IngentaConnect Counselling strategies for bereaved people offered in primary car...

Authors: Payne S.; Jarrett N.; Wiles R.; Field D.

Source: Counselling Psychology Quarterly, Volume 15, Number 2, 1 June 2002 , pp. 161-177(17)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to identify strategies that general practice-based counsellors used when offering support to bereaved clients. Over the last decade, there has been a rapid growth in the provision of counselling services associated with British primary care services. A study was designed involving qualitative methods of data collection (semi-structured interviews) and analysis (a grounded theory approach). Counsellors were recruited from two cities in Southern Britain (Plymouth and Southampton). Twenty nine (76% response rate) counsellors agreed to participate (Southampton n = 15, Plymouth, n = 14). Semi-structured face-to-face audio-taped interviews elicited information about their perceptions of the appropriateness of general practitioner referrals, counselling strategies and models of bereavement. Analysis indicated that counsellors saw bereavement counselling within a broader agenda of work concerned with loss and relationship management. Many drew on eclectic approaches to bereavement counselling and specific strategies included: facilitating telling of the "story" of the loss; engaging in active listening and valuing allowing people to talk; establishing a supportive relationship; and enabling the bereaved person to deal with unfinished business and to say "goodbye". Counsellors drew on implicit stage/phase models of grief that assumed levels of distress reduced over time. The value of these strategies requires more exploration.

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Counselling strategies for bereaved people offered in primary care