With every change, there is a loss - even if it's a change we have actually chosen. For example, changing jobs or moving countries, or even changing habits or behaviours. Loss can be the loss of a person, a loss of identity, of a chapter, of a pleasure, or even of an opportunity - something a lot of people are feeling as a result of the last 2 years. Grief is a natural response to loss, and sometimes it's hard to recognise that we are grieving.
I attended an excellent webinar yesterday on Solution Focused Coaching for Grief or Loss. I hoped I would learn something which would help me to support some of my clients who are currently grieving, and I did, so thank you to Rafal Szaniawski who freely offered this session.
We talked about how you don't move on from loss, you move forward with it. We talked about how important it is to honour the loss, to name it, to recognise the value of it, and to bring that value with you into the future.
Navigating change can be hard, because every time you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else. I love the takeaway from the webinar of incorporating the valuable elements of your loss into the future.
Of course people grieve in different ways, and you need to be ready and in the right place to be coached through a loss. Solution Focused Grief is usually described as a “normal, healthy, healing and ultimately transforming response to a significant loss that usually does not require professional help, although it does require ways to heal the broken strands of life and to affirm existing ones” (Schneider, 2000, p. 7)
We need to be sensitive to when a different kind of support is required. If you or someone you know is struggling to cope with a loss and its affecting their mental health, here are some useful links:
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