Bereavement Therapy
What is Bereavement Therapy?
Bereavement therapy is offered to those who are grieving over the loss of a family member, friend or life partner.
The process of grieving can involve a host of different emotions including sadness, anger, guilt, regret, frustration and it can be helpful to have a professional there with you through the stages of this process.
A bereavement therapist can help with things like adapting to life without this special person, openly through guilt about things you wish had gone differently, and sharing feelings that you otherwise might not be able to share with anyone else.
Going through the process of grief can be a confusing time; the goal of bereavement therapy is to help you cope and make sense of it all. Please see below some key areas of bereavement explained.
Understanding Your Feelings
A bereavement therapist can help you to get in touch with your emotions and navigate through them in a safe space. Having a therapist can be particularly helpful if you don’t feel comfortable expressing those feelings and emotions to friends or family.
Being Able to Accept Loss
If you are feeling disconnected or no emotion, bereavement therapy can help you to work towards accepting the reality of the loss of your loved one. This process can be particularly important if you tend to shut off your emotions or deal with the situation by not thinking about it at all.
Dealing with Trauma
If you witnessed someone’s death or there was some trauma associated with the loss, bereavement therapy can help you to process the trauma.
During therapy, you would describe what you witnessed, discuss how it made you feel, and learn how to move forward with the support of your therapist. It can be helpful to process trauma in the presence of a therapist who can offer empathy and compassion.
Processing Guilt
Guilt is a common feeling after the death of a family member, partner or friend. This guilt may be marked by self-blame and regret, which can make coping with the loss more difficult to process. If you have so many unanswered questions or looking for the reasons why you feel guilty? A bereavement therapist can you understand the logic behind these feelings.
Coping With Daily Life
If your daily life as been through upheaval because you lost someone who was there with you every day, then a bereavement therapist can help you to reorganise your life and find new ways to function by introducing new routines and creating new habits.
Building a Trusted Support Network
A bereavement therapist can help you to build a support network by connecting you to community resources or support groups that will offer you support.
What Happens During a Bereavement Therapy Session
During the bereavement therapy session, you can expect to be involved in some or any of the following therapeutic exercises. Your therapist might also guide you through others depending on your specific situation.
✓ Describing the special persons death and your feelings and emotions about the event
✓ Talking about any guilt that you have related to the death or events surrounding the death
✓ Making sense of your situation and how to move forward with your life
✓ Making a plan for your daily life if it has been greatly altered by the death.
✓ Learning about tools and techniques that you can use to start to feel better in the moment.
✓ Speaking to your therapist in a private space where you can fully express yourself and not worry about being judged.
What Happens During a Bereavement Therapy Session
During the bereavement therapy session, you can expect to be involved in some or any of the following therapeutic exercises. Your therapist might also guide you through others depending on your specific situation.
✓ Describing the special persons death and your feelings and emotions about the event
✓ Talking about any guilt that you have related to the death or events surrounding the death
✓ Making sense of your situation and how to move forward with your life
✓ Making a plan for your daily life if it has been greatly altered by the death.
✓ Learning about tools and techniques that you can use to start to feel better in the moment.
✓ Speaking to your therapist in a private space where you can fully express yourself and not worry about being judged.
Ruth is an experienced and fully qualified trauma informed Counsellor, EMDR therapist and NLP Master Practitioner specialising in anxiety, self-confidence and bereavement.
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