According to Dr. Benjamin Sadock and Dr. Virginia Sadock, writing in "Kaplan & Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry," when you experience normal grief you rarely seek help from mental health professionals because you feel your reactions and behaviors related to the loss are appropriate. Factors influencing your grief include the intensity of the relationship to the person you lost, your personality and your social support.
Grief
Grief has both physiological and emotional responses within your body and can disrupt your immune function, according to the Sadocks. They go on to report that it is normal for you to experience grief and struggle to recognize and express your anger or to feel ambivalent toward the person you lost. Moving through grief is unique to the individual, but people generally tend to go through periods where they feel sorrow, numbness, guilt and anger that will usually fade as time passes, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Therapy
According to the Mayo Clinic, grief therapy has been met with success. This therapy was born out of the techniques of cognitive behavioral and trauma therapy, reports the Mayo Clinic. When you engage in grief therapy the therapist will have you begin by recognizing your negative thought patterns and urge you to develop more positive ways of thinking about the situation, provide you with education on grief and develop new personal goals that will aid you in moving past the loss.
Considerations
Recently, the Association for Death Education and Counseling has come to question the effectiveness of grief counseling; it has been acknowledged that the majority of people rebound from the symptoms of grief with or without therapy, according to Psychology Today. Also, with grief the opportunity to test for the impact of grief counseling is limited to reports provided by the participant in grief therapy. Also, because there are no pre-test periods, which would allow for baseline testing prior to the onset of loss and grief, improvement outcomes after therapeutic treatment cannot be accurately measured. In addition, the type of grief people experience ranges greatly; some experience natural timely deaths of those they love, while others endure the traumatic and violent deaths of loved ones. Thus, the self-reported benefits of grief counseling have ranged from helpful to neutral to harmful, according to Psychology Today.
Benefits of Support
According to the Sadocks, self-help groups can be invaluable for some. For example, 30 percent of widows and widowers report feelings of isolation and loneliness after the loss of a significant companion. If you become involved with a self-help group, you will experience companionship, social contact and emotional support that will give you the skills to deal with and address your grief in a productive manner, as reported by the Sadocks.
Deciding On Therapy
Despite the current dispute over the efficacy of grief counseling, there is no reason to deny its benefits. According to the Sadocks, grief comprises the feelings you experience at the loss of someone significant and it is subjective to you. Therefore, only you can decide if therapy is for you. If you think therapy will help, talk to your doctor about finding a local therapist who specializes in grief.
References
- Mayo Clinic: Complicated Grief
- Help Guide: Psychotherapy and Counseling - Getting the Most Out of Therapy
- Psychology Today: Is "Grief Counseling" Helpful or Harmful to the Bereaved?
- Contra Costa Crisis Center: Grief Counseling
- "Kaplan & Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry"; Benjamin Sadock and Virginia Sadock: 2003
