Grief is the expression of the feelings that you experience when something important to you is lost. Grief can include the loss of somebody close to you, the end of a relationship, the loss of employment or the loss of something that you love.
When you suffer loss, grief is a normal response. Grief is expressed in various ways, including sadness, anger, shock and overwhelm.
The effect of grief is not just limited to how you feel but can change the way that you think about things, your ability to make decisions and your ability to concentrate.
You may wonder if the pain will ever diminish. No one can tell you how to grieve or how long it will take, but it can help to talk about it and get support from the people who care about you.
Not necessarily all of these stages will be experienced. The stages do not necessarily follow the order below. Stages can be experienced more than once as the grief resolves.
This stage of grief protects the individual from the intensity of the loss. Numbness is a normal reaction to an immediate loss. To move through this stage, the individual needs to come to accept that the loss has occurred.
Bargaining involves thoughts about how the loss could have been avoided, precisely what could have been done differently. Unless this stage is resolved, feelings of remorse or guilt may remain.
Anger comes from the feeling of helpless and powerless can give rise to anger. This anger can be an expression of the sense of abandonment or anger at a higher power or toward life in general.
Over time, the individual comes to terms with how they feel and accept the fact that the loss has occurred. The loss can now be integrated into the individual’s life experience.
Complicated grief occurs where two or more unresolved grief situations add on top of each other. The grief process is complicated, as there is more than one source of grief. A build-up of grief can lead to trauma.
Tracey Janke
Dip. Couns. M.A.C.A.
Certified Life Coach
Cert. NLP Practitioner
Grad. Couples Institute
Cert. Erickson Hypnotist
Vanessa Heal
Diploma of Counselling
M.A.C.A.
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Office: 07 34581725
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