The American Hospice Foundation's Annual Conference

Last week the American Hospice Foundation held its annual conference. The Center had an information booth and our director, David Fireman, LCSW participated as a panelist. This years theme was "before and after death." As is the custom for this conference a panel of experts in bereavement counseling and consultation had been assembled and broadcasted from Washington D.C. to the various participating local sites throughout the country. We found this years conference to be particulary informative about grief and mourning. Certainly, chief among the insights shared was that there is no correct timetable for grieving. While grief is a universal response to the loss of a loved one, it is also extremely personal. That said, if the normal grief reactions of sadness, longing for reconnection, rage, anxiety, fear, inability to concentrate or make decisions, etc., begin to significantly interfere with daily living and functioning, then seeking professional help is needed. Currently, there is some debate as to whether there should be a psychiatric diagnosis for "prolonged grief," or "complicated mourning." At the Center we do find there are, indeed, complications that come up for people as they are grieving their loss(es). There are many sources of complications. Some of them stem from a loss experience that was marked by trauma. In other words, people are more likely to have a complicated mourning process if the stressors associated with the loss overwhelm their natural grief reactions. Examples of this kind of scenario include: sudden unexpected death, death of a child, violent death, death that the griever perceived as preventable. These kinds of situations often render mourners helpless and impotent and they are more likely to suffer from complications. There are certain phases that mourners typically work through in order to begin restoring their sense of selfhood and adjusting to life without their loved one. These phases or processes are challenged in the wake of traumatic bereavement. By seeing a grief therapist mourners can begin to allow themselves to experience the full range and depth of their reactions. They are then more likely to begin emerging from their complicated grief in order to re-enter the world. They begin to strengthen their capacity to remember history and move forward into a new future. More on the phases of mourning in our next installment.



Find us at www.griefcounselor.org