Susan Anderson (psychotherapist)
While Kübler-Ross, Anderson, and others have attempted to define discrete stages of grief, such as an initial period of numbness leading to depression and finally to reorganization and recovery, most modern grief specialists recognize the variations and fluidity of grief experiences, that differ considerably in intensity and length among cultural groups and from person to person. No grief stage theory has been able to account for how people cope with loss, why they experience varying degrees and types of distress at different times, and how or when they adjust to a life without their loved one over time.
Grief
Recently, there has been a high level of skepticism about the universal and predictable “emotional pathway” that leads from distress to “recovery” with an appreciation that grief is a more complex process of adapting to loss than stage and phase models have previously suggested. The Two-Track Model of Bereavement, created by Simon Shimshon Rubin in 1981, is a grief theory that provided deeper focus on the grieving process. The model examines the long-term effects of bereavement by measuring how well the person is adapting to the loss of a significant person in their life. The main objective of the Two-Track Model of Bereavement is for the individual to “manage and live in reality in which the deceased is absent” as well as returning to normal biological functioning. (Malkinson, 2006)