When the Grief Counselor Becomes the Grieving Counselor is changing the discourse about the way men experience, process, and survive grief. The author, through the highly personal play of Adrian, a longtime therapist who loses his wife after a drawn-out painful illness, provides the unfiltered, emotionally frank view of male grief that has been seldom depicted so thoughtfully and conscientiously. The book is timely, as mental health professionals and society in general have realized the pressing need to understand how men deal with emotional pain.
Cultural expectations have been promoting male strength, silence, and emotional control over the decades. Men are usually commended on how they manage to stay the same and condemned either socially or internally about being weak. Such silence is a dangerous one, particularly when it happens at the most crushing moments of life. When The Grief Counsellor becomes the Grieving Counsellor, it is in defiance of these old rules that is expressed by demonstrating what our strongest, most emotionally competent men can crumble up when they suffer loss beyond belief.
This novel follows the life of Adrian, a renowned grief and addictions counselor who has over two decades of experience with trauma, sorrow, and recovery in guiding other people. He is the example of stability and softness, the one people call when they are disintegrating. However, when his wife dies following a gradual and slow fall due to a rare genetic neurological disorder, Adrian turns out to be the one to fall apart. The grief counselor is the man of grief, and in the process, he is a potent illustration of how men grieve in real and crude and intricate ways.
The book brings out the emotional meltdown in Adrian in a very candid way. The reader sees his struggle with himself when he is struggling to hold on to the persona of being a strong person, and deep within his heart is heartbreak. He cannot articulate his feelings not that he does not know how to do it, he has taught emotional expression as a profession; however, he does not want to be perceived as weak.
To Adrian, it felt like entering a new land, and he could not wake up without his wife. Home was weird and dead and uncomfortable. Even the routine rituals, such as coffee, work, or sleep, served as a reminder of the missing. The state of grief changed his senses, and everything was tainted with absence. It is a state of disorientation that many individuals go through, and this book brings this with tearful precision. In case of the loss of a loved one, the world does not simply feel different; it is different. And that is when transformation starts.
Adrian made a life out of emotional resilience and career indifference. Being a counselor, he could be effective in holding the pain of other people while at the same time keeping his own injuries well hidden. The loss of his wife destroyed that building, however.
This disintegration reveals how bereavement breaks down the fortifications that we have built over a long period. It is a revelation of who we are behind the roles and identities we are holding on to. Being deprived of his professional armor, Adrian was forced to fight with the man under the therapist: a man who was so hurt, scared, and in search. The book demonstrates that grief causes us to experience what we would otherwise not want to, forcing us into the emotional realms in which we cannot evade. And through this, it changes our relationship with ourselves.
The other interesting point about the story by Adrian is the change in his relationships due to grief, particularly his relationship with the help. In his career, he was the facilitator, the mentor, and the well-educated expert who had solutions. However, when his world collapsed around him, he could not bear the burden by himself. He sought treatment with his workmate, Dr. Sarah, and joined a support group on grief. These steps were not easy. They needed weakness, which Adrian had never permitted himself to have.
The man, who used to think that he knew the true meaning of grief, finds out that only by undergoing it, the deeper you are going to understand its transformative power. His customers feel the dissimilarity. His relationships deepen. This makes his work more significant. And gradually, he starts to recreate a life that is not crafted under the influence of the loss of his wife, but rather by the love that she was leaving.
Contact:
Author: Steven A Moore
Website: https://serenity-counseling-and-coaching-services.com/
Amazon: When the Grief Counselor Becomes the Grieving Counselor
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