Death and Psychotherapy

Published on June 1, 2013

  All people will die. We all go to the grave, sooner or later. No one is exempted. Death then is an "anxiety" common to the entire humankind regardless of one's status in life.

I'm reminded of my younger sister who died several years ago. While speaking to her in the ICU unit of a hospital, there was certainly no way of distracting herself from thoughts of dying. After comforting and praying for her, I sensed the deep helplessness and loneliness of what she had to go through. She did face a lot of pressures approaching the end of her life.

Author Dr. Douglas Miller once wrote, "Patients with serious medical conditions frequently suffer psychological, relational, and spiritual distress that is being inadequately addressed by modern health care."

For a dying patient, there are "gaps" that need to be filled. Psychologically, there could be issues of depression, anxiety, and denial. Relationally, anxieties linked to family and how it's going to handle one's illness and death must be addressed. Finally, and most importantly, the spiritual needs of the dying patient involve questions of the meaning of life as well as the afterlife.

Indeed, there is a lot of point to making the most of the limited time we have on earth. We need not avoid thoughts of death. If we allow some healthy dose of it, it can help us prepare to know what this life is all about ... and beyond.

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die," Jesus said (John 11:25, 26).


Category(s):Aging & Geriatric Issues, Anxiety, Bereavement

Written by:

Dr. Angelo Subida, Psychotherapist

Dr. Angelo Subida is a clinical psychotherapist, author, and speaker. He is author of books "Inner Healing," "Secrets Of Your Self," "Chess and Life," among others, blogs, and articles. He has appeared frequently as an expert on psychotherapy/life recovery issues on national television, radio broadcasts, print media, and webcasts, including GMA 7, TV 5, ABS CBN 2, Q-11, 700 Club, Radyo Veritas, Inquirer Radio, Smart Parenting Magazine, Business Mirror, among others, and has served as resident therapist/counselor for parents and kid-artists in the highly popular ABS-CBN 2 Voice Kids TV singing reality show. Dr. Subida is an eclectic, multidisciplinary therapist and originator of his own revolutionary high-tech, high-touch counseling plus model. His areas of specialization include parent-child therapy, clinical infidelity treatment, relationship/marital counseling, separation/divorce therapy, anger management, depression, addictions, psychotherapy-spirituality integration, and innovative chess therapy. For more of Dr. Subida, you can find him at www.drsubida.com.

Dr. Angelo Subida, Psychotherapist belongs to Dr. Angelo O. Subida Psychotherapy Clinic in Philippines