Journal of Mental Health Counseling: Jul 1998: 20, 3; Academic Research Library pg216 Death and Bereavement: What Counselors Should know Stephen J. Freeman Sharon Ward Death, it has been said, is the last stage of developent: one we all must face. In doing deceased leaves behind the task of grief for the survivors. Training in death education and gri counseling is not typically a part of a counselors'curriculum, yet the odds of a counselor seeing le in vanous stages of the grievin ss are great. Beginning with Bowlby s attachment the Edward Rynearson, in his foreword to the June issue of Psychiatric Annals(1990), told of a client any counselor might encounter. This client was a woman with small children who was still dealing with the death of her husband, which had happened the previous year. She was referred to Rynearson by her physician because of a "pathologic grief reaction When she came to therapy. she was feeling guilty because she had been told she was not grieving properly. Upon further investigation. Rynearson learned that her energies were spent doing everything possible to help the children cope with this tragedy. When Rynearson explained what she might expect in the future and gave her encouragement that she was doing well under difficult circumstances, she began to cry and grieve the death of her husband for herself, not just for her children Lewis Thomas(1974)wrote in The Lives of a Cell, Notes of a Biology Watcher. s tell us of the news that we are dying away. while the birth finer print, off at the side of the page. inform us of our replace ents grasp from this of the enormity of the scale. There are 3 billion and all 3 billion must be dead, on a schedule. within this lifetime. the va volving something over 50 million of us each year, takes place in ephen /. Freeman, Ph. D, is an associate professor of Connseling and the program coordi ator of the Counseling Program in the Department of Family Sciences at Texus woman's uiversity, Denton, TX. Sharon Ward is a counseling intern ar the Ridgley Counseling Center nd a volunteer at Warm Place, a bereavement counseling center in Fort Worth, TX 2l6 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permissionReproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Death and bereavement: What counselors should know Stephen J Freeman; Sharon Ward Journal of Mental Health Counseling; Jul 1998; 20, 3; Academic Research Library pg. 216