Bereavement, grief and loss can cause many different feelings and can affect people in different ways. There’s no right or wrong way to feel, however bereavement counselling can help understand any overwhelming feelings you may have. Almost everyone has experienced some sort of loss in their life. From the loss of a loved one through bereavement, to the loss of physical or mental health, a job or a relationship. Loss can be an intensely distressing life event. There is no right way to grieve over loss. It is a hard process to go through and sometimes the intensity of feelings of guilt, anger or even relief can be difficult to come to terms with. Bereavement counselling may provide an opportunity to help you through this process. These feelings may not be there all the time and powerful feelings may appear unexpectedly. It’s not always easy to recognise when grief or loss are the reason you’re feeling differently. At The Eaves, bereavement counselling can help you to move through the stages of loss and deal with these often conflicting emotions, helping you to eventually come to a place of acceptance.
The five stages of grief model was developed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, and became
famous after she published her book On Death and Dying in 1969. Kübler-Ross
developed her model to describe people with terminal illness facing their own death. But
it was soon adapted as a way of thinking about grief in general. The five stages are
denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
www.cruse.org.uk is a very informative place to start, it offers great advised whether you
are the bereaved or if you are trying to support someone who is bereaved.
Coming to terms with the loss of a loved one can take a long time. People will have
good days and bad days, and it can sometimes feel like an emotional rollercoaster.
Everyone’s experience will be different, so try not to create expectations around how a
bereaved person should be feeling by a particular point in time. Most peoples feelings of
loss will gradually become easily to cope with, but grief doesn’t disappear. People find
ways to live with it, but some still feel deep sadness years later.
