ABSTRACT
Death and dying, and loss more broadly, are subjects that many people do not want to face up to and will therefore try to avoid where possible. It is important to recognize that loss and grief are basic parts of human existence for all of us all of the time and, for many people at various points in their life, trauma is also a fundamental occurrence that can have significant implications. It would be a significant mistake not to recognize that loss is a basic part of life. Rituals, in effect, are acts imbued with meaning, and that also makes them very significant. However, losses that are not death related often have no equivalent rituals. For a long time, a distinction was drawn between “normal” and “abnormal” grief. However, that approach has long since been criticized because it is judgmental and stigmatizing. Trauma is very similar to loss, in the sense that it tends to produce a grief reaction.
