Loss, Trauma, and Grief of Cheryl Strayed - Case Study Example

Grief, Loss and Trauma Name Student Number Institution Course Code Instructor Date A Case Analysis of Cheryl Strayed in the Movie “Wild” Introduction This paper evaluates Cheryl Strayed as depicted in the movie the “Wild” with critical analysis of her grief, loss and trauma, as well as the recollection journey to overcome loss and grief in her life. Grief is a process that occurs when one is faced with a loss or trauma, and requires effective management to overcome the experience. Cheryl is the main character in this case encountering loss at the age of 22 impacting negatively to her life, and later embarks on a hiking journey to reflect on her life and overcome the grief and losses. Loss feelings are common in the life of a human being, and can be experienced upon losing a loved one, divorce which results to losing a relationship, sickness, sudden loss of lifestyle or losing property. To overcome grief, Kubler Ross identifies five stages of overcoming grief in the process incorporating denial and isolation; anger; bargaining; depression and finally acceptance where the grieving person gets on with life embracing reality (Kubler-Ross and Kessler, 2007). Cheryl Strayed life presents various stages that with various looses of loved one and relationship. The loss of her mother due to lung cancer and a divorce due to her difficult life with the sickness and death of her mother brings great grief upon Cheryl. The most significant encounters involve three instances where she comes across fellow hikers along the trail. First she comes across Greg a female hiker, followed by a group of three men whom she refers in her story as “Three Young Bucks” and finally a community of people hiking along her trekking trail. These encounters presents Cheryl with opportunities to hike and engage with the individual making positive impacts in her life and eventually making her cope with her grieving situation. The analysis incorporate a critical psychology attributes to assess Cheryl’s grieving process and subsequently come up with appropriate therapeutic principles. Further, a critical analysis of the social context surrounding Cheryl’s life prior to the trek, the encounter with loss and eventual life changing trek will give critical aspects to the overcoming of loss and trauma. On the same note, a treatment plan involving effective strategies to overcome grief and avoid death or mental implications will be evaluated and conclude with an analysis of the ethical aspects surrounding Cheryl’s case study. Case Study Assessment The loss of a loved one or a relationship results to increased pain and trying to overcome and avoid the pain becomes a grieving process (Rossenblatt, 2010). Cheryl Strayed as a young lady encounters a number life losses impacting negatively on her life values. At the onset, her ailing mother and subsequent death to cancer presents an episode of suffering that shatters Cheryl’s life leaving her vulnerable to abusing drugs. The aftermath of her crumbling life affects her marriage resulting into divorce after six years. From a critical point of view, Cheryl Strayed embarks on a long trek to ease out her prevailing grief and reflect on the life encounters and future life ahead. The various encounters in her life gives her great instances to reflect on her past life and make resolutions on how to make and not break her future life. Prior to the start of the journey, Cheryl is at the bottom of her life with the great issues surrounding her life. Having to understand the fact of living without her mother made life complicated. The hiking episode of the PCT depicts the most effective way out for this case to save Cheryl’s crumbling life from total destruction. The recovery process involves walking along to reflect and regain her strength presenting a sense of meaning in life, as well as find the mission of her life. The trek is a physically painful and enduring episode with instances of hardships like having wrong boots resulting to suffering of her toes, lack of pleasantries like chips and Snapple and the need for a toilet service which seemed far from reach. Amid the challenges, Cheryl handles them effectively to emerge emotionally strong even with instances of fright upon encountering strange men in her trail. At the end of the three month trek, Cheryl came out more stronger with better capacity to cope with her divorce, her mother’s death and her past drug abuse embracing a new lease of life for future achievements. Therapeutic Principles Grief is a process that has no exact process to overcome it or grieve effectively (Gillies and Neimeyer, 2006). People in life are faced with various forms and magnitudes of grief which lasts for various durations of times. According to Worden (2009), the duration of grief varies from one person to another. Cheryl as the client in this context presents a perfect example of an individual who embraces encounters grief and decides to go a journey for therapeutic purposes and re-evaluate her present life in the quest to establish her future destiny. The principles of human grief present the reality of grief and coping strategies to the reality. First, there appears no perfect way to grieve with individuals presenting diverse modes of grieving (Malkinson, 2007). Secondly, grief cannot be cured or fixed, but it is a process not an illness that can be administered medication to cease. The process involves a reaction comprising of thoughts, physical and emotional feelings, as well as behaviours for enabling a person under grief to survive. Cheryl episodes of grief brought about instances of life changing aspects for the future life. The third principle of grieving indicates no standard timetable for the grieving process. Different people take different timelines and processes to get through grief and overcome it via unique episodes (Rossenblatt, 2010). Cheryl’s life presents a unique life episode of a young woman faced with grief and the need for reassurance of changed life later in the future. The challenges faced after losing her mother to cancer, and subsequent divorce coupled with indulgence in drugs presents instances of negative life attributes. Every loss is indicated by the fourth principle as a multiple loss. Upon losing a loved one or a relationship, the grieving person loses part of their inner self (Drenth, Herbst and Strydom, 2010). Thus, therapeutic approaches aim at recollecting the lost inner being and ensuring getting back to normal life. Grief is a dynamic process and diverse intensity and complexity. The secondary losses in the life of a grieving person may have greater implications and thus, the need to ensure focus on overcoming grief and moving on with life (Forte et al., 2004). The fifth principle presents change bringing about loss resulting to grief. Change is inevitable in life and thus, to effectively overcome grief, addressing and embracing change is imperative for a grieving person. Loss is a continuous process, and one grief or loss may amount or connect to another enhancing the intensity of suffering (Figley, Bride and Mazza, 1997). Thus, there is need to address each loss effectively to avoid complexity of grief. The trekking phase of Cheryl presented a self-reflection journey that helped her face her losses and overcome them for the life ahead. Analysis of Social context The psychology in respect to grief majorly looks into individuals, but at the same time grief occurs in the context of social relationships and culture. The interactions with family and the larger society help in the process of grief and eventual overcoming (Rossenblatt, 2010). Cheryl for instance gets through the loss of her mother together with the brother. Further, during the hike, the encounters with other hikers presents with opportunities to share and discuss her issues bringing them to focus and analysis. The major aspect surrounding social context in grief involves the offering of support and help to get through the grieving process, through sharing and analysis of one’s feelings (Shear, 2006; Neimeyer and Sands, 2011). Diverse societal and cultural settings present divergent modes of grieving to overcome loss and trauma. Treatment Plan The treatment plan involves coping strategies to the prevailing grieving circumstance to get through the various stages to acceptance of the loss. The management of loss and grief are paramount to alleviate the process progressing to mental problems like depression. Coping with the loss of a loved one is termed by the American Psychology Association (2015) as the most challenging form of grief. Nevertheless, effective treatment plans involving a recovery process whereby evaluation of the happenings and acceptance occurs promotes effective healing of the grieving person. Although there are no generic drugs to cure grief, the looking into symptoms that accompany the grief process can be addressed medically to enhance recovery process (Hensley and Clayton, 2008). Cheryl Strayed presents a case scenario depicting that suffering due to grief is unique and vary from one individual to another as well as with situations. In context, overcoming grief entails establishing the presence of a loss and purposing to overcome the grief by understanding the situation and dealing with the reality. Death in life is inevitable, as well as other form of losses encountered (Boelen and van den Bout, 2005). To effectively overcome grief, there is need for a scheduled plan directly touching on the mourner to reflect and recollect on the issues surrounding the loss and how to move on with life. As an expert, helping a grieving person involves initial analysis of their level of suffering and subsequent outline of a recovery plan towards normal life. The treatment plan is premised on the fact that individuals under grief remain stuck in the situation for considerable time (Zisook and Shear, 2009), thus, the need for social and emotional support to emerge eventually and make adjustments in order to adapt to the reality surrounding their loss (Forte et al., 2004). The proposed plan helps the client to develop cognitive ability to overcome the grief through facing the prevailing situation and critically dealing and accepting the loss. Further, the turnaround comes in with the client changing the perception of the life ahead and moves on with life boldly amid the losses. Analysis of Ethical Aspects of the Case Grief is a natural and inevitable part of life that impacts directly on the familiar and predictable nature of an individual resulting to great agony. The ethical aspect of Cheryl case analysis involves the critical expose of her personal life. Cheryl indulgence with drug abuse and subsequent active lifestyle has been presented in the case disregarding her personal private and confidential life. Nevertheless, the greater aspect entrenched in the case is the fact the scenes and happenings depicted comes out to create the implications of loss, and the eventual facing of the situation to overcome the loss. The aspect of unresolved grief can result into adverse negative implications to the individual, thus, the need to critically address and resolve grieving to ensure success overcoming (Larson and Hoyt, 2007). The disregard of the private aspect surrounding the case helps to address the inner cause of the negative implications which comes up due to loss in the life of Cheryl. Nevertheless, ensuring confidentiality during counselling helps clients going through grief and difficult moments to get confidence in the counsellor and thus, share more inner feelings that may hamper recovery process. Assurance of not only privacy but also protection of critical aspects surrounding a given case in respect to loss and grief is paramount. References American Psychological Association (APA) (2015). Grief: coping with loss of your loved one. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Boelen, P.A. and van den Bout, J. (2005). Complicated grief, depression and anxiety as distinct post-loss syndrome: A confirmatory factor analysis study. Am J Psychiatry. 162: 2175-2177. Drenth, C.M., Herbst, A.G. and Strydom, H. (2010). A complicated grief intervention model. Journal of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences. 15(1). 1-8. DOI: 10.4102/hsag.v15i1.415. Figley, C.R., Bride, B.E. and Mazza, N. (Eds.). (1997). Death and trauma: The traumatology of grieving. Washington, DC: Taylor and Francis Publishers. Forte, A.L., Hill, M., Pazder, R. and Feudtner, C. (2004). Bereavement care interventions: A systematic review. BMC Palliative Care. 3(3): 1-14. Gillies, J. and Neimeyer, R.A. (2006). Loss, grief, and the search for significance: toward a model of meaning reconstruction in bereavement. Journal of Constructivist Psychology. 19(1): 31-65. Doi: 10.1080/10720530500311182. Hensley, P.L. and Clayton, P.J. (2008). Bereavement: Signs, symptoms, and course. Psychiatr Ann. 38: 649-654. Karam, E.G., Tabet, C.C. and Alam, D. (2009). Bereavement related and non-bereavement related depressions: A comparative study. J Affect Disord. 112: 102-110. Kubler-Ross, E. and Kessler, D. (2005). On grief and grieving: Finding the meaning of grief through the five stages of loss. New York, NY: Scribner. Larson, D.G. and Hoyt, W.T. (2007). What has become of grief counseling? An evaluation of the empirical foundations of the new pessimism. Professional Psychology: Research and practice. 38(4): 347-355. Malkinson, R. (2007). Cognitive grief therapy: Constructing a rational meaning to life following loss. New York: Norton. Neimeyer, R.A. and Sands, D.C. (2011). Meaning reconstruction in bereavement: from principles to practice. In R.A. Neimeyer, D.L. Harris, H.R. Winokuer and G.F. Thornton (Eds.). Grief and bereavement in contemporary society: Bridging research and practice, pp. 9-22. New York: Routledge. Rossenblatt, P.C. (2010). Grief: The social context of private feelings. Journal of social Issues. 44(3): 67-78. Shear, M.K. (2006). The treatment of complicated grief. Grief matters: The Australian Journal of Grief and Bereavement. 9(2): 39-42. Worden, J.W. (2009). Grief, counselling and grief therapy. A handbook for the mental health practitioner. 4th ed. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company, LLC. Read More

The aftermath of her crumbling life affects her marriage resulting into divorce after six years. From a critical point of view, Cheryl Strayed embarks on a long trek to ease out her prevailing grief and reflect on the life encounters and future life ahead. The various encounters in her life gives her great instances to reflect on her past life and make resolutions on how to make and not break her future life. Prior to the start of the journey, Cheryl is at the bottom of her life with the great issues surrounding her life.

Having to understand the fact of living without her mother made life complicated. The hiking episode of the PCT depicts the most effective way out for this case to save Cheryl’s crumbling life from total destruction. The recovery process involves walking along to reflect and regain her strength presenting a sense of meaning in life, as well as find the mission of her life. The trek is a physically painful and enduring episode with instances of hardships like having wrong boots resulting to suffering of her toes, lack of pleasantries like chips and Snapple and the need for a toilet service which seemed far from reach.

Amid the challenges, Cheryl handles them effectively to emerge emotionally strong even with instances of fright upon encountering strange men in her trail. At the end of the three month trek, Cheryl came out more stronger with better capacity to cope with her divorce, her mother’s death and her past drug abuse embracing a new lease of life for future achievements. Therapeutic Principles Grief is a process that has no exact process to overcome it or grieve effectively (Gillies and Neimeyer, 2006).

People in life are faced with various forms and magnitudes of grief which lasts for various durations of times. According to Worden (2009), the duration of grief varies from one person to another. Cheryl as the client in this context presents a perfect example of an individual who embraces encounters grief and decides to go a journey for therapeutic purposes and re-evaluate her present life in the quest to establish her future destiny. The principles of human grief present the reality of grief and coping strategies to the reality.

First, there appears no perfect way to grieve with individuals presenting diverse modes of grieving (Malkinson, 2007). Secondly, grief cannot be cured or fixed, but it is a process not an illness that can be administered medication to cease. The process involves a reaction comprising of thoughts, physical and emotional feelings, as well as behaviours for enabling a person under grief to survive. Cheryl episodes of grief brought about instances of life changing aspects for the future life. The third principle of grieving indicates no standard timetable for the grieving process.

Different people take different timelines and processes to get through grief and overcome it via unique episodes (Rossenblatt, 2010). Cheryl’s life presents a unique life episode of a young woman faced with grief and the need for reassurance of changed life later in the future. The challenges faced after losing her mother to cancer, and subsequent divorce coupled with indulgence in drugs presents instances of negative life attributes. Every loss is indicated by the fourth principle as a multiple loss.

Upon losing a loved one or a relationship, the grieving person loses part of their inner self (Drenth, Herbst and Strydom, 2010). Thus, therapeutic approaches aim at recollecting the lost inner being and ensuring getting back to normal life. Grief is a dynamic process and diverse intensity and complexity. The secondary losses in the life of a grieving person may have greater implications and thus, the need to ensure focus on overcoming grief and moving on with life (Forte et al., 2004). The fifth principle presents change bringing about loss resulting to grief.

Change is inevitable in life and thus, to effectively overcome grief, addressing and embracing change is imperative for a grieving person. Loss is a continuous process, and one grief or loss may amount or connect to another enhancing the intensity of suffering (Figley, Bride and Mazza, 1997).

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