Grief is a part of everyone’s life at some point or another. Our first experience of grief can be unpredictable and will depend on our circumstances. Perhaps it might be the loss of a pet in childhood, a friend or a significant family member. Winstons Wish is a great charity for supporting children with grief and there are many books around. It is normal to mourn these losses as they happen. Grief may show itself in the following ways:
- as difficulty sleeping,
- avoiding things that remind you of a person
- spending a lot of time everyday thinking about the person
- avoiding daily activities such as work
When you experience grief it might make you lose your appetite or comfort eat. Sometimes people isolate themselves from friends and families. These are all common things when grieving, and usually people adjust to a new normal over a period of time. They might move forward and build a new life around the grief. Some people find a new purpose in life, for example setting up a charity to raise awareness of something related to their loved one. The experience of two people will be individual to them.
In the years of working with people as a nurse, school nurse and volunteer counsellor I have supported people with bereavement on a number of occasions. This may have been somewhere in the past or when I have been present on shift. The reaction to it is not something that we can ever predict. Some people will struggle to move forward following a significant death and others will move forward more quickly, there is not right or wrongly.
How can counselling help with Grief?
Grief can stop a number of your emotional needs from being met, and if you are struggling to move forward it might be worth having some counselling. I worked with a young lady who had lost her mother after years of caring for her. Once we had managed the trauma associated with her death we were able to do some positive work around the good memories she had of her mother and also look at how she imagined her future to be. She managed to pass all her exams with better grades than she had been predicted. All in all she benefitted a lot from accessing support fairly early on in her journey.
If you feel like you or someone you know might benefit from support with grieving please get in touch