Quick Tips to Handle the Grief of Job Loss |Career Coach

By Jim WestPublished On: April 27th, 20093 min read

Orlando Career Coach & Counselor offers tips to handout the grief of job loss. A friend of mine who has worked with the same company for over 10 years was laid off recently. He was devastated. Providing for his family was what he was supposed to do and now he could no longer do that. Not only did he lose his job with a regular paycheck but he lost all the benefits that went with it. He was in a state of shock and wondered how he would face the future with little to no job prospects (similar companies were laying off).

When a person loses a job they are facing a great loss. Experiencing grief is a natural response to that job loss. When a person is laid off from their job they lose many things such as identity, income, self-worth, friends and colleagues, structure, benefits, stability, a place to belong and the list goes on. It is normal to feel a great sense of loss and grief when losing a job. Sometimes the effects of a job loss create all kinds of turmoil within a person.

Remember, grieving is different for everyone. How a person grieves over their job loss depends on many different factors such as personality, coping style, life experience, support systems in your life and faith. The grieving process takes time and healing cannot be forced or hurried.

More Videos on this topic

[tubepress playerLocation=”popup” mode=”tag” tagValue=”Total Life Counseling grief” paginationAbove=”true” paginationBelow=”false” orderBy=”published” resultsPerPage=”4″ thumbHeight=”105″ thumbWidth=”135″ ]

Here are a few tips to remember when facing a job loss:

Don’t ignore your pain. Express it with a close friend or family member. If you ignore your pain it will fester and get worse. In order to fully grieve you must face your pain and actively deal with it. Expressing yourself to others that care for you is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. You can also journal or keep a diary as a way of expressing your feelings.
If you are feeling sad, frightened or lonely don’t try to put on a strong front for others. Putting on a brave front doesn’t help the healing process but prolongs it.
Remember to allow yourself as much time as you need to feel the pain of your job loss. There is no deadline for grieving, it is a process and varies from person to person as to how long it will take.
Don’t forget your basic health needs. Make sure you get the sleep you need, exercise and proper nutrition. Job loss is one of the highest causes of stress in your life. Your body will feel the effects and your resistance to illness will be lowered.

Common symptoms of grief:

Shock and disbelief
Sadness
Guilt
Anger
Fear

Physical symptoms: weight loss or weight gain, loss of sleep or too much sleep, aches and pains, nausea, fatigue, or lowered immunity system

Coping with your job loss:

Turn to friends and family
Draw comfort from your faith
Join a support group
Talk with a therapist
Exercise regularly even if it is just walking and being outside
Allow yourself time to do something for yourself that you enjoy

In these tough economic times it is important to allow yourself to grieve and experience job loss in a healthy way. Don’t give up and make sure you take good care of yourself!

NOTE: you can freely redistribute this resource, electronically or in print, provided you leave the authors contact information below intact. Author: Deb Haughton, MS, LMHC

Jim West

Adolescent Expert, Jim West offers expert advice to Local and National TV News & Schools Internationally and provides phone or face-to-face counseling in the Orlando area. Jim is an Author, Communicator, School Consultant, Nationally Certified and State Licensed Counselor and specializes in counseling for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADD/ADHD) and Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD). Jim has been interviewed for multiple TV, Radio, magazine and newspaper articles. He is president of Total Life Counseling Center and his Total Life approach accelerates the therapeutic & healing process by relating to children, adolescents and adults and incorporating wellness. Jim’s clients travel from all over Florida, England, Georgia, Cayman Islands and the Bahamas as he has been able to treat clients with ADHD, Anxiety, Mood Disorders, Depression and more with FDA approved supplements and Dietary Modifications. 85% of his clients have not needed medication or used less medication than when they first came to Total Life Counseling Center.

See Full Bio

Filed in: Adults, Anxiety, Blog, Career, Grief, Jim West, Orlando

Total Life Counseling Center consists of Licensed Counselors, masters level therapists, Español counselors, Licensed Mental Health Counselors, business coaches, and image enhancement coaches who provide counseling for emotional, mental, physical and spiritual care including marriage, individual, family, substance abuse and more. TLC’s family, trauma and marriage experts have been interviewed on National and Local TV/Radio over 200 times for their expert advice on Fox News, OWN, WETV, ABC’s Medical Minute and more. Our skilled counselors are relational, approachable and specialists providing therapy services in the Central Florida area including: Orlando, Winter Park, MetroWest, Windermere, Dr. Phillips, East Orlando, Lake Mary, and Clermont, Boca Raton Florida, and Dallas, TX.