Grief Counselling
Grief is a normal reaction when an emotional bond is broken. For some people, these feelings of loss are debilitating and don't improve with time. This is known as complicated grief. In complicated grief, painful emotions are so long lasting and severe that people have trouble recovering from the loss and resuming daily life.
Stats
12-15% of bereaved people experience complicated grief
Grief therapy can show dramatic improvements for up to 70% of people with complicated grief
Symptoms
- Intense sorrow, pain and rumination over the loss of your loved one
- Extreme focus on reminders of the loved one or excessive avoidance of reminders
- Intense and persistent longing or pining for the deceased
- Problems accepting the death
- Numbness or detachment
- Feeling that life holds no meaning or purpose
- Inability to enjoy life or think back on positive experiences with your loved one
What you can do:
- Make time for grieving; even if it is just 5-10 minutes each day, allow yourself to feel what you are feeling. Then proceed with your daily routine
- Acknowledge your feelings. There is no one right way to grieve and no timeline
- Consider the possibility that grief may be a skill. As we develop our relationship with grief, we learn to live more fully
- Make time for daily movement or exercise
- Spend more time in nature
- Engage with the arts (listen or play music, do art, write, dance)
- Journaling
- Mindful breathing
- Compassionate body scan
- Introduction to Mindfulness
- Find ways to connect with community
How We Can Help
Mindfulness and self-compassion are effective ways to manage grief and complicated grief. We can help you develop the strategies to meet your needs, practice self-compassion and come to terms with with the role of grief in your life.
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