Principles and practice of grief counseling

Revised edition of the authors' Principles and practice of grief counseling, [2016]

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"The authors view the practice of grief counseling as a unique specialized area of practice.Although counseling in general is meant to address issues that occur in everyday life, and loss is certainly a universal experience, they wanted to be able to focus upon grief as a painful but adaptive process, with some unique features that separate it from other types of issues that are addressed in general counseling and therapy practice. They believe a key aspect of grief counseling is that it does not focus upon what is wrong, but rather on what is right about the grieving process, and the emphasis is upon how practitioners may facilitate the healthy unfolding of the adaptive aspects of this process rather than on its containment. One other unique feature of this book is the discussion of grief as a response to losses that are death related and nondeath related, tangible and intangible in their description. An individual does not have to lose a loved one to death in order to grieve; grief can occur after placing a loved one with advanced dementia in a long-term care facility, with the ending of an intimate relationship, with the loss of hopes and dreams, and with the loss of self that may accompany life-altering events. Grief is viewed as an adaptive response to experiences that challenge our assumptions about how the world should work, and how we view ourselves and others within that world. Although an entire chapter is devoted to this topic, this broader view of grief will be woven through all of the material that is presented in the various chapters"--