Trauma-Informed Therapeutic Grief Support
For Children and Teens continued from page 16
is developmentally appropriate ,” says Jilliam M . Blueford , in a 2021 article in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Counseling on care for early adolescents grieving a death .
Appropriately trained mental health providers can provide a culturally sensitive and developmentally appropriate system of care for adolescents experiencing grief . Young people have far less experience with the world , and often less context to filter the experiences they do have with grief .
WHY IS GRIEF SO DARN DIFFERENT ?
Well for one thing , we actually can distinguish between positive and negative expressions of grief , which we don ’ t do for any other diagnosable disorder . Despite the multidimensional structure of grief ( adaptive vs . maladaptive ), media portrayals of grief send a clear message that grief is binary — either good or bad . Think of any popular movie or comic book character … typically , the protagonist / hero gets over their grief and channels their experience of loss into a beacon of hope and light .
In contrast , the antagonist / villain is the sad and angry person who never moves forward and becomes so entrenched in their misery that they create a life in which they expand their pain to others . Being objective and approaching the support and treatment process by being present with your client and their experience unlocks potential for growth .
We can learn so much about ourselves and the human experience through our experiences with grief . Studies have already
shown us that grief is linked to impaired functioning ( with family , peers , at school ) and suicide risk ( see the Resources box on page 18 ), making grief an important cause worth exploring for the safety of those we treat .
Some people may be surprised that children can be good self-reporters under certain conditions ( child-friendly items , prompts ). That ’ s because they are self-focused and better reporters of “ internalizing ” problems . Adults may be better reporters of “ externalizing ” problems , including functional impairment , because these aspects are observable .
Grief is messy and complicated because sympathy expires before grieving does . Society has a history of pathologizing grief and looking to “ quickly move on .” This tendency creates a huge challenge for people who are grieving , as there is no universal timeline for the experiences of grief and the grieving process .
NOT ALL GRIEF IS BAD !
Strategic supports and treatment exist that can help the process of grief and grieving . Effective grief-focused intervention is linked to significant improvements in symptoms and functioning . Multidimensional Grief Theory ( MGT ) is a strength-based , positive approach to understanding , assessing , and intervening with grieving children and families . Multidimensional grief theory proposes that grief reactions consist of responses to three central challenges posed by the death of a loved one :
• Separation distress , which centers on responding to distress over the permanent , irreversible , physical sepa-
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The Advocate Magazine 2023 , Issue # 1 American Mental Health Counselors Association ( AMHCA ) www . amhca . org 17