The top 5 benefits of grief counseling with EmpowerCounseling. Anyone who has ever lost someone close to them, knows just how difficult it can be to move on with your life.
In fact, it can be so difficult to move on that up to 25% of bereaved individuals suffer from sever anxiety or depression. That is one in every 4 fall into severe, clinically diagnosable, anxiety or depression. Many more may suffer from mild to moderate anxiety or depression.
Grief counseling is crucial be cause it can help you avoid falling into anxiety or depression and getting stuck there.
the top 5 benefits of grief counseling with Empower Counseling:
1. Grief counseling with Empower Counseling can help you make meaning of your life, your loss, and the difficulty you are going through.
Kathryn, with Empower Counseling, will listen to you with caring and empathy. There is no road map for grief. Everyone moves through the stages of grief in their own way, and at their own pace. Having a professional listen to and interpret your thoughts and emotions, can help you progress through the stages, make meaning of your experiences, and avoid getting stuck along the way.
2. Give voice to your pain.
It important to have family and friends who you can talk to and who will listen. But it is also incredibly helpful to have a counselor to talk to about anything and everything through grief counseling that you do not want to share with others about your experience. You might not want to share certain aspects with other family members who are grieving as well. Counselors have clinical training to help you in this difficult transition. Kathryn will listen to your experience, your thoughts, and your emotions and hep your navigate your way through them.
3. Consider new perspectives.
Even the most self-aware of us don’t know what we don’t know. . When grieving, it is easy to get caught up in your own thinking and become stuck in your head. For this reason, it is always helpful to have a trained professional listen to your thoughts, assess your values, and help you with future steps toward healing
4. Top 5 Benefits of Grief Counseling with Empower Counseling #4: Avoid severe depression and anxiety.
As stated previously, up to 25% of bereaved individuals wind up with severe depression or anxiety. Here are some signs and symptoms of severe depression.
- Insomnia or excessive sleeping
- Irritability
- Loss of interest in activities that used to be enjoyable
- Hopelessness
- Persistent thoughts of something bad happening
- Thoughts of death or suicide or suicide attempts
- In very severe cases, psychotic symptoms (such as hallucinations or delusions)
- Inability to take care of oneself, such as eating, bathing, or fulfilling family or work responsibilities.
(For more on the warning signs of sever depression click here.)
Grief has severe steps:
Shock
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance
Everyone experiences these steps differently. Grieving is not a linear process. Some will move more quickly though each step that others. Some will move forward through a step only to return to it later.
There is no “right” way to grieve. But there is a wrong way, and that is called avoidance.
One must move through grief. There is no way to get around it. If you avoid your thoughts and your emotions, you will wind up struggling more than you have to and could easily end up with anxiety or depression.
Kathryn, will guide you through the steps of the grieving process at your pace. She will be right there by your side, understanding and listening. She will be on alert for any cognitive distortions along the way. Cognitive distortions are unhelpful thoughts or unhelpful ways of thinking that can lead to anxiety or depression. Think of them as little traps along the path that can derail you on your journey. Kathryn will help you not get stuck in these distortions.
5. Acceptance Commitment Therapy is proven effective for grief counseling.
Kathryn, with Empower Counseling, is advanced trained in Acceptance Commitment Therapy.
ACT can help you move toward acceptance in this new chapter of your life. Not only that, but, Kathryn will help you gain clarity about what is most important to you moving forward and help you take action toward exactly what is most important to you.
Acceptance Commitment Therapy with Empower Counseling for grief will help you become resilient even in the most difficult of situations.
You do not have to do this alone. If you, or a loved one is grieving, reach out to Kathryn with Empower Counseling today and let her support you on your journey to healing.
In its Birmingham area counseling clinic, Empower Counseling specializes in counseling for anxiety and depression, as well as grief therapy, for adults, young adults, college students and teens. Empower Counseling is convenient to Homewood, Mountain Brook, Vestavia, Hoover, and other surrounding areas. Empower offers in-person and online counseling.