Best Practices in Counseling Grief and Loss: Finding Benefit from Trauma

Abstract

Grief may be a primary presenting concern of clients or may form a background to another presenting concern. In either case, use of best practices in assessing and treating grief is essential. In this article I review what best practices are in general and in assessment and treatment. I also evaluate ways to measure grief and describe domains of the grief experience. The article also discusses controversies within the literature on grief counseling, including the potential for deterioration after treatment. It concludes with a view of counseling grief that promotes finding benefit from trauma.