What is Grief?

Normally, grief involves a broad range of feelings and behaviours that are common after a loss. These can be classed into four categories: emotions, physical sensations, cognitive (thinking) responses, and behaviours¹.

Emotional reactions cover a wide range, including sadness, anger, guilt, anxiety, loneliness,  helplessness, shock, yearning, emancipation, relief and numbness.

Physical Sensations include hollowness in the stomach, tightness in the chest and throat, oversensitivity to noise, feeling things are unreal, breathlessness, weakness in the musckles, lack of energy and dry mouth.

Different thought patterns include disbelief, confusion, preoccupation, a sense the decease person is present, and hallucinations.

Behaviours commonly reported include sleep disturbances, appetite disturbances, absentminded behaviour, social withdrawal, dreams of the deceased, avoiding reminders of the deceased, searching and calling out for the deceased, sighing, restless hyperactivity, crying, visiting places that remind the survivor of the deceased, and treasuring objects belonging to the deceased.

How Grief Counselling can help

Although people often move through the broad range of normal grief reactions and adapt to the loss over time, sometimes grief counselling and therapy can help. This is often helpful when a person is experiencing high levels of distress, delayed grieving, chronic or long lasting grief, or other complications. Depending on the specific problem, therapy can assist a person to accept the reality of the loss, process the pain of the grief, adjust to a world without the deceased and/or to find an enduring connection with the deceased while going on with life.


More Information

The Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement: Excellent range of resources for those affected by experiences of grief and bereavement. 


Grief Link: An information resource on death-related grief for the community and professionals.

1.Worden, J (2009) Grief Counselling and Grief Therapy (4th Ed). New York: Springer

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