“You can’t measure grief,” is something I have heard numerous times as I’ve written about evidence-based bereavement coping strategies. I don’t think these statements mean anything like, “I have studied this matter at length and tried many different methods and I have concluded you can’t measure grief.”
I think it’s more along the lines of, “I haven’t really thought about it before but I can’t see any obvious way to measure grief. It’s not like, say, height and weight. And, besides, I’m a little offended that anyone would presume to say that my deeply personal feelings about loss can be measured like my shoe size.”
With all that in mind and with apologies where appropriate, you can measure grief. Researchers, therapists and others have dozens of tools to evaluate the intensity, duration and nature of grieving symptoms. Some have been around for decades. Some have gone through numerous revisions. They…
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