Theories of Counseling FINAL EXAM: GRIEF COUNSELING

Helping survivors who have lost loved ones, assisting them through stages of mourning to offset future difficulties.

1. Disturbed equilibrium 2. Grief work 3. Working through the grief 4. Restoration of equilibrium

1. 1) To increase the reality of the loss
2. 2) To help the client deal with both expressed and latent effect
3. 3) To help the client overcome various impediments to readjustment
4. 4)To encourage the client to say an appropriate goodbye and to feel comfortable reinvesting in life.

Helping the survivor complete any unfinished business with the deceased, and to be able to say a final goodbye.

Stage 1: Denial, which at first may be a healthy way to cope with painful news Stage 2: Anger, usually an attempt to gain attention, demand respect and understanding, regain a measure of control Stage 3: Bargaining: normal attempt to postpone death Stage 4: Depression, client confronted with loss(es) suffered Stage 5: Acceptance, quiet, peaceful resignation. Not everyone goes through all the stages, or at same pace, or in same sequence.

Stage 1: Initial awareness of loss, high stressor, may constitute a threat to body’s homeostasis Stage 2: Attempts to limit awareness by holding on: trying to limit feelings of hopelessness and despair. Stage 3: Attempts at limiting awareness by letting go (recognizes personal limits to coping with loss) Stage 4: Awareness of the extent of loss, stage most readily recognized as mourning Stage 5: Gaining perspective on the loss, acceptance Stage 6: Resolving the loss—a time of forgiveness, farewell, finishing business Stage 7: Reformulating loss in a context of growth, an outgrowth of resolving grief Stage 8: Transforming loss into new levels of attachment—reintegration of physical, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and spiritual aspects of a person.

Evocative language: using words to evoke feelings (not “You lost your husband,” but “Your husband died”), speaking of person in past tense to help client realize loss is real. Role playing: Acting the part of someone else or oneself (usually in a conversation with someone else).Role play is used for many purposes in various orientations. Cognitive restructuring: learning to replace irrational, self-defeating or self-destructive beliefs with more accurate and beneficial ones. Drawing and/or writing: may facilitate expression of thoughts, feelings, experiences in relation to the loss Guided or directed imagery: creating pictures in the mind to envision options for a more hopeful future, discover alternative ways of thinking and feeling. Symbols and memory book: Can consist of pictures, letters, tapes, clothing, jewelry that belonged to the deceased. Memory book constructed by the family.