Instead, as an active search for a new meaning, a new responsibility, a focus, an interest or a mission to life without their children. At best, you, as a counselor, become a companion and a facilitator in a journey of discovery. Each discovery represents a turning point in this life-long process. Every turning point enables the parents to reconnect to life - the ultimate goal of readjustment to living with the loss of their children. The reconnection to life symbolizes hope.
Parental bereavement is a unique process.
It is best described as simultaneous Inward and Outward Steps that the parent takes. Inward steps towards an inner search, and outward steps towards reconnection to the outside world. The inward and outward steps characterize a process of readjustment, and last a lifetime.