ABSTRACT
The author believes that early in the experience of grief part of the caregiver's role is to create an artful balance between encouraging emotional expression and respecting denial. Denial in the sense of the mourner's need to temporarily blocks out the reality of the death because the pain at that point is overwhelming the person's capacity to cope. The key is that this denial is a temporary means of self-protection that helps person survive the moment. This natural defense of denial becomes an impediment to healing when it becomes fixed or rigid. One moment the mourner may speak openly of the reality of the death and the next moment revert to a normal defensive need to employ denial. Respecting grief as a process that ultimately leads to a complete recognition of the death is critical to the helping role. As a caregiver, a need exists to be sensitive to the timing of getting mourner to acknowledge the reality of death.
