Loss and Bereavement: Exploring Grief, Therapy, and Coping Strategies

This report provides an overview of loss and bereavement, exploring the concepts of grief, bereavement, and mourning. It delves into the various emotional and psychological impacts of losing a loved one, including stages of bereavement and factors influencing the grieving process. The report highlights different types of grief counselling and therapy, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Complicated Grief Treatment (CGT), and discusses techniques and strategies employed by therapists to help individuals cope with loss. It emphasizes the importance of seeking support, taking care of oneself, and the role of professional counselling in navigating the complexities of grief. Furthermore, the report examines interventions and strategies used in grief and bereavement therapy, including the Companioning Model of Bereavement care, to facilitate healing and adjustment after a loss.

Loss and Bereavement

TABLE OF CONTENTS
..........................................................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Loss and Bereavement............................................................................................................3
Grief and Bereavement counselling and Therapy..................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
The preset study is based on the loss and Bereavement which means the state or period of
experiencing the loss from the death of the loved ones. The study will explain about the different
mental illness and problems which are caused by the loss, grief and Bereavement to the person.
Furthermore, it will include about the therapy and counselling which help the people to make out
from this situation of disorder or mental illness.
MAIN BODY
Loss and Bereavement
People cope up with loss of their loved one's in different ways. There is no right way of coping
with the death and there is no solution to prevent the closed ones from their deaths. It is natural
phenomena which will definitely happens at any time(Bertman, 2018). They way in which
person grieves is directly depends on the personality, thinking, mindset if that person and
depends on the relationship with that person who has died. The way in which person copes up
with the grief, Loss ad Bereavement is also depends on the cultural and religious background,
coping skills, surroundings, mental health ad history, memories with the died person, support
systems and the persons' financial and social status. All the three terms are used in place of each
other but having basic difference which is :
Grief is basically something which is the process of reacting to the loss.
Bereavement is the time period after loss during which grief is experienced.
Mourning is loss the process by which people adapt to the loss.
Loss and Bereavement is the process which includes the separation of the person who
suffers with Bereavement from the memories of the died person and readjusting to the world the
mourner living(Currer, 2017). To separate from the person who died, another person need to find
another way to redirect and enhance the emotional energy. Deaths are often reminds the people
of their past relationships and memories. Mourning have basically the three phases:urge of
bringing back the person who died, Disorganisation and sadness, and Reorganisation
Losing the loved ones is the most stressful event of the life and it can cause a major
emotional causes. After the death of loved one's person may suffer from wide rage of emotions.
Many people report the feeling of numbness as soon after the learning of the death. Some
experiences which person might suffer from losing their loved ones are :
Disbelief, Yearning, Anger, sadness, Despair, Guilt, Confusion, shock and numbness, Denial

These are the feeling and common reactions which person might suffers from the loss(Neimeyer
and Burke., 2017). it really takes the time to recover fully from the major impact of the loss.
Stages of Bereavement
There are some stages of Bereavement which are classified in 4 and they are:
 Accepting that loss is real
 Experiencing the pain of grief
 Adjusting the life without the person who has died
 Putting the less emotional energy into grieving and try to put it in something new.
Person may not move from the one stage to another but it might feel the situation health in
chaotic and out of control(Neimeyer ed., 2015). This will go with the personal journey in their
own time.
Factors affecting the grief and Bereavement
 There are some factors which affect the nature, duration of grief and Bereavement,
intensity:
 The relationship the grieving person had with the person who died.
 Cause of the death that is process of grieving may differ depending on weather the person
died suddenly or was ill from long time.
 Age and gender of the grieving person
 personality and coping style of grieving personality life history of the person who is
grieving which also includes the experience with loss
 Customs and religious or spiritual belief of the grieving person.
The grievance and Bereavement process become sometime harder when the person has
unresolved feelings towards the conflicts with the person who died(Roberts Thomas and
Morgan, 2016).
People who are suffering and struggling with the complicated and very difficulty situations and
Bereavement may find it helpful to talk with the therapist or counsellor which also includes the
clinical social work, psychologist or a spiritual counsellor which helps in recovering the person
from the stage of Bereavement and get them back to the real world so that they get to normal
situations and do not spoil their life with such mental causes.

Grief and Bereavement counselling and Therapy
Grief and Bereavement counselling is the form of psychotherapy which aims to help the
people to cope with the physical, emotional, social, spiritual and cognitive responses or loss.
These experiences are brought to the person from the death of the loved ones.
Grief and Bereavement counsellors generally believe that everyone experiences the
Bereavement and loss in their unique ways which are shaped by the family background, life
experiences, intrinsic beliefs and cultural values. Loss, grief and Bereavement counselling
facilitates the process of resolution in the natural reactions caused due to the loss. Counselling
cab be called upon when the person is suffering anticipatory loss as well( Roulston and et.al.,
2018). Counselling and therapy in appropriate in the case of severe Bereavement and loss. It
helps the people to cope with the situations with the help of the professional experts through the
process. In the case of complicated grief and Bereavement, psychotherapist may be beneficial to
resolve the problem of emotional cause.
According to the National care institute there is the evidence that there are some therapies
which are helpful for those who experiencing complicated Bereavement and grief. They are
Cognitive behavioural therapy(CBT) which focuses on changing the clients thoughts pattern in
order top change their responses in the difficult situations and it applied the wide range of mental
health issues and Complicated grief Treatment (CGT)which involves the setting of recovery
goals, discussing the death and making the plans' for the future(Shear and et.al., 2017).
Many psychological Associations identify the number of the actions that beverage people
which can take on their own with the help of their loved ones, talking about the death with
others, accepting normal feelings which come with the loss, minding own health and eating well
and celebrating the life of the deceased person.
There is distinction Between the counselling and therapy as counselling involves helping
the people to move through uncomplicated or normal, grief to health and resolution whereas
therapy involves the suing of the clinical tools for traumatic or complicated Bereavement and
loss situations and reactions(Shear, 2015). Grief and Bereavement therapy is kind of the
psychotherapy which is used to treat major complicated traumatic reactions which are usually
bought by the loss of the close relative or person(it includes separation or death) or by nay
community disrate.

The aim of the grief therapy is to identify and solve the psychological and emotional
problems which are appeared as the consequences. This may appear as behavioural or physical
changes, delayed or extreme mourning, conflictual problems, sudden and unexpected mourning,
psychosomatic(CStuart, 2017). Therapy may be available as individual or the group therapy and
the common therapy. In the therapy there are some tasks which may be used to help the mourner
work:
 Developing the ability to experience, express and adjust to the painful grief related
changes
 finding the effective ways to cope with the painful changes
 Establishing and continuing the relationship with the person who died.
 Stay healthy and keep functioning
 Re-establishing relationship and understanding that others might have difficulty
empathizing with the grief they have experiences.
 Developing the healthy image of oneself and the world(Worden, 2018).
Grief and Bereavement therapy includes dealing with the blockages to the complete mourning
process, identifying unfinished business with the deceased and also identification of the other
losses which results from the death.
There are, also some different ways through which therapist can help the person to make out
from the Bereavement. It completely depends upon the types and level of the grief suffered by
themselves
Tip 1- Accept help
One of the most important factor in healing from the loss or death is having social support which
helps in coping with the loss or mental illness the person is suffering. Support from the families,
friends and others make easier to bear the burden( Roulston and et.al., 2018).
Tip 2- Share your feelings
Holding feelings in after the loss may cause difficulty for the person to handle it alone in such
situations. Sharing the feelings with the family, friend or religious leaders, Bereavement support

groups which helps and provide the opportunity to share the sadness so that-it make easier for
person to handle the feelings and situations.
Tip 3- Taking good care of yourself
It is important to take good care of yourself as it is not possible that every time other persons are
available with the person who suffering the Bereavement. Some tips which includes taking care
of the person itself are :
Focusing on sleep- which make them feel relaxed, refreshed so that they able to forget the loss
they suffer while the time they sleep which ultimately helps in recovering them from the
loss(Currer, 2017).
Stick to healthy diet-emotionally drained person do not take care of their health and diet which
might results in physical illness in addition with the mental illness. It is necessary to have an
healthy diet.
Tip 4- seeking professional Grief counselling
Getting counselling and therapy will help to divert the mind of the people to some other work
which will ultimately help in recovering health and in recovery process b assisting them with
working through tough emotions.
Treatment for complicated Grief and loss
There are some ways through which treatment of complicated grief and Bereavement can be
solved.
Psychotherapy- complicated grief psychotherapy are used to treat the complicated disorder of
person from the grief and Bereavement. This therapy is similar to the techniques which are used
to treat other mental health and issues like depression ad anxiety. Psychotherapy are specifically
for the complicated griefs. This therapy may be doe in group format or may individually.
Medications- there are little evidence which supports the use of the medication to treat the grief
and Bereavement(Neimeyer ed., 2015). Anti- depressant may be act as helpful for treating the
depression which may sometimes occurred with a Bereavement disorder.
Techniques to resolve the grief and Bereavement.

Grief counselling involves some techniques through which counsellor can help the person
to overcome from the situation are :
 Let them talk about the person who died ad ask them about the person, allow them to
speak about their lost loved ones in a safe space which helps the person to go back in the
memories and make them feel relaxed.
 Distinguishing the Grief from Trauma as if the client is struggling with experiencing the
flashback moments they have learned with their loved ones they are experiencing the
trauma which helps them from working through the Bereavement(Shear and et.al., 2017).
 Dealing with any guilty they are feeling regarding the death of the loved ones and also
helps them to organize the grief. The client may feel guilty for what they did or what they
did not with the deceased. Encouraging them to let go of the guilty they feeling and give
them a commitment to live a life that will honour the deceased.
Interventions and strategies in grief and Bereavement therapy
The counsellor and therapist will follow some interventions and strategies in grief and
Bereavement therapy as apart from the three important techniques which re explained above
there are some other intervention and modified strategies also which support client in the
therapy(CStuart, 2017).
Companioning Model of Bereavement care giving is the model in which counsellor or
therapist acts as a companion and helper for the client so that client can share their feelings,
thoughts with them and it may help the client to overcome from the trauma or situation.
Companion are presented for the clients and they observe their experience. 'Observe' contain
with bearing the witness to the client;s experience and watch out for them.
Companioning is completely about honouring the spirit. Listening with the heart, or
analysing with the head, respecting disorders and confusion, not imposing orders and logic on
the clients and many other thing which included in companionship(Worden, 2018). In addition,
with this model, the counsellor and therapist will also look for the disaster survivals, assisting
survivors to reduce the additional stress, sensitively and caring help the individual to grieve their

loss in their own unique ways(Roberts, Thomas and Morgan, 2016). Hence, there are many ways
in which counsellor and therapist work and manage the mourner in their different ways which
help them to come out from the trauma or disorder they are suffering from.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that people might suffer from the grief, loss
and Bereavement which leads to many mental caused and illness and therapists and counsellors
are the one who helps them by applying different strategies and techniques to resolve the
problem or depression of the people. They can implement this with either psychotherapy or
medication.

REFERENCES
Bertman, S. L., 2018. Grief and the healing arts: Creativity as therapy. Routledge.
Currer, C., 2017. Responding to grief: Dying, bereavement and social care. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Neimeyer, R. A. and Burke, L. A., 2017. Spiritual distress and depression in bereavement: A
meaning-oriented contribution. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior
Therapy. 35(1). pp.38-59.
Neimeyer, R. A. ed., 2015. Techniques of grief therapy: Assessment and intervention. Routledge.
Roberts, J. E., Thomas, A. J. and Morgan, J. P., 2016. Grief, bereavement, and positive
psychology. Journal of Counseling and Psychology. 1(1). p.3.
Roulston, A and et.al., 2018. Psychological therapies for major depressive disorder and prolonged
grief in bereaved adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (12).
Shear and et.al., 2017. Grief and bereavement in adults: clinical features. Waltham, MA, Uptodate
(Accessed 17.11. 2017).
Shear, M. K., 2015. Complicated grief. New England Journal of Medicine. 372(2). pp.153-160.
Stuart, G., 2017. Impact of Attachment on Bereavement: Implications In Clinical Practice And
the Development of an Integrated Somatic-Attachment Bereavement Therapy
Model(Doctoral dissertation, City University of Seattle).
Worden, J. W., 2018. Grief counseling and grief therapy: A handbook for the mental health
practitioner. Springer Publishing Company.