Specialized Training for Counselors Who Offer Grief Counseling to their Clients

The death of a loved one can be an extremely distressing situation. Whether the person is a spouse, child or parent, when a death occurs there can be a range of emotional and physical responses. While sadness and grief is normal as a reaction for most people, for others, the degree of distress and grief may be so intense that grief counseling may become necessary.

What is Grief Counseling?

Whenever a person experiences loss of any form his or her body responds to the stress physically and emotionally. Age, culture and even gender may contribute to the intensity of emotions and how a person responds to the grief. It has been suggested that a person will typically pass through a number of stages of grief that range from denial to acceptance of the loss. Along the way, they may also experience anger, depression and bargaining as a means of dealing with their grief. Grief counseling assists an individual in passing through these stages.

Who Provides Counseling Services?

Bereavement counseling is sometimes offered to clients of funeral services or through hospice services for the families of people who have lost a loved one. People who go through other types of loss (for example amputation of a limb, chronic illness or divorce) experience the same stages of grief that someone who has lost a family. Often the need for referral is recognized by a general practitioner who can provide their patient with a referral to a psychologist or other counselor.

Specialized Counseling Services

Most counselors learn how to deal with grief counseling as part of their basic training. However, because of the variety of the ages and backgrounds of their clients, they may need to develop specialty skills to assist clients with special needs. Counselors may choose to provide specialized support to their younger clients and help them deal with child or adolescent grief. Specialized courses for counselors are provided online or through classes taken in a traditional classroom.

Resolving Grief and Promoting Self Help

Counselors train to assist people deal with their own problems by supporting them to make decisions and to move on with their lives. Opportunities to develop specialized skills will help a counselor provide excellent grief counseling and other services to their clients and client families. If you’d like to make a career out of helping people overcome their grief, then look into one of the professional training courses that can be found online.