Funeral Service Psychology and Counseling 4 Flashcards
A non-judgemental short term helping process where one individual (the counselor) helps another individual or group (counselee or clients) understand and deal with issues or problems in their daily life.
Counseling
A specialty in general counseling with the goal of helping the individual grieve and address personal loss in a healthy manner.
Grief Couseling
Specialized techniques that are used to help people with complicated grief.
Grief Therapy
Help survivors complete any unfinished business with the deceased and to be able to say a final good-bye.
- Actualize the loss
- Help the counselee deal with both the expressed and latent effects of loss.
- To help the counselee overcome various inpediments to readjustment after a loss.
- To encourage the counselee to make a healthy emotional withdrawal from the deceased and to feel comfortable reinvesting that emotion in another relationship.
Goals of Grief Counseling (Worden)
- Gain a clearer insight into themselves and their situation
- Identify, talk about, explore, and understand their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
- Obtain a better understanding of their feelings and behaviors
- Realize and utilize their own strengths, coping skills, and resources- what has worked for that person in the past.
- Work out what action they want to take
- Function more successfully in their day-to-day activities
- Prevent the development of more serious mental health problems.
Objectives of Counseling
- Pre-need
- At-need
- Post-funeral
When and How Funeral Directors can Facilitate Healthy Greiving:
- Sponsoring educational programs on loss and grief.
- Using counseling skills during pre-need funeral arrangements to enhance the funeral arrangement experience
Pre-Need
- Utilize effective counseling techniques during the at-need arrangement conference to help families plan services that will maximize the potential for ahealing greiving experience.
- Execute the planned services in a professional, empathetic manner so that family’s needs are met.
At-Need
- Aftercare that meets the family’s post-funeral needs
- Telephone support
- Personal Visit
- Referral to individual grief counseling or support groups
- Providing appropriate grief literature
Post-Funeral
- Become aware that they are facing a difficult situation
- Perceive their feelings or situations as problematic
- Believe counseling can assist them
- Feel the pain is greater than the perceived or actual barriers to seeking counseling
Why do people seek Counseling?
- Embarrassment or shame at being able to handle things themselves
- Fear of judgement by the counselor
- Fear of being labeled mentally ill
- Social stigma in some cultures or communities
Why dont some people seek counseling even when it’s needed?
- Most clients improve at a greater rate than those who do not receive counseling
- A type of counseling that is most effective has not been proven
- No one type of treatment works best with every client in every counseling situation
Is counseling Helpful?
- Informational counseling
- Situational counseling
- Supportive counseling
Types of Counseling
The goal is to share with someone a body of specialized information.
Informational Counseling
Related to specific situations in life that may create crisis and produce pain, suffering, and significant feelings that are produced by the crisis.
Situational Counseling
When listening to a greiver’s story, clairfying issues by questioning and probing, and validating their concerns, and responses, can bring peace and understanding to him/her.
- Empathtic, concerned, active listener
Supportive Counseling
- Directive Counseling
- Non-Directive Counseling
Counselor may use both in one session. What may be needed for one person may be useless or harmful to another person.
Styles of Counseling
When the counselor assumes the initiative and carries a major role in the identification and resolution of problems.
- Counselor is basically telling the client what to do.
Directive Counseling
Developed primarily by Carl Rogers. The counselor guides the counselee to identify and solve his/her own problems.
- Counselor uses attending skills- paraphrasing, reflecting, clarifying
- Client gains help without surrendering personal responsibility for the situation.
Non-Directive Counseling (Client-centered, Person-centered)
- Establishes rapport with the client
- Assists the person to gain perspective
- Appraises the client’s problems
- Perceives the client’s situation
- Encourages realistic appraisal by the client
- Encourages conservational flow by avoiding questions that can be answered with yes or no
- Reflects the clients feelings back to them
- Judges the ability of the client to verbalize
- Does not assume the client’s first statement to be true or complete
- Allows the client to summarize the interview
The Non-Directive Approach Seems to be more Effective in Greif Counseling Because:
Spoken, oral communication.
- Tone of voice
- talking speed
- Voice inflections
Verbal Communication
That which is expressed by posture, facial expression, actions or physical behavior, communication by any other means than verbally.
- Smiling
- Frowning
- Gestures
- Facial expression
- Eye movement
- Body position/movement
Non-Verbal Communication
The client’s analysis is usually on a subconscious level while the counselor is trained to be aware of thse subtle and non-so-subtle components of communication.
Difference betwen Client and Counselor Communications
Giving undivided attention by means of verbal and non-verbal behavior.
- Active listening
- Paraphrasing
- Reflecting
- Clairifying
- Perception checking
- Leading
- Informing
- Questioning
- Summarizing
- Allowance of silence
Attending Skills
