Soup,Stitches, and Song

Abstract

This article discusses ways that clinical practitioners can utilize creative strategies in working with clients who are experiencing grief following the death of their adolescent child. It presents a brief literature review regarding this specific type of parental grief as well as practical and helpful ways to utilize books, songs, and tangible projects in the grieving process.     

Navigating Bereavement With Spirituality‐Based Interventions: Implications for Non‐Faith‐Based Counselors

The relationship between spirituality and bereavement has been studied in a multitude of disciplines, yet there is a significant gap in the counseling literature on this topic. The authors explore how spirituality is often avoided in secular counseling settings, discuss adverse effects of unresolved grief on clients' functioning, and propose the concept that spirituality can be used to help clients through the bereavement process. Finally, the authors offer research and clinically based interventions that counselors, particularly those who do not identify as faith‐based, can use to incorporate spirituality into their work with bereaved clients.     

Mapping grief: A study in practice using a quantitative and qualitative approach to exploring and addressing the range of responses to loss

The Adult Attitude to Grief (AAG) scale was devised for an earlier study (Machin, 2001) to test the validity of a concept of loss, which proposed that grief reactions fall broadly into three categories — ‘overwhelmed’, ‘balanced’ and ‘controlled’. There was statistical support for the proposed differences but the AAG scale, more importantly, provided insight into the diverse reactions taking place in individual bereaved respondents. This paper describes a second study undertaken to examine the clinical usefulness of the AAG scale with clients receiving help within the Psychological Services Operating Unit of the North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare (NHS) Trust. The scale has been used both in its original form with bereaved clients and in a modified form with clients having distress symptoms associated with other losses, such as relationship breakdown or the onset of chronic illness. The use of the AAG scale in this clinical setting suggests that, both as an assessment tool and as a cue for therapeutic dialogue, it provides a promising way of mapping the general and particular characteristics of response to loss in individual clients. Consideration is also given to varying therapeutic approaches needed to help clients regain the equilibrium disturbed by their grief.     

Using Genograms Creatively to Promote Healthy Lifestyles

ABSTRACT

Family therapists have used Genograms as an assessment tool for years to examine the interactions and relationships of family members across generations. This article discusses how a therapist can use a genogram creatively to help clients examine the impact of family relationships on healthy and unhealthy lifestyle patterns and how those relationships may be influencing the manner in which clients are currently managing their lives. The integration of a creative genogram can assist clients in recognizing inherited health-disease risks, learned lifestyle patterns, and parental behavior modeling. This technique can assist clients in developing a healthier lifestyle.     

Terror,Trauma, and Bereavement

Abstract

How is interpersonal loss incurred in a terror event similar and different from loss under non-terror conditions? Because terror and bereavement are located in the individual's experience of the event, this has important implications for assessment and intervention. In the Two-Track Model of Bereavement (TTMoB), the relationship between life threat, symptomatic response, and the ongoing relationship to the deceased allow therapy to target difficulties in functioning as well as relationship to the deceased. Two case vignettes are presented to ground the discussion.     

Sensing the presence of the deceased: A narrative review

Researchers have reported that bereaved people often continue to sense the presence of the deceased. A particular collection of such experiences can be identified as instilling a perception that the deceased person is in some manner present in the company of the bereaved person. The aim of the current review was to synthesise the results on this topic to provide a comprehensive over-view for practitioners working with bereaved people who report these experiences. The studies were reviewed in terms of the nature of the experiences described, the provision of explanatory models to understand the significance of these experiences, describing any culturally specific aspects of these experiences, discussion of the personal impact of having the experiences, and for recommendations of how people who have these experiences can be supported.     

Maternal Identity Among Motherless Mothers and Psychological Symptoms in Their Firstborn Children

A variety of detrimental effects are associated with early parental loss. We examined the relationship between childhood maternal loss and maternal identity among 30 motherless mothers and their 26 matched controls, as well as the psychological health of their firstborns. Motherless mothers reported significantly lower maternal identity. However, firstborns of motherless mothers were no more likely to display psychological symptoms than firstborns of comparison mothers. The findings suggest that early maternal loss may not present risk for cross-generational effects.     

Grief Counseling: An Investigation of Counselors' Training,Experience, and Competencies

Grief is prevalent in counseling, but little is known about the current status of counselors’ preparation and competencies to provide effective care. This exploratory study surveyed counselors (N= 369) on grief training, personal and professional experiences with grief, and grief counseling competence. Multiple regression analyses found training and experience were statistically significant predictors of competence. The strong relationship between variables suggests these concepts may be understood as synonymous. Implications for training, practice, and research are discussed.     

丧亲儿童和青少年哀伤研究现状

通过系统回顾国内外相关文献,对丧亲儿童和青少年哀伤研究现状进行综述。丧亲事件中,部分丧亲儿童会出现延长性哀伤障碍,从而导致睡眠困难、焦虑、抑郁甚至自杀念头等生理心理健康问题。但目前我国医务人员对丧亲儿童和青少年哀伤的关注较国外少,且存在无针对性的测量工具、干预措施单一、无量化的干预措施评价工具等问题,建议根据我国社会文化背景发展相关测量工具,丰富哀伤相关干预措施并进行大样本验证,帮助其尽快从哀伤中恢复,预防不良心理健康的发生。     

Making Meaning Using Creativity and Spirituality

Abstract

This article describes two creative techniques utilized when working with clients. With the increased attention on issues of spirituality, multiculturalism, and creativity, the “Give Away Ceremony” and “Spiritual Symbolism” is demonstrated via a case study approach. Additionally, a brief history of the immersion of spirituality in the counseling profession is addressed.     

Does Religious Belief Matter for Grief and Death Anxiety? Experimental Philosophy Meets Psychology of Religion

It is commonly reasoned that religious belief moderates death anxiety and aids in coping with loss. However, a philosophical perspective known as meta‐atheism includes the claim that avowed religious believers grieve deaths and experience death anxiety as intensely as avowed atheists. Thus, we report a study comparing religious believers and nonbelievers on measures of death anxiety and grief. We further investigated the relationships between certain religious beliefs (views of God, afterlife belief, religious orientation) and death anxiety, as well as both painful grief reactions and grief‐related growth. We surveyed 101 participants across the United States, ranging in age (19 to 57), education, and ethnicity. Participants avowing some form of religious belief, in comparison to those not, did not demonstrate lower levels of death anxiety. They did, however, display higher levels of a certain type of death acceptance. Additionally, those professing belief reported less grief and greater growth in response to loss. Greater afterlife belief was not associated with less grief; however, it was associated with both greater grief‐related growth and lower death anxiety.     

哀伤研究：新的视角与理论整合

哀伤（bereavement）研究长期以来都依循“悲伤过程假设（griefworkhypothesis）”,但20世纪80年代后其强调“与逝者分离”的基本假设受到挑战,界定的模糊也使得实证研究工作难以进行。当代研究者从依恋理论、创伤研究、认知应对研究、情感的社会功能等视角多方面对哀伤领域进行深入探索并出现了一些整合性的理论模型,文中对有代表性的“依恋与哀伤双程模型”作了介绍,并对“悲伤过程假设”进行了重新检视