A new understanding of grief: A counsellor's perspective

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Abstract
Walter (1996) is critical of bereavement counsellors. This paper is a person-centred counsellor's reply to Walter, based upon counselling practice with bereaved parents. I argue that Walter's account of the counsellor's understanding of the purpose and process of grief is not representative. Rather, counsellors offering the core conditions of empathy, acceptance and congruence, following the client's agenda, facilitate an individual, diverse, process. Sustaining a continuing bond with their deceased child is a primary purpose of many parents' grief: accomplishing this through cognitive exploration as well as catharsis is the function of the discourse of counselling.

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