Grief work is done to help those people who are undergoing their most difficult moments. This varies with different people as some people take it at a much lighter pace and get over their grievance fast while others may undergo depression and take a longer time to heal from it. During this grief work session, the person who is handling the grief work should try to convince the griever to let out their feelings and try to comfort them.
The main intention of the grief work is to enable the client to feel comfortable and not to keep anything inside them which could cause them to go into deep depression. The emotions may range from initial shock, to anguish and despair as soon as the realization of the loss sets in. The grievance process is to help the griever to accept the loss and move on with their lives. One of the most difficult grievance is death.
An effective grief work goes thru the following process. Firstly, the client should be able to accept the loss and adjust to the changes in their life. Next, the client should be able to express their emotions on their emotional development and also be able to face reality. This also cause the griever to reconstruct their personal believes and values as to accept the loss, and to try and let go. During the final stages, the client should be able to redevelop their social life and take responsibility by making decisions on their current life. This may also be one of the hardest phases of the grievance work as the client would need to start going back to their routine life and accepting their changed life.
However, culture plays a very important part in the grief work process. The cultural background is a very important element in a client’s life. Culture shapes how we react to a situation in our life. Thus, different cultures have different interpretations of death and so on. For example, certain cultures like the Hindu culture believe that death is an occasion to be celebrated as they believe that life after death is more blissful than life on earth. On the other hand, Christians in general believe that there is heaven and hell, thus their perception of death may differ from the Hindu’s.
Cultural background has very strong effects on clients as they were strongly rooted with such beliefs since, they were young. Thus, it is very important for the grief worker to understand his/her client’s background in order to facilitate the grief work effectively. For example, in the Hindu culture, the body of the dead would be bathed and would be wrapped by their favorite clothes. Then, family of the dead would have prayers and the body would be burned.
On the next day or so, the family of the dead would take the ashes and pass it on a river to ensure that the dead has a smooth journey to them after life. One of the hardest moments for the client if they are a Hindu would be at the part where the body is burned and also to leave the ashes. There are some Hindu’s who would take it to the extent of dancing and singing loudly to portray that they are celebrating the dead going to their next phase of life after death.
Thus, the grief worker could assist the client by explaining to them about the cultural beliefs of doing such things and its positive effect for the dead upon completion of the rituals and ceremonies.
Contrastingly, for the Christians, they believe that there is heaven and hell. Thus, when someone dies, their family members put them in a coffin in the house, and everyone mourns and prayers is done there itself. This differs among the Christians. Some of them also have it in the church, whereby the Father talks about the dead person (an emotional moment for most grievers) and everyone else listens. Also, they allow those who are close with the dead person, such as the family member or the best friend to share about their positive thoughts on that person and their sad moments. Then, the body is brought to the cemetery and there might be another round of final prayers before the family members and friends are to put on some sand to cover the coffin. Then, everyone leaves without turning back.
Thus, if we compare the above to the Hindu ritual, the Christians tend to talk more openly about dead and is most likely able to move on with life at a much faster pace than a Hindu although the Hindu’s are more accepting of death. Thus, the grief worker should understand this difference cultures so that they are able to comfort the person who is grieving. This will give the client more trust on them as they feel that they are able to understand them well and thus, heal much faster. As a result, the grievance process would be more effective for the client.