Light Up The Couch Grief Affirming Practice: Understanding and Supporting Traumatically Bereaved Clients, Ep. 196
Jan 11, 2024
Terri Waibel, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and founder of the Center for Compassion, dives into the complexities of grief, especially for those facing traumatic loss. She discusses the debates around grief diagnosis and the importance of nuanced understanding, emphasizing the value of mindful communication. The role of clinicians in honoring lost loved ones and creating safe spaces for expression is explored, alongside the healing power of shared memories. Terri advocates for recognizing true emotions over traditional views of resilience, offering hope and insights for supporting the bereaved.
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Terri Waibel's Personal Grief Journey
- Terri Waibel shared her personal tragedy of losing her daughter suddenly in 2012, which deeply shaped her professional focus on grief work.
- She also discovered a multi-generational history of traumatic death in her family, which deepened her understanding of grief.
Defining Grief vs. Traumatic Grief
- Grief is the pain from loss; trauma is distress from overwhelming stress beyond coping.
- Traumatic grief combines grief and trauma, especially after sudden or violent death, creating unique distress.
Mortality Salience in Traumatic Grief
- Traumatic grief differs because death is inevitable, causing profound awareness of mortality.
- This mortality salience makes the world feel unsafe and unpredictability of death pervasive, unlike other traumas.
