Have you recently suffered the loss of a loved one or of a cherished relationship? Have you been retrenched or have you recently retired? Perhaps you are faced with the situation that your children have grown up and left home.
If you have experienced a significant loss in any important area of your life, you will invariably experience elements of bereavement and a mourning process will begin. In some cases the emotions are so painful that a person may feel unable to tolerate them and may even block them out entirely. In addition, when the relationship with the lost person, relationship or role tended to be ambivalent or unresolved, the grieving process can become “stuck”. The person experiencing the grief may become chronically depressed and withdrawn.