Grief and loss is something that all human being experience throughout life. There are many misnomers out their about how to best process grief and loss. Many well meaning friends and family members may tell us that we need to go through certain steps and stages with our grief in a specific pre-defined order. Or we may hear that we should take so many months to “get over” our loss. Or even harder to hear, “aren’t you over that yet, you need to move on”. These people may mean well, but what they don’t’ understand about grief and loss are the following:
Truths about Grief and Loss
– Grief has no set process or timeline
– Grief has no set stages or steps that are linear
– All losses are different and require a different process
– Grief needs to be witnessed by a supportive person
– Grief comes in waves and everyone grieves differently
– Its okay to have breaks from our grieving process, it does not mean we are stuck in denial
– Grief can become complicated and stuck and that can be a good time to reach out for some counseling
– Some grief and losses are ambiguous, meaning their will be no closure and/or the loss may not be obvious
– We can have losses that we may not initial recognize
-Grief comes in waves
Examples of Loss and things people Grieve:
– Death of a loved one
– End of a relationship
– End of a career or job
– Miscarriage
– Death of a pet
– Retirement
– Moving
– Children leaving home
– Childhood trauma or hardships
– Financial losses
– End of a friendship
– Major health issues
Examples of Other less obvious losses:
– Major disappointments
– Not getting a job or promotion
– Being rejected
– Children not needing you
– Loss of athletic ability
– Not meeting goals
– Financial setback
– Spiritual disillusionment
– Loss of sense of self
As you can see from the above examples, grief and loss is far reaching and is part of many experiences we have as a human being. What we have found at Bozeman Counseling Center, is that people can really benefit from a supportive, non-judgmental counselor who can witness your grief process and provide tools and resources to help.
Our therapists are trained to help with the many different types of grief and loss. Please reach out today.