Grief Reactions and Grief Counseling among Bereaved Chinese Individuals during COVID-19 Pandemic: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial Combined with a Longitudinal Study

COVID-19 has caused nearly 4.3 million deaths all around the world. People who have experienced loss during this special period may find it difficult to adapt to life after loss, and may even suffer from prolonged grief disorder or other mental health problems. However, there is a huge gap of grief research in China, with almost no comprehensive grief intervention training system or very few professional grief consultants. Considering the large number of bereaved individuals who are suffering from grief and other mental health problems, it is significant to develop a suitable and effective intervention protocol immediately. This article illustrates a study protocol initiated by a Chinese university to investigate the mental health of bereaved individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic and train grief counselors to provide grief counseling to the bereaved, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of the grief counseling. The method is as follows: (1) 300 psychological counselors will be recruited to attend the grief counseling training. Assessments will be conducted at three time points: baseline (T0), after the basic training (T1), and after the advanced training (T2); (2) 500 bereaved Chinese will be recruit to join the online survey and will be assessed at two time points with a six-month interval; and (3) a two-armed (grief counseling versus wait-list controls) RCT (random control trials) will be conducted with 160 bereaved individuals. Assessments will be conducted at three time points: before randomization (baseline, T0), at the post-counseling (T1), and three months after the post-counseling (T2). Primary outcomes will be assessed by the Prolonged Grief Questionnaire (PG-13), the 20-item PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI). This research will help develop grief research and grief counseling in China, as well as provide professional mental health services for individuals who may suffer from grief-related disorders in the future.

Adding a New Dimension to Grief Counseling: Creative Personal Ritual as a Therapeutic Tool for Loss, Trauma and Transition

This article explores the use of creative personal rituals and ceremonies for accepting loss, managing strong emotions and inviting the sacred into the grief journey. These tools can help clinicians incorporate spirituality and multi-cultural modalities into a grief counseling practice, and can be used effectively by both intuitive and instrumental grievers. The use of ritual and ceremony can also help end-of-life and bereavement professionals become more present for the dying, and more competent in spiritual meaning-making for the bereaved

Coming Alongside Supervisees: Introducing the Skillset of Companioning to Counselor Supervision

Robert Wolfelt (2005) introduced the idea of companioning into the field of grief counseling. Companioning could also be utilized as a skillet within counseling supervision. As supervision is an essential element of counseling, integrating this skillset would be beneficial to the counseling profession. The topic of companioning and its 11 tenets are first explored and then placed within the context of counseling supervision as a useful and valuable skillset for working with supervisees. The skillset is then explored through various existing models of supervision and illustrated through a case study. Finally, implications for supervisors and educators, as well as future research within the counseling profession, are included.

A Cross-Sectional Survey to Assess Health Care Workers’ Grief Counseling for Bereaved Families of COVID-19 Victims in Wuhan, China

ABSTRACT Objectives: This research aimed to examine health care workers’ grief counseling for bereaved families of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) victims in China. Our research may provide a new opportunity to stimulate development of grief counseling in China. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 724 health care workers selected by convenience sampling from seven hospitals in Wuhan. Data collection tools included a sociodemographic questionnaire, the skills of grief counseling scale (SGCS), and the attitudes of grief counseling scale (AGCS). Results: The average SGCS score was 18.96±4.66, whose influencing factors consisted of sense of responsibility, frequency of contact with bereaved families, and relevant training (P<0.05). The average AGCS score was 33.36±8.70, whose influencing factors consisted of other grief counseling skills, communication skills, education background, and relevant training (P<0.05). Conclusions: The skills and attitudes toward grief counseling among health care workers combating COVID-19 were at a lower level in Wuhan, China, indicating the need to build a comprehensive grief counseling system, establish a standardized training course, and strengthen the popularization of grief counseling services to the public.

Assessing Knowledge and Predicting Grief Counseling Skills Among University Counseling Center Therapists

This mixed-method study advances knowledge regarding the practice of grief counseling in a sample of 171 university counseling center therapists. First, several components of therapists’ self-reported work with grieving clients was assessed (e.g., training level, initial responses to a grieving client, principles applied in counseling, therapist comfort, and potential therapist issues related to counseling grieving clients). Second, grounded in the death competence model (Gamino & Ritter, 2012), predictors of perceived grief counseling skills were examined. Cognitive competence and emotional competence predicted perceived grief counseling skills, with training/experience being the most robust predictor. Notably, the participants in this study rarely received education regarding death, dying, and grieving in their graduate programs, and they indicated that their knowledge about grief counseling was insufficient. Moreover, the therapists’ qualitative responses to a case vignette were lacking in many grief-specific domains. Future directions for training, research, and clinical work are discussed.