Grief is an emotion that is very common in humans. This emotion is often linked with a devastating loss, such as the death of a loved one or losing someone precious to you. In fact, we might feel grief on losing anything that is close to us including our jobs, relationships, homes or even pets. However, it is natural and quite normal to experience such negative emotions, pain and grief.
But the way you deal with these negative emotions play an important role in your life. Some people deal with it with bravery while others are taken aback and feel devastated on such loss. The grief takes over their lives and makes them feel vulnerable, hopeless, worthless and helpless. In fact, long term grief can turn into more complicated issues like depression. Going by the statistics, over 10 to 15 percent of people in America alone suffer from severe grief problem.
Therefore, it becomes essential that you seek grief counseling before the situation turns bad. Consulting a good therapist can be very helpful in overcoming these negative emotions. They can explain to you the difference between normal grief and depression and guide you through your journey to overcome the same.
Grief counseling is also referred to as bereavement counseling. It is a kind of psychotherapy that aims to help people cope with grief and mourning caused due to the death of a loved one, divorce, job loss, loss of friendship or an important relationship or any other major life event that triggers the negative feeling of grief.
When do you need Grief Counseling?
You need grief counseling if you have trouble grieving or moving through the different stages of grief, after a loss. However, a healthy grieving process is perfectly normal and natural. Every individual reacts differently through situations, some may easily cope with the grief while others may find it hard to cope with loss and grief. But, living with the pain and grief can turn out to be very harmful for yourself as well as for your loved ones.
Grief counseling becomes essential when:
- The grief starts to interfere with your daily life activities
- It leads to relationship problems
- It causes the feeling of extreme guilt and depression
- It leads to suicidal thoughts
- You experience uncontrollable crying
- You experience a sleeping disorder
- You experience an eating disorder causing overeating or loss of appetite
- It causes panic attacks
- You start feeling that your life is meaningless
- You experience increased irritability and ager
- We are unable to experience happy memories
- You experience feelings of emptiness, hopelessness, helplessness or worthlessness
- It leads to addictive behaviors such as drinking, smoking or gambling
- You start to neglect yourself and experience a lack of self-care
- You have trouble believing that your loved one is dead
- You start to withdraw from socializing and meeting people
Grief counseling makes the entire grieving process smooth and easy. It gives you more power to accept the truth and situation. Once you learn to accept the loss of someone you loved dearly, it will become very easy for you to live a healthy and happy life.
How does a grief counselor help you?
The primary aim of a grief counselor is to help you cope with grief and loss. They use various therapies and techniques to help you overcome the situation. One of the most common techniques is ‘active listening’ wherein the counselor pays a lot of attention to listening than talking. He encourages and motivates the sufferer to speak up about their issues, emotions, feelings and tries to learn the root cause of the grief. This helps them develop strategies and methods which can help the sufferer cope with grief.
Grief counseling at Living In Wellbeing
Living In Wellbeing is a renowned counseling center in Kerala, India offering grief counseling to patients all over the globe. We operate online as well as offer in-person counseling in India. Our highly experienced and trained counselors help people effectively deal with issues related to grief and mourning. They are highly skilled in working with traumatized patients, formulating strategies for crisis intervention and dealing with all grief-related problems.
If you or your loved one is going through a deep phase of grief, get in touch with us today. Our grief counseling service involves providing guidance to people who have lost their loved one, extending emotional support and helping them lead a happy and healthy life.
