Grief counseling helps people grieve difficult losses including the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or the end of a relationship. It helps people navigate their grief process and eventually accept, understand, and move forward from their loss. Grief counselors have specific experience, training, and skills that enable them to best-support grieving individuals.
When someone you love passes away, the sense of loss can be devastating. It can often feel like there is a deep void inside of you, as if part of you is missing or ripped away. You feel like things will never be the same again and often you feel as if you can’t go on. At times like these, it is helpful to talk to a trained bereavement therapist or counselor who can instill hope and provide ways to cope with the pain of loss. The grief therapists and counselors at Thriveworks Amherst (413-634-4805) can provide the support you need.
An experienced grief and bereavement counselor or therapist will help you develop a strategy to deal with changes to everyday living that results from losing someone close to us. These therapists have the training to design an approach that suits your situation and needs. This may apply to grief that not only results from the death of a loved one, but grief generated from a divorce or losing your job. These types of losses can shake someone’s identity which is often tied to our profession and relationships. The end of one’s vocational position or marriage can be a big blow to one’s sense of self and create creating a severe sense of loss.
Grief can also affect someone before the loss occurs. When a loved one suffers from dementia or a terminal illness, the anticipatory grief from the expected loss or the changes in one’s relationship because of the severity of the circumstances can trigger excessive worry, anxiety and depression. This can negatively affect a person’s ability to concentrate or focus on task which can affect their job performance and other areas of our lives.
Negative Effects of Grief and Loss
Researchers have identified several negative outcomes that can be triggered by grief and bereavement:
- Shock,
- Denial,
- Fear,
- Panic attacks,
- Confusion,
- Losing track of time
- Disbelief,
- Feeling out of control,
- Irrational thoughts
- Despair,
- Helpless,
- Hopelessness,
- Difficulty sleeping and eating,
- Obsessive and compulsive thoughts and actions.
A trained bereavement or grief therapist will understand the importance that culture and family heritage has on how an individual experiences death and loss. A skilled therapist and counselor will not only take this into account when assessing the impact that loss has had on someone but will understand the importance of one’s support system in helping the person transition through the grieving process.
Different Reactions to Grief
But grieving can also be a highly personal matter with each individual experiencing the grief process in their particular way. Emotions such as:
- sadness,
- loneliness,
- emotionally numbness.
- nervousness,
- anger,
- isolation, or
- guilt and shame,
are often expressed differently by different people. One person may withdraw from their friends and family resulting in separation from the lifelines that can actually help them. This can compound the sense of loss and grief.
However, others will may be filled with anger and manifest that anger overtly. This may be triggered by a sense that “something needs to be done”. This is often how people respond to the sense of helplessness that results from grief. However, our judgement and decision making can be distorted by emotional unrest. Without support by a trained therapist or counselor, the actions we choose under such conditions may actually exasperate our grief or sense of loss.
Work with a Grief Counselor at Thriveworks Amherst
The bereavement and grief therapists and counselors at Thriveworks-Amherst know that we all differ in our response to loss. They also know how to guide a grieving individual through the bereavement process. The therapist will provide techniques that move the grieving individual toward healthy resolution to the issues that bereavement may present. But for this to happen the grieving process must be allowed to proceed for an adequate amount of time.
Sometimes a person may feel that they need to be strong for other grieving family members. This can result in that individual focusing on the care of others to the extent that they do not attend to their own the sense of loss. This underling stress will only build if not address and unresolved. Suppressed emotions can later resurface and manifest in various symptoms of anxiety and/or depression.
If you have experienced tragic loss resulting in grief, a bereavement therapist or counselor at Thrivework-Amherst can help you learn to cope with that loss and continue to live a fruitful life. A therapist at Thriveworks-Amherst can help you develop a plan and give the support needed to implement that plan. So take the first step and make an appointment to see a Thriveworks-Amherst Therapist by calling 413-634-4805. They care and they can help!
