Coping with bereavement
Back to Topic
Click to Print
Useful Websites
Glossary Term Selection
This article is 7 years old.
Click here to view the latest articles for this topic.
The death of a loved one can be devastating. Bereavement counsellor Sarah Smith describes some of the feelings that can arise from losing someone, and where you can go for help and support.
Bereavement affects people in different ways. There’s no right or wrong way to feel.
‘You might feel a lot of emotions at once, or feel you’re having a good day, then you wake up and feel worse again,’ says Sarah, who works at Trinity Hospice in London.
She says powerful feelings can come unexpectedly. ‘It’s like waves on a beach. You can be standing in water up to your knees and feel you can cope, then suddenly a big wave comes and knocks you off your feet.’
Stages of bereavement or grief
Experts generally accept there are four stages of bereavement:
- accepting that your loss is real
- experiencing the pain of grief
- adjusting to life without the person who has died
- putting less emotional energy into grieving and putting it into something new – in other words, moving on.
You’ll probably go throu...
Want to see the rest of this article?
Would you like to see the rest of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?
- Useful related articles
- Video and multimedia references
- Statistical information and reference material
- Glossary of terms
- Key Facts and figures
- Related assignments
- Resource material and websites
