Grief Loss Model

Running head: COUNSELLING
COUNSELLING
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

2COUNSELLING
The essay deals with the counseling session that was carried on by the counselor with the
client Marie. This essay talks about the use of the miracle question and the grief loss model
method (Cox, Bendiksen & Stevenson, 2018). This essay has mainly talked about the benefits of
using the miracle question method in order to help a patient to fight with the grief and to come
out from the same. The patient named married was a 35 year old patient suffering from
secondary loss. Marie was undergoing huge loss and pain as she had recently lost one of her very
close friends. Since then she has been suffering from huge stress and tension. Her friends had
been suffering from stroke and have also left her kid behind. Marie feels pained when she sees
her friends' kid playing with her son. Her friend was like a sister to her, and she cannot just give
up thinking about this loss. As per the theory of John Bowlby’s theory on attachment, often
persons develop a very strong attachment or affection towards something or someone with
whom they have been sharing a very deep and intimate connection (Bowlby, 2017).
The counselor thought it prudent to use the miracle question and the grief loss model in order
to help the patient deal with her issues. Grant and Palmer, (2015) have suggested that the grief
loss model is of utmost importance in dealing with patients like this because this will be helping
in identifying the stage of grief that the patient currently belongs to. The Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
model is very useful in the field of counseling. Particularly while dealing with the grief loss
cases the counselors have to identify and support their clients while they pass through all the
different stages (Corr, 2019). Different people express and also feel grief in a very different way.
Using this model has its own strengths and weaknesses. This process makes the work of the
counselor really easy. This is because the grief and loss model helps in understanding the models
of grief like
 Denial

3COUNSELLING
This is the initial stage where the patient is not able to understand the practical and the
teal fact that their loved one is no more. This stage makes the thinking and the power of
reasoning numb. Life appears to be very meaningless, and nothing holds values. The same
has been noted in the case of Marie. After losing her friend, Marie could not accept the death
of her close friend. The counselor realized that Marie is suffering from this intense stage of
denial.
 Anger
The second is the stage of intense anger. This mainly arises due to the long stage of
isolation. The patient often knows that they are reacting angrily on persons who are not
responsible for anything. Marie was creating a distance from her family and the social world.
She denied making new friends as she thought that it would make her ditch her late friend.
 Bargaining
At this stage, people usually try to go into a bargaining phase with God. They believe that the
Almighty might be able to answer all their doubts and queries. This is the phase of getting false
hope. This has been noticed in the case of Maries. She was so upset with the loss of her friend
that she has confessed about her bargaining session with God in the course of her treatment. She
used to question God "why". In other words, she wanted to know why God has done injustice
 Depression
Marie was deeply immersed in this phase of depression because she realized that her best
friend was gone forever and would never return again. She was feeling numb and was unable to