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Running head: GRIEF COUNSELING
GRIEF COUNSELING 2
Understanding Grief Counseling from a Cultural Perspective
Topic Rationale
Grief is a universal feeling that individuals’ members across all cultures will experience throughout their lifetime. The grief process for countless individuals may be similar and sometimes dissimilar because of cultural influences. This paper will explore how grief is expressed and practiced by different cultures. The purpose of this paper will be to offer readers a better understanding the widespread similarities of grief and cultural differences. Grief was selected as a topic because I work with clients from diverse cultures who have and will experience grief. The likelihood that an addiction counselor will have to provide or refer a client for grief counseling has increased enormously due to multiple deaths resulting from opioid overdoses. Because death does not discriminate, and overdose affects people from all backgrounds, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual identity, religion, economic status, ethnicity or sexual orientation, it is very imperative that counselors mainly those who work with substance abusers recognize the influences of culture and grief.