Thanatology - Psychology - Chapter 11 - Counseling

Define Counseling

Non-judgmental short term helping process where one individual (the counselor) helps another individual or group (counselee or client) understand and deal with issues or problems in their daily life.

Define Grief Counseling

A specialty in general counseling with the goal of helping the individual grieve an address personal loss in a healthy manner

Define Grief Therapy

Specialized techniques that are used to help people with complicated grief

How many goals are there in Grief Counseling? What are they?

Overall goal is to help survivors complete any unfinished business with the deceased and to be able to say goodbye.

Four tasks of mourning:
• Actualize the loss
• Help the counselee deal with both the expressed and latent effects of the loss
• Help the counselee overcome various impediments to readjust after a loss
• Encourage the counselee to make a healthy emotional withdrawal from the deceased and to feel comfortable reinvesting that emotion in another relationship

What are some objectives to grief counseling?

• Gain a clearer insight into themselves and their situation
• Identify, talk about, explore, and understand their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
• Obtain a better understanding of their feelings and behaviors
• Realize and utilize their own strengths, coping skills, and resources
• Work out what action they want to take
• Function more successfully in their day-to-day activities
• Prevent the development of more serious mental health problems

How can an FD facilitate healthy grieving for a pre-need client?

• Sponsoring educational programs on grief and loss
• Using counseling skills during preneed funeral arrangements to enhance the funeral arrangement experience

How can an FD facilitate healthy grieving for a at need client?

• Utilize effective counseling techniques during the at-need arrangement conference to help families plan services that will maximize the potential for a healing grieving experience
• Execute the planned services in a professional, empathetic manner so the family’s needs are met.

What can be done post-funeral to facilitate healthy grieving?

Follow up with aftercare that meets the family’s post-funeral needs.

Why do some people seek counseling?

They become aware that they are facing a difficult
situation, perceive their feelings or situation as
problematic, and believe that counseling could assist them in alleviating their distress, and feel the pain is greater than the perceived or actual barriers to seeking counseling.

Why do some people not seek it even if it is needed?

• Barriers to seeking counseling may involve embarrassment or shame at not being able to handle things themselves.
• Fear of being judged by the counselor
• Fear being labeled mentally ill
• Social stigma

Is counseling helpful at all?

• Researchers have overwhelmingly concluded that counseling and therapy are helpful and that most clients improved by the end of counseling than those who did not receive intervention.
• Type of counseling most effective has not been proven.
• No one treatment works best with every client in every situation

How many types of counseling are there?

There are three major types

Define each of the types of counseling and give examples: Informational Counseling

• Goal is to share with someone a body of specialized information
• Sharing info on accepted funeral customs, legal requirements, religious rituals, etc.

Define each of the types of counseling and give examples: Situational Counseling

• Related to specific situations in life that may create crisis and produce pain, suffering, and significant feelings that are produced by the crises.
• Death of a loved one brings a person to the funeral home and the FD is placed in a role where they assume the responsibility of situational counselor.

Define each of the types of counseling and give examples: Supportive Counseling

• Clarifying issue by questioning and probing, validating their concerns and responses, and bring peace and understanding to the client.
• Does not mean you provide therapy like a licensed mental health professional but being an empathetic, concerned, active listener.

What are the two types of counseling discussed in the book? Differentiate between them: Direct Counseling

• Counselor assumes the initiative and carries a major role in the identification and resolution of problems
• You tell the client what to do.

What are the two types of counseling discussed in the book? Differentiate between them: Non-Directive Counseling

• Counselor guides the counselee to identify and solve their own problems
• Counselor will use attending skills such as paraphrasing, reflecting, and clarifying frequently.

• Client gains help with a problem without surrendering personal responsibility for the situation
• Known as client centered or personal centered and developed by Dr. Carl Rogers

Of the two types, which is most effective and why?

Non-Directive Counseling
• More effective in grief counseling because it
• Established rapport with the client by effectively using attending skills and the client and counselor come to understand and respect each other
• Assists the person to gain perspective by questioning and clarifying the client beings to explore his/her thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
• Appraises the client’s problems and works with the client to determine ways to deal with them.
• Perceives the client’s situation in several ways and communicates this to the client
• Encourages realistic appraisal by the client
• Encourages conversational flow by avoiding questions that can be answered with yes or no
• Accepts the clients attributes and feelings
• Reflects the client’s feelings back to them
• Judges the ability of the client to verbalize
• Does not assume the client’s first statement to be true or complete
• Allows the client to summarize the interview.