Gentle Release Therapy to Support Bereavement

This piece has been written by Cathy Chiplen, Gentle Release Practitioner, Complementary Therapist, Soul Midwife (Companion to the Dying) and Soul Midwife Mentor.

I first came across GRT a couple of years ago via one of my colleagues, Victoria Gazzard, in the baby loss support community. It was Victoria who first sparked my interest in GRT as a beautiful way to gently support people experiencing devastating baby losses. Another of my colleagues, Mel Scott (founder of ‘Towards Tomorrow Together’ baby loss charity), who has herself experienced multiple losses, shared with me that GRT had been really effective for her, and in Mel’s own words had 'touched the parts that other therapies hadn’t reached'. I was intrigued and very keen to find out more, so I enrolled on Helen’s online course for treating friends and family as a starting point, and quickly found it to be very beneficial, both for myself, and my loved ones. Following on from this I decided to undertake the full practitioner’s course, and that’s where my journey with this wonderful therapy truly began to open out.

In my varied roles as a Soul Midwife, which is an ‘End of Life Companion’, and as a Trustee and Holistic/Complementary Therapist for our local baby loss charity ‘Towards Tomorrow Together’ I meet many people who are dealing with bereavement in various scenarios, either facing their own imminent death, supporting a loved one who is dying, coping with life following a bereavement, parents who have lost a baby or young child, as well as parents trying to conceive again after loss.

Loss, grief and bereavement affect people in SO MANY ways, both ‘anticipatory grief’ before the death actually occurs, and what we more usually think of as ‘normal grief’, after a death occurs. They can affect our health in myriad ways, and in this I am referring to all aspects of health – mental, emotional, physical, and also spiritual health. This is what we call a holistic approach, treating the person as a whole, rather than as a list of various symptoms or ailments.

Mental and Emotional Health 

‘Grief fog’ is common when experiencing a bereavement, when the mind becomes very clouded, it can be difficult to recall even simple information. Sometimes people can literally feel like they are ‘going mad’. They might have audible or visual disturbances. They may be unable to make decisions. They may feel like hiding themselves away as they feel too distressed to take part in ‘normal’ activities such as socialising with friends or family. Grief is often accompanied by periods of significant insomnia, which adds an extra dimension to the suffering. Grieving people can become very isolated and feel that no-one understands what they are going through. Experiencing the loss of a child can be a particularly isolating bereavement as it is not something people generally expect to happen to them. Loss of a spouse or partner can lead to loss of identity as you may no longer feel like you are truly someone’s wife, husband or partner if they are no longer living.

Physical Health

Grief can manifest in numerous physical issues including, racing heart, headaches, nausea, random unexplained aches and pains, especially chest pain (heart-ache) as the body works hard to process the loss. It can also lead to concerns about the griever’s own health as they tussle with their own mortality. Perhaps things they might have ignored about their own health whilst caring for a dying loved one, and the physical strains this can put on a person, the physical acts of caring for another’s bodily needs, not getting a break yourself, all of this can lead to burn-out and exhaustion, which may only have an outlet once the person has actually died and the ‘carer’ can focus on themselves once more.

Spiritual Health

Grief can cause people to question their own faith and beliefs, however strong these may have been for them previous to their loss. They may feel (for example) that if there was a ‘God’, why would they take an innocent child away from loving parents? They might rail against the unfairness of it all, the cruelty. They may have what is known as a ‘dark night of the soul’ where they question everything they have previously believed, an existential crisis, perhaps blaming, or trying to punish themselves.

How Gentle Release Therapy can help

My initial intention with my GRT studies was to focus on those I could offer treatments to (as case studies) who had experienced significant bereavements, especially baby or child loss, including miscarriage and loss through termination, or other particularly difficult loss circumstances. It is very clear that there is a huge gap in mainstream NHS provision and that people are falling through the net and many of their post-bereavement needs are not being identified or met, leading to significant problems with mental, emotional and physical health. I felt that Gentle Release Therapy could be a significant part of my offering to loss communities.

In the six months since my initial training I have worked with a wide range of people who have experienced various significant losses, both baby loss and adult losses, expected and unexpected deaths, long-term illness, sudden death and suicide. Each person has benefitted significantly from their Gentle Release treatments and has felt that it allowed their grief to move and shift, and led to a lessening of physical, mental and emotional symptoms they were experiencing.

I would caveat that with the strong assertion that we are never trying to ‘fix or cure grief’ or make bereavement seem like something to ‘get over’ and ‘work through’, we are simply supporting the person to gently release what feels stuck in their body, mind and spirit, encouraging the body to re-balance itself. The responses to Gentle Release are as individual as the people experiencing the therapy, and in each treatment session we will be working on whatever is presenting in that given moment, as I said
before, working holistically rather than on a list of symptoms, but generally speaking people feel that the Gentle Release has made them feel ‘better’ than before, and that there is an improvement in their mental, emotional and physical health.

I have been so heartened by how well Gentle Release has been received by my clients, and the benefits they have felt from their treatments. I look forward to deepening my skills and experience and offering this beautiful therapy to more people.

If you would like to get in touch with Cathy her website is  www.cathychiplen.com

or find her on Facebook  www.facebook.com/CathyChiplenTherapies/