Grief Models — Clinical Reference for Therapists
The stages of grief are the most famous model in psychology and, in clinical practice, one of the most misleading. This reference covers the grief models that actually guide clinical work, with what each one tells you about how to help.
What is in this cheat sheet
Kübler-Ross: what it is and is not — why the five stages were never meant to be a linear sequence, what they describe accurately about grief, and the clinical errors that come from applying them too literally.
Worden’s Tasks of Mourning — four tasks that frame grief as active work rather than passive experience: accepting the reality of the loss, processing the pain, adjusting to a world without the person, and finding an enduring connection. How to use this framework clinically.
The Dual Process Model — oscillation between loss orientation (confronting the grief) and restoration orientation (avoiding the grief and attending to life changes). Why this oscillation is healthy and how to work with it in session rather than against it.
Continuing bonds — the research that shifted grief theory: maintaining a connection with the deceased is adaptive, not pathological. How to support this clinically without over-pathologizing or under-attending to grief.
Complicated grief / Prolonged Grief Disorder — diagnostic criteria, what distinguishes complicated from ordinary grief, and what specialist treatment looks like.
Disenfranchised grief — grief over losses without social recognition (miscarriage, pet loss, non-death losses, estrangement). Why naming the grief directly is often the most useful clinical move.