Essay On Bereavement

Although people know that death is the most inevitable & natural occurrence of human life, most people do not know much about the normal, typical process of grieving until they experience it themselves. Bereavement is the reaction to the loss of someone or something that really matters both personally and emotionally. Grief is a natural, but complex emotional response to bereavement (Syme, 2006). As put forth by John Bowlby (1980), grieving is characterized as a four-stage process: Numbness; Yearning; Disorganization & Despair; and finally, Reorganization. However, research has suggested that most of the time, grieving does not follow this process in the same prescribed order. People may react differently to the loss of a loved one, and may thus, show different patterns of

‘An ongoing trauma, like the death of a parent or a beloved person, that starts early in the child’s life has the potential to dramatically alter the trajectory of child’s development. However, the impact of a stressor may vary considerably from child to child depending on each child’s age & developmental level, inherent resiliency, learned coping mechanisms, and external sources of physical, emotional, and social support. Although some children who experience such losses & trauma may be resilient to it, others may not be able to fully grieve the death of the loved one & may develop trauma symptoms that can have a long-lasting negative impact on the development, health, and safety of the child, which is a condition known as Childhood traumatic grief (CTG). It thus becomes important for professional therapists/counselors & also family members to identify children with CTG & to assist them in the grieving process, so as to provide them with appropriate treatment & therapy on time’ (Cohen et al.,