Loss is a part of our lives. We change jobs, we move homes and cities, and we lose loved ones. Many of the losses we experience have far deeper implications for our lives. Very often society does not recognise these losses, and we are forced to ‘carry on regardless’. But the impact remains.

This course looks at some of the losses we experience and the impacts they have on our lives. The course looks at loss in general, but becomes more focussed on bereavement. We look at different types of loss that most of us will have experienced – losing your job, relationship losses, and bereavement – and how we experience many of the same emotions and responses even though the loss itself may be different.

Then we look at some of the best known theories of loss. This section focusses more specifically on bereavement, although the theories can be applied to any major loss. First, we look at the stages of loss theory of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, which sees bereavement in terms of set stages, dominated by specific emotional responses. After that we look at models that talk about tasks for the bereaved, specifically Worden’s model, which sees bereavement as a process to work through.

Throughout the course, I will share some of my own experiences of loss, having lost my sister to AML in 1997, and my father to cancer in 2006.

[course image by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash]