Grief Crisis and Sorrow: Counselling for the Hurting

A critical Analysis of Grief and Bereavement, 2022

Someone you deeply loved has passed away. Pain and anxiety surge across you like ocean waves. You feel as though you cannot endure another day and wonder that perhaps you would not survive. Your life has altered, and a portion of you has disappeared. You will indeed continue to remember and mourn for the rest of your life. Bereavement and grief are the two major phenomena that occur naturally as the consequence of some natural or unnatural event or accident. No doubt, the situation of bereavement is not a normal one, and a person is in the most tragic period of their life. Sometimes it has a drastic effect on the people who are not the victims of the accident but its descendants. With the advancement of studies in every field of life, psychology has also prevailed and some astonishing facts have been revealed. Human beings are bestowed with emotions and feelings by the creator of the universe. These are associated with events, circumstances, other human beings, and sometimes things. In this book, we'll explore the types of grief and the sources from which they come, responses to a certain type of grief, and possible remedial measures to entertain the victims. The main purpose of writing this book is the awareness of this issue and the training of youth to tackle if some circumstances like this come across their lives. Counseling is the best remedy in the situation of bereavement, and there are several methods to do that. Society, parents, the government, relatives, siblings, family, friends, and educational institutions are all stakeholders in this project of awareness and rehabilitation.

PRILOZI, 2021

Grief is a process provoked as a response to different losses, such as death, loss of job, relationship breakdown, some unexpected life events and changes, etc. The experiences of loss and bereavement are very individual. Even though loss is expected, the person feels traumatized, especially if death is provoked by violence, natural disasters, or war. This pandemic, like other disasters (wars, tsunami, earthquakes, floods, etc.) has provoked intensive reactions of grief, reactions that could persist for years. The core symptoms of grief are described in the ICD-11 and DSM-5 manuals. The term “complicated grief” in the medical sense refers to a superimposed process that alters grief and modifies its course for the worse. Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is characterized by normal grief symptoms, but these are symptoms that remain too intense for too long of a period. This article is a review of the manifestations and duration of grief in different occasions, and it is based on over 50 ...

Family Process, 2012

S ome topics in family therapy and family research always seem to be with us, explored in numerous studies and articles. A subject may captivate attention or become a priority through the support of funding agencies which influence the focus of scholarship. Mostly, this works for the development of the field over time as knowledge accrues about many important subjects. However, because there is no master plan about what occupies the center of attention, important topics, especially uncomfortable ones, can be underrepresented and even ignored. In family therapy (and even in this journal), issues concerned with gender and culture were largely unattended to for many years, as model builders, writers, and researchers were caught up in what seemed to be larger ideas of epistemology and effective intervention. Similarly, for some time, discussion about homeostasis almost completely obliterated notions of morphogenesis and resilience. Perhaps there are no topics more underrepresented in the family and mental health fields than sorrow and loss. Although these subjects have vast importance for families (most family rituals are created in relation to them), sorrow and loss are rarely spoken of in either the research or clinical domains or in journals such as Family Process. Consideration of loss in families has long been with us, most especially in the groundbreaking work of Walsh and McGoldrick (2004) and Bowen (2004). However, this subject is perhaps too painful to explore comfortably or often. Recently, the American Psychiatric Association has even proposed the medicalization of sorrow in the DSM-V in stating criteria for when the extent and length of grief becomes a syndrome rather than an experience (Shear et al., 2011). Such forays point to the difficulty mental health professionals have in finding ways to cope with and speak to such subjects.

Journal Innovations, 2024

Background: There is extensive literature on grief, bereavement and its impact on individuals’ mental health. Literature shows that grief is an individualised response to the loss of loved ones. This article is based on a case study of a family in Botswana during the COVID-19 period. The global impact of COVID-19 was felt everywhere and some countries and families were affected more than others. Objective: This case study aimed to examine the grief process experiences, determine the physiological responses of those grieving and examine the myths surrounding the grief process. Method: The case study method engaged 4 members of 1 family who lost their significant others, they were interviewed a year after the deaths. Data was collected qualitatively through interviews and was thematically analysed. Part of this study’s findings were presented in a Radio Talk show to sensitise the public on the grieving process and effective coping strategies. Results: The findings revealed that individuals grieved differently. In this case study, the family lost 4 members to COVID-19. Even though some family members appeared to be coping, others expressed inability to cope with the grief process due to personal differences, perceptions of death and cultural influences. The study established 4 common themes among grieving individuals encompassing emotional, cognitive and physical responses. Financial, cultural and religious issues also impacted the respondents’ grief process and exacerbated the inability to cope, and common grief myths were also identified. Conclusion: Grief is experienced differently and elicits different cognitive, physical, emotional and behavioural responses. There is a need for empirical information to add to existing knowledge on the grief process to give insight into ways of processing grief-related mental health issues. This study is an impetus for knowledge-creation and development of grief counselling in Botswana.

The meaning of life is never straight to us humans. At different turns of life, we perceive different meanings that are offered to us by our own lives. Near one’s death, professional disaster, enmity, family suffering, and fears for life all have their own dimensions. Nevertheless, when summing up, they seem to revolve around the same central themes again and again. In this article, we tried to offer the insights that we found from some very significant and traumatic events of our own lives through the spectacles of our theory—“Death and Adjustment Hypotheses.” Our life is always important; so is our peace and safety. But when we lose our values, we lose everything. It is often that we try to live through our offspring; however, it is our morality and humane values that can ultimately save them from the traumas of life and see them meaningfully through life and death as transcendental beings.

Sociology Study, 2016

This paper offers pragmatic religious approach to handling moments of grief. It examines the mechanism for coping with distress in Islam. Though inferences were drawn from the Muslim Scripture (i.e. the Glorious Qur'an) and the experiences of the prophets of God, the paper posits that every human being in today's world experiences moments of grief that are similar to those experienced by those prophets and as such, strategies adopted by them could still be found useful in the contemporary times. The paper has six parts. The introduction forms part one and this is followed by an examination of the causes of distress. In part three, the different signs and manifestations of distress in individuals are discussed while part four looks at the conventional or scientific ways of coping with moments of grief. The section that follows critically discusses the Islamic paradigm for coping with moments of grief. Thereafter the conclusions were drawn and some recommendations were offered.

Grief is a worldwide characteristic perception that everyone will be confronted with at some point or time in their lives. There are more people than ever that solicit help from professional grief counselors to aid them in handling or being able to deal with the loss of a loved one and to accept it so that they can began to move forward with their own lives. In this paper there will be several different examples or patterns of griefs discussed as well as scenarios, intersessions, methods and techniques to be able to handle the grief. There are differences in cultures in which grief is dealt with. For instance, some may be faced with stress, depression and other mental illnesses. Many people of multicultural societies have different ways and length of time for handling grief that may seem awkward or unusual to those of the United States. This paper will also show how alleviating this grief can help the individual overcome negative ways that is causing physical symptoms and behavioral problems for the client or individual.

Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy

This study investigates grief experiences in response to loss of a significant other among undergraduates in University of Jos, Nigeria adopting an ex post facto survey. A total of 45 students (27 males and 18 females) with mean age of 20 and half years completed the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (TRIG). Three hypotheses were tested using a two way ANOVA (Amos SPSS 21) analysis, results showed significant differences on the main effect of Nature of Relationship (NoR) (F (1,39)=1062.08, p=0.00); with a large effect size (partial eta squared=0.90), but not for Type of Death (ToD) (F (2,39)=1.60, p=0.21) and interaction effect (NoR*ToD) (F (2,39)=0.93, p=0.40) at the significant level of p ≤ 0.05.Comparisonsof the mean grief score for the intimate group (M=81.62, SD=6.71) also indicated to significantly differ from the Non-intimate group (M=27.33, SD=4.11). The import of this result is that majority of students experience grief at moderate and high levels particularly to a significant other they have intimate relationship with before death. It is concluded that the NoR between deceased and bereaved student is a good determinant of grief experiences. Recommendations are made to students to learn how to respond appropriately to bereavement to avoid complications, and education stakeholders of young people to intensify bereavement education and support in order to prevent adverse change in health and functioning.

2010

A brief examination of the complex nature of children‘s experiences of loss and grief caused by the divorce, and then form a pastoral theology to guide the praxis of those who minister to and care for these children.

University of Nairobi, 2018

A new dawn has come in our lives, and we must be willing to face the reality of our lives. Part of that reality is the imminence of death. Death can be confusing, especially with the advancement of medicine, science, and technology, as well as various attempts to make meaning and sense of our world. Ultimately, when death occurs, people may oscillate between feelings of sadness and anticipation, especially when there is a lot of pain and suffering, and hence, our love and commitment to our loved ones are juxtaposed with relief from pain. The interrelationships in our lives affect us all. The fact that death takes away our loved ones can be a panacea for disaster. The purpose of this presentation is to assist persons in coping with loss and grief.