This Is The Treatment Of Grief From Cognitive-behavioral Therapy
Grief is one of the most studied psychological processes in the field of psychology for several decades; It is a natural phenomenon that affects practically everyone at some point in life and is usually expressed with greater intensity when suffering the loss of a loved one, although it can also occur when losing something to which we attach great importance. such as when emigrating to another country or finishing a university degree.
As it is an experience almost inherent to being alive, grief is not considered a psychopathology, although in some cases it can be. In cases like this we speak of complicated grief: an alteration in which grief is not managed properly and becomes entrenched in the person’s mind, damaging their mental health for months.
Fortunately, This problem can be treated in psychotherapy, and in this sense, the most effective form of intervention is cognitive-behavioral therapy. Let’s see how it is applied when helping these types of patients, and what it is for.
Contrary to what most people believe, grief does not only appear with the death of a loved one, but It is a psychological process that can be triggered by any type of sudden or unexpected loss.
There are many types of grief that can be caused by a wide variety of painful events, situations or experiences, among the most common we can find: the loss of a loved one, a divorce, the loss of a job, the end of a friendship or traumatic experiences during childhood.
This experience generates in the person feelings of pain, sadness, regret, anger and many other emotions that cause great pain and an internal struggle that must be faced to overcome grief.
Overcoming grief is a cure and a great relief for those people who have been suffering, as it helps them move forward with their lives and leave behind all the pain, regret and discomfort that they have been carrying for a long time.
Effective grief treatment is essential for the person to move forward with their life normally and without pain. Otherwise, unresolved grief can become chronic in the person and end up developing other serious mental health disorders such as depression.
The intervention in this type of case must be carried out by a psychology professional specialized that knows how to adapt at all times to the needs and specificities of its clients. Within the psychologist’s repertoire of resources, cognitive-behavioral therapy is one of the most valuable.
What is cognitive behavioral therapy?
There are many ways to treat grief, since each person is different and may experience their process in a unique and specific way. For the treatment to be successful, the intervention must be adapted to the characteristics of the patient and the type of grief they are going through and use techniques with proven scientific evidence.
Sometimes it may be beneficial to apply more than one therapy in a coordinated manner To treat cases of grief, however, in most cases the tool that offers the best results is cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is one of the most used in the field of psychology to address all types of psychological disorders due to its great effectiveness, its scientific basis, structure and speed of therapeutic results, managing to improve the quality of life of the patient. person in a short time.
In cases of grief, cognitive-behavioral therapy is highly effective because it is based on identification and modification of negative thought patterns that make the person who harbors them suffer, with which they practice self-sabotaging behaviors that prevent them from overcoming grief in a healthy way. Its main objective is to combine this intervention in the modification of cognitive processes, on the one hand, with the modification of objective behavioral processes, on the other. In this way, through this double route of intervention, the actions reinforce this change in the way of thinking, and vice versa.
With the help of a psychology professional, the patient will learn to face and overcome negative thoughts and the resulting maladaptive behaviors, through training in different techniques, which results in relief of the symptoms that cause discomfort in their life. daily.
Once the person has thoroughly trained the various techniques to modify maladaptive thoughts and behaviors, they are able to modify them with more constructive and adaptive ones, with which they can process grief from a more positive perspective and overcome pain, suffering and anxiety. psychological discomfort. At the end of the process, the person will be able to accept that this loss has occurred, without facing it from the avoidance of those thoughts, from anger at what happened, or from constant longing and sadness for not living in the past. .
During the psychological intervention, the therapist usually asks the client what they feel about the grieving process they are going through and what their thoughts are, which helps them identify them and begin to understand how negative thought patterns can affect them. his behavior and how it prevents him from overcoming grief.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy includes several effective techniques to help overcome the grieving processes, these are the most important ones.
1. Cognitive restructuring
Cognitive restructuring is the process of identify negative thought patterns that lead to poorly adaptive behavioral practices for grief.
Once these harmful ideas or thoughts are identified, the person trains various strategies outlined with the therapist to modify them with more positive ones, which will help them overcome the grief in a short time.
2. Identification of behaviors
Identification of behaviors consists of redirecting negative behaviors towards other behavioral patterns and more positive behavior for the client.
By carrying out other types of behaviors, the client will be able to successfully go through the different phases of grief and will finally be able to overcome it.
3. Development of new narratives
This technique allows the person to generate a new narrative about their loss based on positive thoughts and ideas that allow you to overcome past pain.
Both the positive thoughts and emotions associated with the loss help to leave behind all the previous negativity and allow the person to interpret this new reality from a positive perspective and without pain.
