ABSTRACT
The healthy grief process is characterized by being flexible. The process which may develop pathologically is more rigid. When working with grief therapy and crisis intervention, there are many advantages in using a model which divides normal grief work into tasks. The bereaved person must accomplish these tasks if he is to find himself again and perhaps emerge strengthened from his grief. The drawback of systematizing complicated emotional processes is that there is a risk of simplifying so much that the result is too cut-and-dried and therefore unusable. So it is important to realize that we are working on all the tasks at the different levels throughout the course of the grief. The feelings of pain and sorrow at the loss of body warmth, sexuality, and a partner in social life, will thus be repeated again and again. At first, the pain will grow, because the recognition that the loss is irrevocable will slowly become plainer.
