What Happens During Bereavement Counseling?
It’s never easy to lose a loved one, especially a close one. Not everyone is able to deal with grief properly, and sometimes, they need some extra help. This is where bereavement counseling comes in. In a nutshell, it helps a person develop coping strategies through this very difficult time. Bereavement counseling involves a licensed professional ready to guide them through the entire process.
While it isn’t a necessary thing to go through, it can be helpful to seek professional assistance when dealing with grief. And if this situation applies to you but you remain hesitant about going through bereavement counseling, this article should help answer any questions you may have.
How to Know If Someone Needs Bereavement Counseling
Anyone who loses someone dear to them will go through what experts deem as the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. But for some people, the sadness and bitter feelings bleed through their daily lives.
Usually, bereavement counseling is recommended for people whose grief begins to interfere with regular activities. It also applies to those who encounter problems in their existing relationships and if they begin harboring feelings of deep guilt.
Grief can also become problematic if it triggers a relapse in feelings of stress, depression, and PTSD.
Bereavement counseling does not involve clinical help. However, it does provide an avenue for the affected individual to vent out their feelings in a safe space without judgment, and with a licensed professional to help guide them through.
What Happens During Bereavement Counseling?
Bereavement counselors will use different techniques that will vary from one person to another. But generally, here’s what you can expect:
Tapping into emotions
One of the first processes is to address the person’s current state of emotions. Here, they’ll be made to talk more about the deceased loved one and what his or her life was like. It’s more about celebrating the person for what they’d done and what they were all about.
It will also involve exploring current feelings of sadness, anger, and regrets.
Addressing the loss
Looking back on the five stages of grief, many people will be stuck at the very first one: denial. This is where counselors step in to give their patients the opportunity to express how they feel about losing a loved one. They’ll be asked how death changed their course of life, from existing relationships to future plans and routine changes.
By addressing the loss, patients have an easier transition into the succeeding stages, which ultimately makes the overall grieving process much more bearable.
Restoration and healing
The restoration and healing process begins once the person has gone through all five stages of grief. It involves the creation of a new role and perspective for themselves. Their thought process is also redefined in a way that helps them power through the vulnerable moments and not relapses back into the grief stages.
Counselors do this by helping their patients make sense of what they’re going through. They may even introduce some upsides of death, like the end of pain for someone going through a terminal illness. The goal here is to make the patient have a greater appreciation for their present life and situation.
A Hospice Facility That Will Help You Through Bereavement Counseling
If you’re still in doubt and unsure about whether or not you should go through bereavement counseling, we at Arclight Hospice can help you out. It is just one of the many services we offer, which many of our patients have been satisfied with.
We’re located along Ventura Blvd in Tarzana and open for business from Mon-Fri from 10 AM to 5 PM. For inquiries, visit our website or call us at (747) 777-9545.
