Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/82405
GRIEF & LOSS Tips for Bodyworkers First of all, it is important to recognize your appropriate and legal scope of practice. You are a massage therapist or bodyworker, not a psychotherapist. This article gives you guidelines on recognizing normal grief processes. It is your role to support the individual in that process through soothing and nurturing massage, responding to the needs of the client. It is not your role to diagnose or try to solve a mental condition. If you feel that the person needs psychological counseling, refer her or him to a hospice bereavement group or appropriate mental health professional. Second, know that being with these clients and listening to them can be very powerful. Respect their needs to speak about the loss or to remain quiet. Remember to keep all conversations client-centered; be very careful about sharing your own personal experiences, or being too quick to give advice. Third, understand that working with issues of grief and loss in others can trigger feelings in you regarding your own life. It is important that you maintain your role as the professional in your practice, but take time to be deliberate in your own physical and emotional self-care. Above all, your caring intention and respectful attitude create a Socially, the person who is grieving may feel detached, withdrawn, apathetic, or antisocial. Some people may feel needy and afraid to be alone. Disorganization also occurs within the family or social network of the bereaved individual. Differences in the way people communicate and deal with loss within their social groups may vary, contributing added pressures and distress to the individual. Periods of grief are difficult times for people. In its intensity, grieving may last for several weeks or months, sometimes years. Whereas people often have the support of family and friends soon after a loss, they are often alone in their grief as time goes on. Typically, our culture does not give people time to grieve. Furthermore, it is not customary to talk about our most significant losses or share our feelings with the people we work with or interact with socially. Without adequate support during this time, bereaved people feel further alienation and the added burden of suffering their grief alone. In this time, nurturing massage and bodywork can provide much needed support, providing a steady and nurturing presence. safe place for the person to rest and move through their feelings as they need to. One client, who had suffered from multiple deaths in his family over a relatively short period of time, had this to say: "Massage is an excellent way for someone grieving to have someone be with them in a way they find most healing. Asking someone to touch and heal you does not come easily when you most need it, but massage offers the chance to make this happen without feeling needy and even more vulnerable than one might already be feeling with a loss." REORGANIZATION With time, the acute pain of loss begins to subside, and the bereaved individual begins to reorganize her or his life. Painful emotions carry over into this phase, but the intensity or duration of the feeling is usually less than in the previous phases. One begins to accept or understand that 66 massage & bodywork july/august 2011