Grief & Bereavement Issues

Introduction to Grief and Bereavement Issues

While it is true that people require “air, food, water, clothing, and shelter,” in order to survive, we must also add “relationships” to this list because it is a rare person who is able to thrive in the absence of intimate relationships with other people, places, and things.

Grief is the process and emotions that we experience when our important relationships are significantly interrupted or (more frequently) ended, either through death, divorce, relocation, theft, destruction, or some similar process. A related term, “bereavement”, has different meanings for different people, but all meanings refer to the grieving process. While some view bereavement as a specific subtype of grief that occurs when a loved one (usually a spouse) dies, others think of the term as referring to the period of time during which grief is felt and losses are dealt with.