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Discuss the psychological and physical effects of loss and grief: How might an ethical therapist incorporate this knowledge into his/her work? Base your answer of the theories and models presented in Module 7.
It is a fact of life that every individual will experience loss and grief at some point in their lives but in certain circumstances they may be unaware of it. Loss can come in many disguises from the easily recognisable bereavement, to redundancy, children leaving home, divorce, relocation, disfigurement, chronic illness, miscarriage, loss of a close pet, abortion and others. When a client presents for Counselling, it is vital to be alert for losses, both recent and historical, to check if there are unresolved issues because grief can be easily missed or misinterpreted. Chrysalis (2012) states that there are two ways in which a therapist will encounter the need to work with loss and grief. These are: 1) When a client presents with a recent loss and their goal is to work through the process and understand it, reaching a satisfactory conclusion. 2) When a client presents with other symptoms which you then uncover as being a grief reaction. In this case the person may not recognise that their problems are related to grief or unresolved grief in the past.
For the purposes of this assignment, loss and grief will be focus primarily on bereavement. Worden (2009) states “that the overall goal of grief counselling is to help the survivor adapt to the loss of a loved one and adapt to a new reality without him or her”. He goes on to explain that there must be four adjustments: increasing the reality of the loss, dealing with behavioural pain, and helping the client maintain a bond with the deceased while being comfortable with the new reality. I will now examine the psychological and physical aspects of grief and how a therapist may use grief models and theories in the therapy room and take into consideration social and ethical