Funeral Service Counseling: Glossary Flashcards
Grief extending over a long period of time without resolution
- Abnormal grief
- Complicated
- Unresolved
The intense physical and emotional expression of grief occurring as the awareness increases of a loss of someone or something significant
Acute grief
The individual’s ability to adjust to the psychological and emotional changes brought on by a stressful event such as the death of a significant other
Adaptation
Feelings and their expression
Affect
Those appropriate and helpful act os counseling that come after the funeral
- Aftercare
* Post-funeral counseling
AIDS
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
The intentional infliction of physical or psychological harm on another
Aggression
Fear or anxiety caused by the sudden realization of danger
Alarm
The state of estrangement an individual feels in social settings that are viewed as foreign, unpredictable or unacceptable
Alienation
A choice of services and merchandise available as families make a selection and complete funeral arrangements
Alternatives
Formulating different actions in adjusting to a crisis
Alternatives
Blame directed toward another person
Anger
A term to describe the experience of grief, especially in young bereaved parents, where mourning customs are unclear due to an inappropriate death and the absence of prior bereavement experience
Anomic grief
Typical in a society that has attempted to minimize the impact of death through medical control of disease and social control of those who deal with the dying and the dead
Anomic grief
A syndrome characterized by the presence of grief in anticipation of death or loss
Anticipatory grief
The actual death comes as a confirmation of knowledge of a life-limiting condition
Anticipatory grief
A state of tension, typically characterized by rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath
Anxiety
An emotion characterized by a vague fear of premonition that something undesirable is going to happen
Anxiety
A death has occurred and the funeral director is counseling with the family as they select the services and items of merchandise in completing arrangements for the funeral service of their choice
At-need counseling
The tendency in human beings to make strong affectional bonds with others coming from the need for security and safety
Attachment theory (Bowlby)
Giving undivided attention by means of verbal and non-verbal behavior
- Attending
* Listening
A learned tendency to respond to people, objects, or institutions in a positive or negative way
Attitude
The act or event of separation or loss that results in the experience of grief
Bereavement
Excessive in duration and never comes to satisfactory conclusion
Chronic grief
A phrase coined by Carl Rogers to refer to that type of counseling where one comes actively and voluntarily to gain help on a problem, but without any notion of surrendering his own responsibility for the situation
- Client-centered counseling
* Person-centered
A non-directive method of counseling which stresses the inherent worth of the client and the natural capacity for growth and health
- Client-centered counseling
* Person-centered
From the Latin word, “to know”
Cognitive
The study of the origins and consequences of thoughts, memories, beliefs, perceptions, explanations, and other mental processes
Cognitive
The rite of finality in a funeral service preceding cremation, earth burial, entombment or burial at sea
Committal service
general term for the exchange of information, feelings, thoughts, and acts between two or more people, including both verbal and non-verbal aspects of this interchange
Communication
Grief extending over a long period of time without resolve
- Complicated grief
- Unresolved
- Chronic
According to client-centered counseling, the necessary quality of a counselor being in touch with reality and with others’ perception of one’s self
Congruence
Characteristic ways of responding to stress
Coping
The individual seeking assistance or guidance
Counselee
Advice, especially that given as a result of consultation
Counseling (Webster)
Any time someone helps someone else with a problem
Counseling (Jackson)
Good communication within and between people
Counseling (Rogers)
Good (free) communication between people is always therapeutic
Counseling (Rogers)
A therapeutic experience for reasonably healthy persons
Counseling (Ohlsen)
Not to be confused with psychotherapy
Counseling (Ohlsen)
Treatment for emotionally disturbed persons who seek (or are referred for) assistance before they develop serious neurotic, psychotic, or character disorders
Psychotherapy
The individual providing assistance and guidance
Counselor
A highly emotional temporary state in which an individual’s feelings of anxiety, grief, confusion, or pain impair his or her ability to act
Crisis
Interventions for a highly emotional, temporary state in which individuals overcome by feelings of anxiety, grief, confusion, or pain are unable to act in a realistic normal manner
Crisis counseling
Intentional response which helps an individual in a crisis situation
Crisis counseling
A learned emotional response to death-related phenomena which is characterized by extreme apprehension
Death anxiety
Inhibited, suppressed, or postponed response to a loss
Delayed grief (Worden)
The defense mechanism by which a person is unable or refuses to see things as they are because such facts are threatening to the self
Denial
Counselor takes a live speaking role, asking questions, suggesting courses of action, etc
Directive counseling
Treating members of various social groups differently in circumstances where their rights or treatment should be identical
Discrimination
A defense mechanism in which anger is redirected toward a person or object other than the one who provided the anger originally
Displaced aggression
Redirection of emotion to other targets
Displacement
Two units regarded as a pair
Dyad
Example: husband and wife
Dyad
Unconscious, irrational means used by the ego to defend against anxiety
Ego defense mechanisms
The outward expression or display of mood or feelings
Emotion
Feelings such as happiness, anger, or grief, created by brain patterns accompanied by bodily changes
Emotions
The ability to enter into and share the feelings of others
Empathy (Wolfelt)
The outward expression or display of mood or feeling states
Emotional expression
An act or practice of allowing the death of persons suffering from a life-limiting condition
- Euthanasia
* Right to die
Persons are usually conscious of the relationship of the reaction to the death, but the reaction to the current experience is excessive and disabling
Exaggerated grief (Worden)
To assist understanding of the circumstances of situations an individual is experiencing, and to assist that person in the selection of an alternative adjustment if necessary
Facilitate
Strong emotion marked by such reactions as alarm, dread, and disquiet
Fear
Centering a client’s thinking and feelings on the situation causing a problem and assisting the person in choosing the behavior or adjustment to solve the problem
Focusing
The state of being prevented from attaining a purpose
Frustration
Thwarted
Frustration
The blocking of satisfaction by some kind of obstacle
Frustration
An organized, flexible, purposeful, group-centered, time-limited response to death which reflects reverence, dignity, and respect
Funeral rite
The study of human behavior as related to funeral service
Funeral service psychology
The ability to present one’s self sincerely
Genuineness (Wolfelt)
Adjustment, motivational in nature, to be achieved
Goals
An emotion or set of emotions due to a loss
Grief
Helping people facilitate uncomplicated grief to a healthy completion of the tasks of grieving within a reasonable time frame
Grief counseling
A set of symptoms associated with loss
Grief syndrome (Lindemann)
Specialized techniques which are used to help people with complicated grief reactions
Grief therapy (Worden)
A process occurring with loss, aimed at loosening the attachment to the dead for reinvestment in the living
Griefwork (Lindemann)
Support or support system provided to the counselee who is seeking an alternative adjustment to problems
Guidance
Blame directed toward one’s self based on real or unreal conditions
Guilt
The killing of one human being by another
Homicide
Historically an inn for travelers, especially one kept by a religious order
Hospice
Used to indicate a concept designed to treat patients with a life-limiting condition
Hospice
Detailed examples of adjustments, choices or alternatives available to the client or counselee from which a course of action may be selected
Illustrating
Counseling in which a counselor shares a body of special information with a counselee
Informational counseling
Social attraction to another person
Interpersonal attraction
A document which governs the withholding or withdrawal of lie-sustaining treatment from an individual in the event of an incurable or irreversible condition that will cause death within a relatively short time, and which such person is no longer able to make decisions regarding his/her medical treatment
Living will
Occurs when persons experience symptoms and behaviors which cause them difficulty, but do not see or recognize the fact that these are related to the loss
Masked grief (Worden)
Any event, person, or object that lessens the degree of pain in grief
Mitigation
The process that initiates, directs, and sustains behavior satisfying physiological or psychological needs
Motivation
An adjustment process that involves grief or sorrow over a period of time and helps in the reorganization of the life of an individual following a loss or death of someone loved
Mourning
That which is expressed by posture, facial expression, actions, or physical behavior
Non-verbal communication
That which is communicated by any means except verbally
Non-verbal communication
Choice of actions provided through counseling as a means of solving the counselee’s dilemma
Option
A strong emotion characterized by sudden and extreme fear
Panic
Expressing a thought or idea in an alternate and sometimes a shortened form
Paraphrasing
A relatively stable system of determining tendencies within an individual
Personality
A phrase coined by Carl Rogers to refer to that type of counseling where one comes actively and voluntarily to gain help on a problem, but without any notion of surrendering his own responsibility for the situation
- Person centered counseling
* Client centered
A non-directive method of counseling which stresses the inherent worth of the client and the natural capacity for growth and health
- Person centered counseling
* Client centered
A deliberate attempt to change attitudes of belief with information and arguments
Persuasion
According to Carl Rogers, accepting the client or counselee as he or she is, without imposing judgments or stipulations
Positive regard
Those appropriate and helpful acts of counseling that come after the funeral
Prejudice
That counseling which occurs before death
Pre-need counseling
Attribution of one’s unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or behaviors to someone else
Projection
A medical doctor with a specialty in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders
Psychiatrist
The study of human behavior
Psychology
Intervention with people whose needs are so specific that usually they can only be met by specially trained physicians or psychologists
Psychotherapy (Jackson)
The practitioners in this field need special training because they often work with deeper levels of consciousness
Psychotherapy (Jackson)
A relation of harmony, conformity, accord, or affinity established in any human interaction
Rapport
Supplying a logical, socially acceptable reason rather than the real reason for an action
Rationalization
A defense mechanism used in grief to return to more familiar and often more primitive modes of coping
Regression
Blocking of threatening material from consciousness
Repression
An adaptive maneuver characterized by an inability or unwillingness to act with the aim of asserting or sustaining individual control, autonomy or self-esteem
Resistance
The ability to communicate the belief that everyone possesses the capacity and right to choose alternatives and make decisions
Respect (Wolfelt)
According to Simos, a compelling need by which the individual attempts to restore inner psychological equilibrium, uniting past, present, and future in the cycle from loss and the fear of loss to acceptance
Restitution
Any act that is charged with symbolic content
Ritual
Preoccupied and intense thoughts about the deceased
Searching
The assumption of blame directed toward one’s self by others
Shame
The reaction of the body to an event
Shock
Often experienced emotionally as a sudden, violent, and upsetting disturbance
Shock
Related to specific situations in life that may create crises and produce human pain and suffering
Situational counseling
Adds another dimension to the giving of information, in that it deals with significant feelings that are produced by life crises
Situational counseling
Making judgments about ourselves through comparison with others
Social comparison
A phenomenon that occurs when an individual’s performance improves because of the presence of others
Social facilitation
Life events and minor hassles that exert pressure or strain
Stress
Any event capable of producing physical or emotional stress
Stressor
Redirection of emotion to culturally or socially useful purposes
Sublimation
Also known as Crib Death
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
The sudden and unexpected death of an apparently healthy infant which remains unexplained after complete autopsy and a review of the circumstances around the death
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
A deliberate act of killing oneself
Suicide
An unsuccessful attempt made by a person to end his or her own life
Suicidal gesture
Thoughts of ending one’s life
Suicidal ideation
A brief review of points covered in a portion of the counseling session
Summary
A more or less conscious postponement of addressing anxieties and concerns
Suppression
Guilt felt by family and friends after a death
Survivor guilt
Sincere feelings for the person who is trying to adjust to a serious loss
Sympathy
The study of death
Thanatology
An irrational, exaggerated fear of death
Thanatophobia
A statement or action which creates anxiety in an individual’s life
Threat
Spoken, oral communication
Verbal communication
the ability to be considerate and friendly as demonstrated by both verbal and non-verbal behaviors
Warmth and caring (Wolfelt)
