Grief Theories Series: Worden’s Four Tasks of Mourning.
The two theories of, and approaches to loss, that I believe are relevant to me are John Bowlby’s four-phase process of grief and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages of loss. Bowlby (1980) suggests that when an individual is being separated from an attachment bond figure, such as lover, pets, siblings and parents; they go through a four-phase process of grief.
As we have learned from Dr. John Bowlby’s classic research volumes, Attachment and Loss, human relationships and secure attachments matter. As therapists, having this attachment perspective gives us a great way to conceptualize and approach the pain of grief and loss.
Grief is a reaction to any form of loss. Bereavement is a type of grief involving the death of a loved one. Bereavement and grief encompass a range of feelings from deep sadness to anger.
The Grief wheel (Grief Education Institute, Denver,1986) can be used as a tool to assess how an individual is currently experiencing grief. It can be useful simply through its existence, by being of reassurance that others are experiencing similar emotions following a loss or bereavement.
Theories about families have been slower to develop elements that address loss and grief. Family systems theory (with its emphasis on viewing reactions to loss by the family group as a disruption in the family system’s equilibrium and structure requiring reorganization of roles and functions; and the impact of reactions of one family member.
Loss and Grief. Loss and grief in nursing is a widely discussed psychosocial theory and in this essay we will look at it further in nursing care. Loss is an inevitable part of life, and grief is a natural part of the healing process, or to be defined individually, “Loss is wider than a response to a death, important as that is. It is any separation from someone or something whose.
Other grief theorists, including Rando (1993), Worden (2002), and Kubler-Ross (1993), rejected the deficit model in favor of accommodations for a loss that might change over time. Although many models exist, no single model can be applied universally when examining stages of.