201920 Spring 2019 PACO 604-B01 LUO Forum 2 Module 4
Providing Safe Places, Safe People, and Safe Situations in Pastoral Crisis Care/Counseling
Wright (2012) comments, “A bereaved person, no matter his or her age, needs safe places, safe
people and safe situations.” As a pastoral crisis caregiver, how would you offer these crucial
elements to those in the midst of a death crisis?
As a Pastoral Crisis Caregiver, How Would You Offer These Crucial Elements to Those in
the Midst of a Death Crisis?
Grief is a trauma that attacks everyone differently because it contains so many emotions.
This trauma can start with laughter, anger, pain, denial, numbness, depression, and acceptance.
So, family and friends may not understand how to take you and that is okay because you have
been through a horrible ordeal. As your caregiver I will be here to offer you any advice or prayer
that you may need. I realize your home is your safe haven so, I would like to ask you a few
questions to ensure I don’t over step my boundaries during these hard times. If it is okay with
you would you like to have the missionaries of the church drop by and bring you some meals till
you are ready to come back out in the community? Would you like the assistant pastor to stop by
and keep you up on the Bible Study lessons? How often would you like me to come by to see
you? Is there anyone you would like for me to contact for you? I would also state to her or him
as mentioned by Wright (2012) that there is a way for her or him to journal what she or he is
going through at the moment as a way of recovering and being honest with her or himself. I
would also have her or him write letters to their bereaved stating what they never got to tell
them. Whether they loved them, how they feel about how they left them, how they are going to
move on with their life, what their future holds for them, and what that person would want for
them. Each question for each month for six months as grief is not a speedy process. I would also
remind him or her that Christ grieved over Lazarus when he died John 11:35-38 “Jesus wept.
Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! And some of them said, Could not this man,
which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? Jesus
therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.”
References
Wright, H. N. (2012). The complete guide to crisis & trauma counseling: What to do and say
when it matters most! (Revised ed.). Ventura, CA: Regal Books.
