10/2/2015
Tyler Miller
Staff Writer
T.C.Miller2@iup.edu

Many people have experienced the loss of someone important, whether it be a friend, family member, pet or someone else.

Grief is one of the universal human experiences, and it can also be one of the most confusing and complicated processes each person goes through during life.

The “Coping with Grief” workshop, held on Wednesday in Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Ruddock Hall G12, was spearheaded by two clinical psychology graduate students, Sara Troupe and Peter Hauge, and addressed the topic.

“Grief is different for everyone,” Troupe said. “It depends on the factors, and it depends on who you lost.

People often go through five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

However, Troupe and Hauge also said that people can go through the different stages at their own pace.

“There are many types of losses, such as loss of a job or career, a big break-up or a death of a loved one,” Hauge said.

While each person grieves differently, the workshop highlighted commonalities among grief experiences.

It also discussed the variety of ways in which a person’s grief may progress based on a number of different factors.

“Grief is never really over,” Troupe said. “People can have many triggers that can bring them back to another stage.”

“It’s more of a spiral, going in and out of the grieving processes,” Hauge said.

“Some people just get used to dealing with their grief when it resurfaces.”

The two grad students stressed grieving in healthy ways, such as talking it out.

“You can [also] take care of yourself physically, eating healthy, going to the gym or even going for a walk or run,” Troupe said.

However, if a person starts to depend to heavily on vices, such as alcohol and other drugs, or self-harm, Troupe and Hauge both agreed that person would need help.

They suggested these students attend a free session at IUP’s counseling center, no matter how awkward the initial conversation may be. Both graduate students urged any student who is grieving the illness or death of a loved one, or just wants to talk about the grieving process, to attend an Actively Moving Forward (AMF) support club meeting.

AMF, led by Troupe, provides students with a way to actively deal with grief, learn more about the grieving process and vent about their own grievances.