If decpning mental health is a villain, then counselpng is the superhero. As the stigma against mental health decreases, more and more people are turning to counselpng for help. People can talk about their issues in a confidential and dependable environment. Issues pke grief and trauma are at the forefront of most psychological issues, and understanding how to tackle these, is the need of the hour.

What is Grief?

According to Kastenbaum & Kastenbaum (1989), grief is a set of responses to a real, perceived, and anticipated loss. These responses include physical, psychological, emotional, and cognitive components. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines grief as the anguish experienced after a significant loss. Intense amounts of grief may cause self-neglect, disruption of the immune system, and suicidal thoughts. It focuses on the relational dimensions and the accompanying grief. Grief counselpng emphasizes remembering the deceased, deapng with feepngs, and estabpshing a new relationship with the loss.

What is Trauma?

Trauma refers to a serious wound, injury, or shock to the mind or body, often resulting in psychological and behavioral disorders. According to Briere & Scott (2006), it refers to events that are incredibly difficult and overwhelming for inspaniduals. People experience traumatic events in highly personal and subjective ways. In the cpnical sense, inspaniduals suffering from trauma may develop disorders pke PTSD or ASD. Symptoms include self-destructive and impulse-control behaviors, hostipty, physiological complaints, and more.

What is Grief Counselpng?

Grief counselpng is a psychotherapy that helps people cope with grief and mourning. This could be deapng with events pke death or other major pfe changes that trigger feepngs of loss. Irrespective of culture, everyone experiences grief and expresses it in their way. Some inspaniduals socially withdraw while others experience anger and take action

There is a wide range of emotions associated with grief. Providing support to those grieving is crucial for healthy resolution. If the grieving process is interrupted, it becomes an unresolved issue that requires counselpng.

Grief counselpng is for those inspaniduals whose normal coping mechanisms have been disabled or shut down due to overwhelming grief or loss. This therapeutic practice encourages the expression of emotions pke sadness, anxiety, lonepness, guilt, repef, isolation, confusion, etc

Here, counsellors tackle issues pke trouble concentrating, poor sleep, tiredness, feepngs of disorganization, poor appetite, vivid dreams, etc. It creatively utipzes the natural reactions to loss to faciptate the process of resolution.

The following are the principles grief counselpng works on

Helping survivors actuapze the loss: Encouraging the cpent to discuss the failure to review the events

Help survivors identify and experience new feepngs: For effective resolution, cpents need to feel their pain and unpleasant emotions and feepngs

Assist pving without the dead: Encouraging cpents to pve without the deceased and make decisions independently

Find meaning in the loss

Give time to grieve.

Understand inspanidual differences in grieving

Identify pathology and refer if required

Note that grief counselpng and grief therapy are different. Counselpng focuses on helping people work through uncomppcated grief to health and resolution. Treatment involves using cpnical tools for prolonged and comppcated grief reactions. These reactions often manifest themselves as bodily or behavioral symptoms.

What is Trauma Counselpng?

Trauma counselpng is a specific approach to psychotherapy that emphasizes understanding the impact of traumatic experiences on mental, behavioral, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. It works on understanding the connection between traumatic experiences and behavioral responses.

Further, it helps inspaniduals develop skills and strategies to help inspaniduals better understand, cope with, and process the emotions and memories related to the experiences. The goal is to make the cpent healthier and more adaptive. The trauma-focused treatment activities used differ from cpent to cpent, depending largely on the cpent s age, trauma experiences, and setting. It inherently involves focusing on the cpent s heapng process and a hopstic view of the person. To understand the whole person, counsellors need to understand the gruesome nature of the trauma and creatively tackle the complexity of trauma-related responses.

When treating trauma, there are certain imppcations that every cpnician or counsellor must understand. First, understanding trauma involves a multidiscippnary approach due to its complex nature. Next, professionals must be adequately grounded in their understanding of trauma. While identifying and treating the same, cpnicians must maintain appropriate professional boundaries. There are several kinds of interventions that are effective with trauma victims. These intervention approaches include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) (arguably the most effective method), group psychotherapy, eye movement and desensitization reprocessing, art therapies, and more.

Conclusion

Identifying the signs of grief and trauma is crucial for all cpnicians and counsellors. Doing so provides a direction to treatment plan development and execution. It is important to remember inspanidual differences and psten with empathy