Grief Counseling for Getting Through the Holidays
Thanksgiving and Christmas. The frenzy starts, sometimes, even before Halloween. And it can be the worst time of the year for those who are grieving, having lost a spouse or loved one to either death or divorce.
Sometimes, just moving away and experiencing the loss of familiar surroundings brings people to my office for grief therapy. It doesn’t matter what you have lost, although losing a spouse to death or divorce is the highest stressor on the scale; the trauma can involve the death of a beloved pet or the loss of a friend. At Rockwall Counseling, we don’t judge or measure the “size” of the loss. If the loss is important to you, then it’s important and deserving of our care.
The thing that causes my bereaved clients the most pain is when they fight what has happened and the emotions of grief that follow. This could be because of a childhood prohibition against crying or an upbringing that labeled tears as shameful or weak. The fact is, you need to grieve! Crying and tears honor the person or pet you have lost. Suppressing your tears drives the stress hormones into the body and builds cortisol levels in the blood–not a good thing for your health!
Grief Counseling Can Help
There are common responses from all people when it comes to death or divorce. Although these are usually called stages of grief, different people experience them in different ways and at different times. You can go backwards and forwards in the stages of grief as well. Drowning out these grief stages with alcohol, constant activity, having to always be around people, or jumping into a new relationship will just delay the healthy grieving process that needs to happen.
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance are all expected responses to grief and loss and are addressed in my grief counseling work with you. Getting stuck in one of these stages can cause unneccessary delay in your recovery from the death of a spouse or divorce. Be gentle with yourself as you feel these emotions, and get the grief counseling help you deserve if needed.