Dual Process Model of Grief Worksheet
By
HappierTherapy
Author bio
The Happier Therapy editorial team is made up of Masters and PhD counselling psychologists. Each worksheet is created by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The worksheet then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
Download Worksheet
What is the theory behind this Dual Process Model of Grief Worksheet?
The Dual Process Model of Grief is an approach to navigating grief and loss proposed by Margaret Stroebe and Henk Schut. According to this model a grieving individual copes with mainly two types of stressors. One is ‘loss-oriented stressors’ , the ones that are associated with the emotional pain of losing a loved one. The other is ‘restoration-oriented stressors’, the ones that force the individual to get back to their normal routine and responsibilities after bearing such a huge loss. The grieving process requires the individual to keep moving back and forth between processing the loss but also trying to avoid it and focusing on adapting to their new life without their loved one.
How will the worksheet help?
This worksheet will help individuals coping with grief to acknowledge their struggle between loss-oriented and restoration-oriented stressors. It will allow them to understand both aspects of the process and write down how and where they can seek the social support they need at the time. They need to understand that healthy grieving means they will oscillate between coping with the two stressors.
How to use the worksheet?
This worksheet can be used to help individuals who are going through the grieving process. After discussing what the dual process model of grief means, instruct them to fill out the worksheet accordingly. It is important to help them understand it is completely okay to want to avoid the feelings at times and then want to face them at other times.
