Defining Grief

Key terms related to “grief”…

Grief – emotional suffering caused by loss. (Baker, 1)

  • Grief is “emotional.” As holistic beings, when our emotions are impacted, our entire self is impacted in some way. Therefore, grief impacts us physically, mentally, socially, vocationally, and spiritually.
  • Grief is “suffering.” While everyone deals with grief in different ways, grief is painful to every grieving person.
  • Grief is “caused by loss.” Not all loss is death. Grief can be caused by the loss of a job/career, marriage, opportunity, etc.

Bereavement – “a state caused by loss such as death.” (Wolfelt, 1)

  • Bereavement is a “state,” not a sin, not a sickness, not a disease.
  • Bereavement can be caused by “death,” but is not limited to death. (see above description of “Grief.”

Mourning – “the process that occurs after a loss by which a bereaved person comes to terms with the loss.” (Worden, 39)

  • Mourning is a “process.” Mourning takes time, but there is no set limit/definition for how much time.
  • Mourning has a goal. The goal of healthy mourning is to “come to terms with the loss.” Mourning is a journey a grieving individual travels on the road toward healing.

Alan Wolfelt, Death and Grief: A Guide for Clergy (Muncie, IN: Accelerated Development Inc., 1984), 1).

J. William Worden, Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy, 5th ed. (New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2018), 39.