Dual Process Model Of Grief

3. Someone who has mourned/grieved in a healthy way has probably been through the oscillation phases through the Dual Process Model created by Stroebe & Schut. In this Dual Process Model, there are two categories of everyday life experiences, including loss-oriented and restoration-oriented actions. The person who has experienced grief in a healthy way has gone through loss-oriented thoughts and feelings, which is a time for them to focus on and process the loss of the person who died and the relationship they had with them. This healthy griever has shuffled between those types of feelings as well as restoration-oriented actions, which typically includes going through life without the person: doing new things, taking on new roles/relationships,
This can dramatically slow down or hinder the grieving process and may even create unhealthy problems. Someone who is dealing with complicated/prolonged grief might be dealing with attachment in grief work, according to Bowlby. This can include developing strong affectional bonds, attempting to restore the relationship with the deceased through yearning, crying, memories, unbearable feelings of separation and abandonment, breaking the bonds by re-establishing beyond the deceased. Later, Bowlby and Ainsworth revisit attachment by identifying attachment’s primary purposes and its connection to relationships and grief. Attachment’s two primary purposes are to serve as a safe haven at times of threat and securing a base for exploring the world. Insecure attachment in relationships helps us identify it in grief as well, which includes anxious-ambivalent and anxious-avoidant. To be anxious-ambivalent in a relationship oven develops overly dependent relationships with others. In grief, this results in being stuck in the loss and having difficulty accepting the death and others’ unavailability while also experiencing a lot of difficulty moving forward and integrating the