Analysis of grief experiences of bereaved individuals on the basis of empowerment approach: Grief counseling model proposal

Grief is a multidimensional phenomenon and expresses a complex process. In this study, it is aimed to determine how this complex process is experienced, to determine the strengthening-debilitating factors in this process and to reveal the grief support/counseling needs of individuals who have experienced a recent loss. For this purpose, the grief experiences of the individuals who lost their loved ones and the problems they have experienced in this process have been analyzed in a multi-dimensional way on the basis of the empowerment approach. In the study, qualitative method was used in accordance with the purpose of the research and in-depth interviews with 20 people (9 men, 11 women) who lost their relatives; As a result of this research, interviews were also conducted with 9 social workers, 9 professionals who provide grief counseling and 6 religious officials in order to establish a suitable basis for the proposed grief counseling model. The research data were analyzed and interpreted with the Maxqda 20 package program. As a result of the analysis, five themes emerged as death phenomenon and metaphor, grief experience, empowering factors, debilitating factors and receiving grief support and grief counseling thought. As a result of the interviews with other groups (grief counselors, social workers and religious officials), data on the grief counseling needs of individuals were obtained and a solid ground was established for the grief counseling model by considering the data of all groups holistically. In addition, with the data obtained from groups other than the individuals who lost a loved one, it was determined what kind of institutional structure and functioning the grief counseling unit would provide. In a difficult and complex process such as the grief process, individuals who cannot find a way to cope with their grief despite individual-environmental resources, who feel helpless and lonely, whose grief becomes pathological, may need professional support from outside. For this reason, as a result of the study, a grief counseling model has been proposed for individuals who cannot go through the grief process in a healthy way. As a profession that focuses on people, social work can also strengthen the individual, making it easier for him to come to terms with his grief and mourning in a healthy way. In order for the profession to have such a mission in mourning, it must fulfill the task of encouraging the grief individual in adapting to the new life without the deceased and guiding/counseling him in this process. Despite this reality related to the profession, it has been observed that the issue of death and mourning is not adequately addressed in the national social work literature, and there has been no study that deals with the mourning phenomenon on the basis of the empowerment approach. It is expected that the research will both fill this gap and make its presence felt more strongly in the field of mental health through the grief counseling intervention of social work.