Grief counseling is advised in cases of suffering due to a loss. Grief is a natural response to loss. It’s the emotional suffering you feel when something or someone you love is taken away. You may associate grief with the death of a loved one – and this type of loss does often cause the most intense grief. But any loss can cause grief, including:

• A relationship breakup
• Loss of health
• Losing a job
• Loss of financial stability
• Death of a pet
• Loss of a cherished dream
• A loved one’s serious illness
• Loss of safety after a trauma

Grieving is a personal and highly individual experience. How you grieve depends on many factors, including your personality and coping style. Your life experience, your faith, and the nature of the loss also influence on your management of the pain. The grieving process takes time. Healing happens gradually; it can’t be forced or hurried – and there is no “normal” timetable for grieving. Some people start to feel better in weeks or months. For others, the grieving process is measured in years. Whatever your grief experience, it’s important to be patient with yourself and allow the process to naturally unfold.

Common symptoms during Grief Counseling

While loss affects people in different ways, many people experience the following symptoms when they’re grieving. Just remember that almost anything that you experience in the early stages of grief counseling is normal – including feeling like you’re going crazy, feeling like you’re in a bad dream, or questioning your religious beliefs.

Shock and Disbelief – Right after a loss, it can be hard to accept what happened. You may feel numb, have trouble believing that the loss really happened, or even deny the truth. If someone you love has died, you may keep expecting them to show up, even though you know they’re gone.

Sadness – Profound sadness is probably the most universally experienced symptom of grief counseling. You may have feelings of emptiness, despair, yearning, or deep loneliness. You may also cry a lot or feel emotionally unstable.

Guilt – You may regret or feel guilty about things you did or didn’t say or do. You may also feel guilty about certain feelings (e.g. feeling relieved when the person died after a long, difficult illness). After a death, you may even feel guilty for not doing something to prevent the death, even if there was nothing more you could have done.

Anger – Even if the loss was nobody’s fault, you may feel angry and resentful. If you lost a loved one, you may be angry with yourself, God, the doctors, or even the person who died for abandoning you. You may feel the need to blame someone for the injustice that was done to you.

Fear – A significant loss can trigger a host of worries and fears. You may feel anxious, helpless, or insecure. You may even have panic attacks. The death of a loved one can trigger fears about your own mortality, of facing life without that person, or the responsibilities you now face alone.

Physical symptoms – We often think of grief counseling as a strictly emotional process, but grief counseling often involves physical problems, including fatigue, nausea, lowered immunity, weight loss or weight gain, aches and pains, and insomnia.

Coping with grief and loss: Get support with Grief Counseling

The single most important factor in healing from loss is having the support of other people. Even if you aren’t comfortable talking about your feelings under normal circumstances, it’s important to express them when you’re grieving. Sharing your loss makes the burden of grief counseling easier to carry. Wherever the support comes from, accept it and do not grieve alone. Connecting to others will help you heal. (helpguide.org)

If your level of grief is greater than your current support system can assist with and you need grief counseling counseling, contact one of our Boynton Beach Grief Counselors today at (561) 797-0631.