Grief & trauma

Let's be realistic here,  the process of grief cannot be cut short.  People need to go through grief in order to process and enter a new chapter of their life. 

Grief isn’t something we can simply ‘fix’ with a tool or a principle but it is certainly something we can learn to identify, be aware of and learn to manage.

Whether facing the death of a close family member, friend or partner, the end of a relationship or any other significant loss, we are going to grieve. 

Grieving is painful, normal and necessary.  We know we will need all the strength, resilience, support, and comfort we can, especially if we are carrying additional stresses. It’s sometimes helpful to be supported through the process.  

As someone that has  faced a fare share of grief, i am able to help you manage and process  these deep feelings such as sadness, regret, shame, blame, anger, overwhelm, depression, anxiety and anger by using  client centered processes and techniques that provide ease and release.

Hypnosis is widely used in the treatment of pathological grief but is much underreported. It  facilitates the mourning process and makes possible a personal reorientation for the future.

Grief is usually thought to mean the reaction to the death of a loved one. However, you may experience grief and loss when a long standing or intense relationship ends, you lose your job for any reason, or experience another major life transition. Moving house, redundancy, children moving away from home or a best friend getting married might also leave you with a sense of overwhelming loss.   Grief has several stages include shock and disbelief; denial, guilt and shame; anger; depression, loneliness and reflection; reconstruction or working through; and finally acceptance.  Part of the process of grief, in time, is exploring who we are in our new circumstances. We become someone different. 

The more we ignore the process of grieving, the more likely it is that we become stuck in grief and can’t find a way out. When we dont go through the process to heal, we can develop deep-seated feelings of heartache, despair and depression that  can overwhelm us and begin to manifest in other ways.. Sometimes there’s trauma linked to the grief as well and trauma can many times block our ability to feel fully and move forward..

Grief is a form of trauma; but when our loss is dramatic, sudden or the result of violence, we are dealing with a whole other level of trauma and grief, which can easily lead to signs of depression.

We all need to grieve in our own way , whichever way without judgement. Expressing the full range of emotions helps us process and understand our loss and to deal with those emotions arising from it.  It is important to acknowledge and feel any emotions that arise, which is sometimes easier with a therapist to guide you through this process.

Many people feel guilt over things they did or did not say or do; feelings of anger, blame and shame are common. Sometimes this leads to increased anxiety and stress.   You may also suffer anxiety about how you will cope without the person you have lost, about your health, about financial insecurity, or the loss of your place in the world. 

These are all thoughts and interpretations. taking control of our thinking, and changing/understanding our interpretations, helps us reframe our thoughts and understand our feelings better.  When we are grieving, the seat of our emotions is our primitive mind, not our intellectual mind. And when we are stuck in our primitive mind, it is not as easy to access the part of our mind that thinks clearly, solves problems and plans forward. Hypnotherapy can help access that part of the subconscious mind and reframe.