Reflection Paper On Grief And Crisis

Write a 750-1,000 word paper analyzing Woterstorff’s reflctions in Lament For a Son. In addition, address Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief, as they are expressed throughout Lament for a Son, and respond to the following questions:

A crisis can be defined as a turning point, our habitual strengths and coping mechanisms have been surpassed and a new approach has to be developed. According to Barnes (1984:115) “crisis intervention focuses on the reduction of anxiety in the client alongside the mobilisation of hope and the restoration of a sense of autonomy and control over the situation.

Grief is defined as a type of emotional or mental suffering from a loss, sorrow, or regret (Dictionary.com, LLC, 2010). Grief affects people of all ages, races, and sexes around the world. Approximately, 36% of the world’s population does or has suffered from grief and only a mere 10% of these people will seek out help (Theravive, 2009). Once a person is suffering from grief it is important to receive treatment. All too often, people ignore grief resulting in deep depression, substance abuse, and other disorders (Theravive, 2009). Grief counseling is very common and can be very helpful to a person in need of assistance. Grief counseling provides the support, understanding, and

Grief counseling is a division of social work that involves the interpersonal aspect of the social worker’s role as expert in coping with death. In this paper I will define grief counseling and some ways to cope with loss. Next I will discuss the history and seven stages of grief. There are two main forms of grievers which are intuitive and instrumental. In addition there are four major types of grief which are acute, anticipatory, sudden and complicated. The helping process is explained as well as some disorders related to grief. A current trend for grievers is to seek involvement in programs such as the Canadian Cancer Society, Missing Children of Canada and Victim Services. These organizations provide counseling services and crisis

When someone asked me what I thought a crisis was, the first examples that came to my mind was Hurricane Katrina, September 11, 2001. Once I began to think more of what the definition of a crisis would be, I know that it is the reaction of how someone reacts to a crisis event. Other examples may be suicide, homicide, domestic violence, and different traumas that one experiences. Once we began our discussions in class, I realized that a crisis and how one deals with a crisis, whether it is a natural, manmade or personal, effects each person differently. How that person handles the crisis, may have short term or long term effects that may lead to a mental illness. That is one of the points that I found very interesting, among other information we learned in class, along with the various speakers that we had.

“A crisis occurs when a stressful life event overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope effectively in the face of a perceived challenge or threat” (Arnold & Boggs, 2011, pg. 415). When people are in a crisis situation they tend to forget their normal coping measures. When people train on crisis situations, they tend to perform better during a crisis event. “A favorable outcome depends on the person’s interpretation of the crisis, perception of coping ability, resources, and level of social support” (Arnold & Boggs, 2011, pg. 416).

The stages of mourning and grief are universal and are experienced by people from all walks of life. Mourning occurs in response to an individual’s own terminal illness or to the death of a valued being, human or animal. There are five stages of normal grief that were first proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book “On Death and Dying.”

Although not everyone that comes across a stressor in life will experience a crisis, some are unable to cope with the stressor in a healthy manner and eventually succumb to a crisis. If this person does not receive the adequate crisis intervention during this state, he or she is likely to be unable to function at the level he or she had been functioning before the crisis. This will inevitably lead to additional crisis scenarios for every stressor they must face in life. “This pattern can go on for many years until the person’s ego is completely drained of its capacity to deal with reality; often such people commit suicide, kill someone, or have a psychotic breakdown.” (Kanel, K. 2007).

Black Americans can have different emotions from crying to being silent. People usually gather in large gatherings to pay respect. Black Americans have a belief that death is God’s will and the deceased is in God’s hand and will be reunited

What is a crisis? A crisis is a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger. It’s also something that can just happen randomly at any point in time, that you are never prepared for. It’s a disaster that can never be prepared for. My disaster I’m going to write about is the aftermath that I got to experience personally of a crisis. On April 27th 2011, a massive tornados stretched across Mississippi, Georgia, and broke through Alabama, 60 to be exact. One especially destroyed Ohatchee Alabama and Shoal Creek Valley.

What is a crisis? “…crisis is a perception or experience of an event or situation as an intolerable difficulty that exceeds the person’s current resources and coping mechanisms.” According to the normal crisis pattern there are four phases to a crisis. They are the impact phase, the withdrawal and confusion phase, the adjustment phase, and the reconstruction reconciliation phase. This chart is primarily used in counseling situational crisis that are sudden and unexpected. The mental illness dance is strongly associated with phase two, withdrawal and confusion. The response to life by people in crisis is full of emotions like anger, guilt, fear, anxiety, and depression. Their thinking is clouded and indistinct. Individuals who are stuck in this phase can develop long term mental illness, causing disability and a need for medication. Many of these individuals suffer with existential crisis that are related to things such as life purpose, direction, and spirituality. Here are two case studies that depict the mental illness dance. These case

According to the Merriam-Webster, the very definition of the word “Crisis” has many different meanings of application. The two that apply to the topic are “a paroxysmal attack of pain, distress, or disordered function” and “ an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending; especially: one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome”. This balances out to any function or event that will impact a person’s mental, physical, economic, or overall well being on any part. These people are not able to obtain and/or maintain the common homeostasis needed to maintain balanced mental health position.

In this essay I will outline the main theoretical models relating to loss and grief.

A crisis has the propensity to arise at any given moment in an individual’s life. Two of the three definitions of a crisis comes from the Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, the first one is, “a difficult or dangerous situation that needs serious attention”. Another definition of crisis provided by Merriam-Webster is, “the decisive moment”. In addition, (Hoff, Hallisey, & Hoff, 2009) defines crisis as, “ a serious occasion or turning point presenting both danger and oppurtunity.” This is vital and for some mind changing when they look at a crisis from the angles of ‘a decisive moment’ or ‘an oppurtunity’. There is a possibilty that many people in situations where optimism is not popular, will not first view a crisis as a potential for

According to Lillibridge and Klukken (1978), crisis is an event or situation that cause " 地n upset in equilibrium at the failure of one's traditional problem-solving approach which results in disorganization, hopelessness, sadness, confusion, and panic" (62). In the face of crisis, there is an urgent need to swing to action and communication is the only vehicle that can convey this message to everyone concerned. When crisis occur, communication challenges becomes worsened because the