counseling [COMPS]

the intense physical and emotional expression of grief occurring as the awareness increases of a loss of someone or something significant.

Acute grief

external expression of emotion. (synonymous with emotion)

Affect

those appropriate and helpful acts of counseling that come after the funeral. (A means of supplying support to a family after a death has occurred. Approx. 33% of funeral homes offer aftercare programs.)

Aftercare (post-funeral counseling)

the intentional infliction of physical or psychological harm on another Alarm

Aggression

the state of estrangement an individual feels in social settings that are viewed as foreign, unpredictable or unacceptable. (A state that causes individuals experiencing grief over the loss of a loved one to distance or disassociate themselves from the world or others.)

Alienation

providing a choice of services and merchandise available as families make a selection and complete funeral arrangements, formulating different actions in adjusting to a crisis.

Alternatives (Options)

is blame directed towards another person. A strong feeling of displeasure and usually of antagonism. (Blame directed outward)

Anger

grief where mourning customs are unclear due to an inappropriate death and the absence of prior bereavement experience.

Anomic grief

grief in anticipation of death or loss (a slow death such as cancer or AIDS) (occurs before death)

Anticipatory grief

apprehension, dread, or uneasiness similar to fear but based on an unclear threat. An emotion characterized by a vague fear or premonition that something undesirable is going to happen.

Anxiety

funeral director consulting with the family from the time the death occurs until the final disposition.

At-need counseling

it is the tendency in human beings to make strong affectional bonds with others coming from the need for security and safety. (Strength & Security of the attachment, Reliance, and Involvement)

Attachment Theory (Bowlby)

giving undivided attention by means of verbal and non-verbal behavior.

Attending (listening)

a learned tendency to respond to people, objects, or institutions in a positive or negative way.

Attitude

the act or event of separation or loss that results in the experience of grief (a feeling of sadness connected with death) (the event of loss)

Bereavement

a work-related condition of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion.

Burnout

excessive in duration and never comes to a satisfactory conclusion. (prolonged or extended)

Chronic grief

a non-directive method of counseling which stresses the inherent worth of the client and the natural capacity for growth and health. Rogers

Client centered (person centered) counseling

from the Latin, "to know;" the study of the origins and consequences of thoughts, memories, beliefs, perceptions, explanations, and other mental processes.

Cognitive psychology

a general term for the exchange of information, feelings, thoughts and acts between two or more people, including both verbal and non-verbal aspects of this interchange.

Communication

involves a process of being available for a person during a loss without intellectualizing, minimizing or rationalizing their pain. (Being present, honoring the spirit of the loved one loss; and being still)

Companioning (Wolfelt)

grief that interferes with normal life functions without progressing towards resolution (Chronic, Masked, Delayed, & Exaggerated Grief)

Complicated (abnormal, unresolved grief)

according to client-centered counseling, the necessary quality of a counselor being in touch with reality and other's perception of oneself.

Congruence (Rogers)

ways of responding to stress.

Coping

professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods.

Counseling

advice, especially that given as a result of consultation.

Counseling (Webster)

any time someone helps someone else with a problem.

Counseling (Jackson)

good communication within and between men; or, good (free) communication within or between men is always therapeutic. (Humanistic, non-directive counseling)

Counseling (Rogers)

the individual providing assistance and guidance.

Counselor

a highly emotional temporary state in which an individual's feelings of anxiety, grief, confusion or pain impair his or her ability to act.

Crisis

Intentional responses which help individuals in a crisis situation.

Crisis counseling

a learned emotional response to death-related phenomenon which is characterized by extreme apprehension.

Death anxiety

an unconscious, irrational means used by the ego to defend against anxiety.

Defense mechanisms

inhibited, suppressed, or postponed response to a loss. (an abnormal grief that occurs well after the loss or is triggered by another loss)

Delayed grief (Worden)

the defense mechanism by which a person is unable or refuses to see things as they are because such facts are threatening to the self. (a protective coping mechanism characterized by an inability to perceive external reality)

Denial

Aftercare services that may include having a grief counselor on staff or retainer, sponsoring a support group(s), sponsoring grief related seminars or workshops, special ceremonies during holidays; or providing a personal visit to the family’s home by a funeral home staff member.

Direct Care Services

counselor takes a live speaking role, asking questions, suggesting courses of action, etc. (the same as Active Counseling)

Directive counseling

treating members of various social groups differently in circumstances where their rights or treatment should be identical.

Discrimination

a loss that society believes does not deserve mourning. The loss is not openly acknowledged, socially sanctioned, or publicly shared. (includes relationships not socially recognized; not considered a genuine loss [abortion, miscarriage, pet]; grievers are not recognized [friend, schoolmate, mentally disabled]; or socially accepted [suicide, legal execution])

Disenfranchised Grief

redirecting feelings toward a person or object other than one who caused the feelings originally.

Displacement

feelings such as happiness, anger, or grief, created by brain patterns accompanied by bodily changes.

Emotions

the ability to perceive, use, understand, and manage emotions.

Emotional intelligence

the ability to perceive another's experience and communicate that perception back to the person. A capacity for taking another’s point of view; the ability to feel what another is feeling. (the ability to enter into and share the feelings of others)

Empathy (Wolfelt)

an act or practice of allowing the death of persons suffering from a life-limiting condition.

Euthanasia (right to die)

reactions that are excessive and disabling.

Exaggerated grief (Worden)

to assist the understanding of situations and options concerning the circumstances. To make easier; help bring about.

Facilitate

strong emotion marked by such reactions as alarm, dread or disquieting.

Fear

centering a client's thinking and feelings on the situation causing a problem.

Focusing

an act involving the killing of one’s sibling.

Fratricide

the ability to present oneself sincerely .

Genuineness (Wolfelt)

an emotion or set of emotions due to loss (how a person responds to a loss)

Grief

helping people facilitate uncomplicated grief to a healthy resolution.

Grief counseling

a set of symptoms associated with loss. (The management of reactions to or the symptoms of grief associated with loss. Ex: a person who is unable to successfully manage their grief may consider therapy as a mechanism for coping with a loss.)

Grief syndrome (Lindemann)

specialized techniques which are used to help people with complicated grief reactions (the process of addressing and dealing with the symptoms of grief associated with the loss of a loved one)

Grief therapy (Worden)

a process occurring with losses aimed at loosening the attachment to that which has been lost for appropriate reinvestment. (Involves the process of mourning the loss of another.)

Griefwork (Lindemann)

support or support system provided to the counselee who is seeking an alternative adjustment to problems.

Guidance

blame directed toward oneself based on real or unreal conditions (the feeling of responsibility or blame directed inwardly associated with the loss of a loved one).

Guilt

the killing of one human being by another.

Homicide

a philosophy of care or a program of palliative care used in treating the terminally ill. (Care provided to individuals facing the end-of life)

Hospice

killing an infant.

Infanticide

counseling in which a counselor shares a body of special information with a counselee.

Informational counseling

providing support to a family after a death in the form of literature such as cards, letters, brochures, books, newsletter, or a directory of local grief support groups or agencies.

Information Oriented Aftercare Services

experiencing symptoms and behaviors which cause difficulty but not attributing them to the loss.

Masked grief (Worden)

the process of preserving memories of people or events.

Memorialization

any event, person or object that lessens the degree of pain in grief.

Mitigation

an adjustment process which involves grief or sorrow over a period of time and helps in the reorganization of the life of an individual following a loss or death or someone beloved The process of incorporating a loss into one's life.

Mourning

to listen, support, and advise without directing a course of action. Stresses the inherent worth of the client and the natural capacity for growth and health(Another name for client-centered counseling) (Carl Rogers)

Non-directive counseling

that which is expressed by posture, facial expression, actions, physical behavior.

Non-verbal communication

choice of actions provided through counseling as a means of solving the counselee's problem.

Option (Alternatives)

Suffering brought on by the death of a loved one. (A sensory feeling that can be either physical or mental.)

Pain

a strong emotion characterized by sudden and extreme fear.

Panic

expressing a thought or idea in an alternate and sometimes a shortened form.

Paraphrasing

a non-directive method of counseling which stresses the inherent worth of the client and the natural capacity for growth and health. (Passive)

Person centered (client centered) counseling

a common name for a strong irrational fear that is difficult to eliminate.

Phobia

those appropriate and helpful acts of counseling that come after the funeral

Post-funeral counseling (aftercare)

negative attitude towards others based on their gender, religion, race, or membership in a particular group.

Prejudice

that counseling which occurs before a death.

Pre-need counseling

attribution of one's unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or behaviors to someone else.

Projection

the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. (the study of human behavior)

Psychology

intervention with people whose needs are so specific that usually they can only be met by specially trained physicians or psychologists. The practitioners in this field need special training because they often work with deeper levels of consciousness.

Psychotherapy (Jackson)

a relation of harmony established in any human interaction

Rapport

supplying a logical, rational, socially acceptable reason rather than the real reason for an action.

Rationalization

returning to more familiar and often more primitive modes of coping.

Regression

blocking of threatening material from consciousness.

Repression

the ability to communicate the belief that everyone possesses the capacity and right to choose alternatives and make decisions.

Respect (Wolfelt)

Compulsive need to go after and retrieve that which has been lost. Preoccupied and intense thoughts about the deceased

Searching

the assumption of blame directed toward oneself by others. (A belief that others place blame on the individual for the death of another. Shame manifests itself as a feeling of guilt, sadness, regret or embarrassment over a perception that not enough was done to prevent the death of the loved one.)

Shame

the reaction of the body to an event often experienced emotionally as a sudden, violent and upsetting disturbance.

Shock

related to specific situations in life that may created crises and produce human pain and suffering.

Situational Counseling

making judgments about ourselves through comparison with others.

Social comparison

occurs when an individual's performance improves because of the presence of others.

Social facilitation

the mental and physical condition that occurs when a person must adjust or adapt to the environment.

Stress

any event capable of producing physical or emotional stress Sublimation

Stressor

the sudden and unexpected death of an apparently healthy infant, which remains unexplained after a complete autopsy and a review of the circumstances around the death.

Sudden infant death syndrome (S.I.D.S. or crib death)

a deliberate and voluntary act of self-destruction (taking one’s own life)

Suicide

a brief review of points covered in a portion of the counseling session. Suppression

Summary

sincere feelings for the person who is trying to adjust to a serious loss

Sympathy

an irrational, exaggerated (abnormal) fear of death.

Thanatophobia

a statement or action which creates anxiety in an individual’s life.

Threat

showing complete support and acceptance of a person no matter what that person says.

Unconditional Positive Regard (Rogers)