THE loss of a loved one It’s still a difficult time for everyone who had an emotional connection with him. If to this is added Christmas, which increases this feeling of family bond and friendship, realize this mourning … It gets even more difficult. For this reason, in the Quirónsalud Infanta Luisa Hospital in Seville They are going to organize a workshop on grief at Christmas (this Thursday at 6:00 p.m.), during which Dr. Raquel Calero Dominguez looks at the reasons that amplify emotions like sadness, injustice or anger on these special dates.
As Raquel Calero Domínguez explains, the loss of a loved one is intensified by the festive events we share with family, friends and colleagues. “If, in addition, they are the first after the death of their loved one, this feeling of loss and sadness amplifies and gives way to what we call “cognitive dissonance” “because of the contrast between the social expectation of giving thanks and celebrating Christmas.”
For Raquel Calero, it is important to “not naturalize” the intensification of emotions such as sadness, injustice or angerbecause other “more complex” ones such as anxiety, anhedonia or apathy derive from it and “their persistence can give rise to clinical conditions such as depression”. This workshop will offer tools to help manage disruptive emotions, validate emotional expression and memory to make room for the emotional legacy left by people who are no longer here.
In this sense, the psychologist insists every year on the fact that “you need to ask for help of the vulnerability of the suffering person and offering the support of those who accompany them”, because, according to him, it is essential “avoid isolation because the pain does not disappear, but it is reduced if we accompany it. Of course, this support must always “validate and legitimize whatever acceptance and respect the bereaved person feels.”
This is why, for the fifth year in a row, the psychologist from the Quirónsalud Hospital Infanta Luisa is leading the workshop “It’s Christmas and at home there is an empty chair” this Thursday. The experience of mourning at Christmas’, at the hospital center auditorium, from 6 p.m. From 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., intended for adults in general and, in particular, the recently deceased and their companions. Access is free until capacity is reached.
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