Abstract

Dealing with death can be demanding and anxiety provoking for counselling practitioners. There is need to focus on therapeutic strategies aimed at assisting persons deal with loss and grief. This paper explores the concept of death in traditional-cum-contemporary societies, particularly within the prevailing context of increasing death rates due to natural factors, accidents, and disease. In this paper, five themes were identified through narrative analysis. These are: individual understanding of death, socio-cultural communal meaning of death, role of religion, development in science and advancement in information seen as vital in understanding of death, and application in counselling and therapeutic support services. Overall emphasis in this paper is the need for therapists and social workers to understand death in both the prevailing culture and transcending into modern discourse in order to find meaning in life.

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