Possible Approaches in Counseling People Dealing With Bereavement Article

Possible Approaches in Counseling People Dealing With Bereavement - Article Example Death is not a mystery to those who have died. The people living are the ones who struggle to find meaning in it. As far back as 60,000 years ago, prehistoric people observed special ceremonies when burying their dead. Many early cultures believed that people continued to exist after death and had the same needs that they did in life; hence they buried their loved ones with food, dishes, weapons, and jewels. Some religions, such as Christianity, believe that the dead will rise again; to them, the burial of the body is symbolic, like the planting of a seed in the earth to await rebirth. Many Eastern religions share the belief that death marks the end only of physical existence and of the limited view of reality that human beings can grasp. Death itself is a remote experience in most lives today, something that takes place off-stage in a hospital or nursing-home. In earlier times, dying was a much more visible part of daily living. Families, friends, and other loved ones in a community would share in caring for those at the end of life (Schulz et al., 27 June 2001) Most deaths occurred at home, often following a brief illness and unaffected by the limited medical care available. Today, the process of dying almost has become invisible, but it still summons pain among the loved ones left (Bern-Krug et al., February 2001). Coping with loss is a process with an individual course, tem... There are others who benefit from, and still others who continue to require the assistance of, qualified psychotherapists in confronting the void left by death. There is no single ideal time point for therapeutic intervention. As practiced today, bereavement counselling is a valuable and non-stigmatizing method of assisting the bereaved who have difficulty entering, traversing or exiting the grief and mourning process. Review of Literature Throughout history, numerous writers and researchers have articulated their views of what constitutes the bereaved state and its associated actions, particularly since 1970. The earliest conceptualizations was done by Freud (1957), where he related it to loss situation-specific depressive syndromes, and he spoke of restitution of cathected or invested energies, particularly those of id origin. Later formulations bore the hallmark of attachment theory grounding, wherein the broken bond with the lost object/person is the subject and object of a universal psychosocial process leading to eventual reconciliation of painful feelings and reattachment to life, living and, for some, even new relationships. Colin Murray Parkes (1972) also cited stigma and deprivation as key features of the bereavement experience. These authors based their findings largely on studies of widows in Britain, Australia, and North America. Many of these seminal works on bereavement brought about a linear stage model of progression to some better state post-loss. Examples include the popularized views of Elisabeth Kbler-Ross (1969), who wrote of movement from denial, through anger, to bargaining, then to depression, and finally to acceptance. This often misrepresented and misused description none the less has

Cultural and Intercultural Communication Practices Essay

Cultural and Intercultural Communication Practices - Essay Example For example, the United States of American and the United Kingdom are countries that considered low context groups due to their standard form of communication style and tone. In these countries, communication is done in the context of messages to a large population versus a specialized group. With this understanding, low context culture is also known to communicate through words and verbal cues versus allowing people to make their own inferences through the context of a given scenario or event. Because of these aspects, people in low context cultures tend to be more logical, individualistic, action-oriented and linear than those in high context cultures (Marin n.d.). Low context communication is expected to be concise and straightforward so there is little room for error when listening to communication messages. While low context cultures center on large populations, a high context culture focuses on types of communication messages that are specific to a certain group within the cult ure. With the purpose of high context cultures being to communicate specifically between specialized groups within a culture, people have a lot more opportunity to use their own inferences to make decisions and gather information versus those in a low context culture. Examples of high context cultures include France, China, Japan, Russia and India. Within high context cultures, people generally focus more on interpersonal relationships and building trust within the groups. Communication, whether written or verbal, in a high context culture is more formal than low context with special attention being paid to the way a message is delivered. People in a high context culture will focus on a person’s tone, facial expression and demeanor when communicating just as much as they focus on the actual message itself. With the definitions of these terms established, the focus can now shift to analyzing how low context and high context cultures interact with intercultural contact and inte rcultural ethics. When people from differing cultures communicate, there is a need for each party to assess their own communication tendencies as well as those of the person they are hoping to communicate with. For example, an American who is native of the state of New Jersey may have trouble communicating with a person who lives in Japan or China. When analyzing the more formal and contextual ways in which people from many Asian countries communicate, the laid back, potentially brash way in which someone native of the state of New Jersey, which is a low context culture, communicate might not mesh well with the Asian culture. In order to understand the potential issues that can arise when cultures and contexts mix, it is important for all parties involved to do some preparation work before the meeting takes place. First, people from both cultures need to gather some background information about the culture the other person is coming from. By asking themselves if it is a high context or low context culture, they will be able to determine if the person they are going to be attempting to communicate with is comfortable with a laid back style or expects a formal tone and sense of conduct