(This blog was originally posted on March 16, 2016)
 |
| Photo by Rick Hustead |
There are many kinds of loss, and it is
normal to experience grief (sadness) and mourn for the life or even experience
when we no longer have it. In addition to the death of a loved one
(spouse/partner, child, relative, friend), we can mourn for the passing of a
colleague or mentor, pet, home or job, etc. It is common to grieve when a role
model passes away, as I described in a previous blog titled, Mourning
the Ones We Lost…But Never Knew.
Grief: The affective (emotional) response to the
loss/death. There are four recognized stages of grief:
- Acute: shock, numbness and disbelief that the person has died, followed by pining, yearning, protest or a sense of prevailing numbness.
- Protest: anxiety, panic, searching behaviors, social withdrawal, acute somatic distress.
- Depression: The person acknowledges that the loved one can’t/won’t come back and depression symptoms may be experienced (simultaneously with/preceding the protest phase.)
- Adaptation/restitution: The survivor creates a new identity that is independent of the deceased loved one, establishes new emotional bonds and embarks on a new life.
Mourning: Specific emotional and
social behaviors a person manifests during grief. There is no limit to the
depth or the amount of time a person may grieve for or mourn a significant
loss. For example, Great Britain’s Queen Victoria
mourned for her husband, Prince Albert, every day from the day he died until
her own death forty years later. Hers is an extreme example of grief and
mourning that would require a referral from a licensed medical doctor and/or a
licensed mental-health worker to address in hypnotherapy (Business
& Professions Code 2908). However, in most situations, hypnotherapy is
a powerful forum in which to work through the sadness and practical challenges
of bereavement by accessing the person’s subconscious fortitude and resources,
thus enabling the person to manage emotional and social deficits of the loss.
Bereavement: The objective state of having lost
a loved one. There are three components,
or stages, of bereavement. These include:
·
Loss-Orientation: The process of “working
through” bereavement by focusing on/thinking about the deceased and aspects of
the person’s death. Behaviors may include: rumination, yearning for the
deceased, confronting/crying over the loss.
·
Restoration-Orientation: The process of
adjustment to the changes that are consequences of the loss: i.e., attending to
tasks previously fulfilled by the deceased and simply carrying on with other
“normal” aspects of day-to-day life.
·
Oscillation: The process of alternating between
Loss-Orientation and Restoration-Orientation processes of grief resolution.
This is important because it mediates the potentially severe consequences of
bereavement on physical and mental well-being that may result from constantly
confronting or avoiding grief.
Following is a summary of some of the ways hypnotherapy
can help a person work through and manage his or her grief and bereavement:
·
Hypnotherapy provides a “safe” environment (no
shame/no blame) in which the person can express his or her feelings about and
process the loss.
·
Therapeutic guided-imagery journeys and hypnotic
scripts are specifically catered to the needs of each client, based on how the
person is dealing with the loss/stage of grief, to help the person experience
and/or work through the bereavement.
·
Hypnotherapy, Imagery, Neuro-Linguistic
Programming techniques to help the bereaved person “chunk down” various
tasks or responsibilities that the person finds overwhelming at that time into
smaller, more manageable tasks.
·
Provides techniques to ameliorate
symptoms/behaviors of panic, fear, confusion, anxiety, etc. after the loss and
encourage the person to live a healthy lifestyle (nutrition, good sleeping and
exercise habits, seek medical advice, etc. when necessary).
·
Dream therapy to help the person vent out any
emotions, unresolved issues in order to make room for
·
Helps the person realize/identify that he or she
has options available re: how to process the loss, return to social
interactions/seek social, practical or emotional assistance if necessary. Also,
increases motivation, self-esteem, and self-confidence about the ability to
accomplish tasks that the person may have never had to do outside of the
relationship.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based
in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation
Institute in 2005.
For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2017
