Unresolved grief is a major and often unrecognized factor in lack of motivation, sense of emptiness and depression, loss of sense of self, and why people come to you. They just might not know that what they really need is to resolve grief using NLP.
Most “grief work” involves expressing grief fully, or saying “goodbye” to the lost person. Freud expressed the resolution of mourning as “the successful severing of ties and detaching of energy from the deceased person” (Freud, 1917. “Mourning and Melancholia”). The goal of grief counseling has been “working towards a gradual detachment of the deceased” (Wright, 2015 - International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences), but fortunately, that has begun to change.
Because this goal is a problem—it doesn’t resolve the feeling of loss and emptiness, motivate one to move forward, etc, but rather amplifies it.
Grief vs Living with Ghosts
A recent documentary called “Life with Ghosts” follows several bereaved people as they go through a new therapy that invites them to reconnect with the deceased rather than disconnect. The treatment induces after-death communication as a means to heal grief and traumatic loss.
After-death communication is a phenomenon that already occurs in 20%-50% of people within the first year of the death of a loved one (Penberthy et al., 2023 Factors Moderating the Impact of After Death Communications on Beliefs and Spirituality) and this intervention seems to increase that phenomenon to 70% following this intervention (2013, Streit-Horn. “After-Death Communication Fact Sheet”) Medicine usually attributes these experiences to delusions.
Resolving Grief Using NLP
Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), through the original work of Steve and Connirae Andreas, designed a brilliant method more than three decades ago to reconnect with the deceased. Their objective in their Grief Process is to connect to the deceased as a resource as well as a motivator to bring the appreciated values and qualities of that person and relationship back into your life. The process is easy and elegant, and it can be used not only with the loss of a loved one but also with the loss of a relationship, such as a divorce or a breakup, the loss of a dream, and even the loss of physical health. It’s also a powerful means to deal with the anticipated fear of loss as well.
NLP for Grief Release
Eva M Clark at the 2024 ACHE Conference
30% of those bereaved suffer Prolonged Grief Disorder that can last for years or even a lifetime. Bereavement can get mixed with the trauma of the manner of death, an empty feeling of loss, and deep isolation. New research has shown how re-establishing a bond with the deceased can actually release grief.
Learn how NLP, through the work of Steven Andreas on PTSD veteran, can quickly release the trauma and reconnect with the bonds to our loved ones.