Bereavement Groups and Their Benefits

Abstract

This article provides a brief discussion of the various types of grief and posits that the many types, particularly disenfranchised, lend themselves to recovery through reconnection. Bereavement groups offer a particularly useful means of connection with a larger grieving community and allow validation from others along with personalization of loss. Additionally, the use of creativity creates deeper and more meaningful connections with self and others. Finally, the article ends with counseling considerations and two case examples.     

Religiosity,Afterlife Beliefs,and Bereavement Adjustment in Adulthood

SUMMARY

Research in gerontology and bereavement adjustment often fails to examine the effects of religiousness and beliefs in the afterlife on grief. It was hypothesized that religiosity and belief in life after death would play different roles for younger and older adults regarding bereavement adjustment. Sample characteristics suggested that the interaction effect between age and religiosity or age and belief in life after death on bereavement adjustment could not be tested. However, aspects of bereavement adjustment, in particular physical health and efforts to cope, were found to be influenced by age, religiosity, and cause of death. Implications and directions for future research and counseling are discussed.     

The Underlying Structure of Grief: A Taxometric Investigation of Prolonged and Normal Reactions to Loss

Recent studies have supported the distinctiveness of complicated and prolonged forms of grief as a cluster of symptoms that is separate from other psychiatric disorders. The distinction between prolonged and normal reactions to loss remains unclear, however, with some believing that prolonged grief represents a qualitatively distinct clinical entity and others conceptualizing it as the extreme end of a continuum. Thus, in this study a taxometric methodology was used to examine the underlying structure of grief. Participants included 1,069 bereaved individuals who had lost a first-degree relative. Each participant completed the Dutch version of the Inventory of Complicated Grief–Revised, which was used to create indicators of prolonged grief. The mean above and mean below a cut (MAMBAC) and maximum eigenvalue (MAXEIG) tests supported a dimensional conceptualization, indicating that pathological reactions might be best defined by the severity of grief symptoms rather than the presence or absence of specific symptoms.

Adaptive and Maladaptive Dependency in Bereavement: Distinguishing Prolonged and Resolved Grief Trajectories

Interpersonal dependency is typically viewed as a risk factor for prolonged grief among conjugally bereaved adults. However, emerging empirical evidence and theoretical advances suggest that one manifestation of interpersonal dependency – adaptive dependency – may serve as a protective factor in coping with loss. This study compared adaptive and maladaptive dependency across three matched groups: prolonged grievers, asymptomatically bereaved adults, and a married comparison group. Results suggest a link between adaptive dependency and asymptomatic bereavement, and between maladaptive dependency and prolonged grief.     

Working in the Midst of Unfolding Trauma and Traumatic Loss

Abstract

Training developed for New York City social workers in the evolving aftermath of September 11, 2001 is introduced, offering a conceptual framework for clinical practice in the midst of unfolding trauma and traumatic loss. A focus is placed on the shared, collective process of learning and discussion among colleagues, as an effort parallel to work with clients, progressing together to establish meaning and hope through relationships. Professional training framing this catastrophe within trauma and traumatic loss perspectives, and addressing its impact on clinician, client, work, and treatment relationship, is needed. Also providing on-going support, a process of continuity, and a context of community, this training becomes a collective response to the profound impact and complex, evolving needs of this time.     

Circumstances of Death and Complicated Grief: Indirect Associations Through Meaning Made of Loss

Losses by violent means and the loss of primary attachment figures may increase the likelihood of developing a chronic and severe grief response (referred to as complicated grief, or CG). Path analysis was used to examine the relationships between these risk factors and CG symptoms. College student participants filled out online questionnaires relating to their bereavement. Analyses provided support for statistical models whereby meaning made of the loss fully mediated the association between cause of death and CG symptoms and partially mediated the association between relationship to the deceased and CG symptoms. Although based on cross-sectional data, these findings provide additional support for meaning-oriented understandings of adaptation to loss.     

Negative cognitions and avoidance in emotional problems after bereavement: a prospective study

Cognitive behavioural conceptualisations of grief propose that negative cognitions and avoidance strategies play a key role in emotional problems after bereavement. In the current study, this assumption was examined. Ninety-seven individuals who had lost a relative less than 5 months ago completed questionnaires tapping background and loss-related variables, negative cognitions (about the self, life, the future, and one's own grief reactions), avoidance, and symptoms of complicated grief (CG) and depression. Of these mourners, 70 people (72%) completed symptom measures again 6 months later at T2 (7-10 months after the loss), and 60 (62%) completed symptoms measures still 9 months later at T3 (16-19 months after the loss). Among other things, results showed that all four cognitive variables and the avoidance variable were strongly associated with concurrent and prospective symptom levels, even when the influence of relevant background/loss-related variables was controlled. In addition, independent of initial symptom levels, most of the cognitive variables predicted later CG and depression. The avoidance variable only predicted additional variance in depression at T3 beyond T1 symptom levels. Findings indicate that negative cognitions are important in emotional problems after bereavement and that the role of avoidance in the development of these problems needs further scrutiny.     

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.     

Exposure,Loss, and Support Predicting the Dimensions of Posttsunami Trauma

This study examined whether exposure, resource loss, and social support predicted the posttsunami trauma of PTSD, depression, negative affect, and physical health problems of the 2004 tsunami survivors. Four hundred sixteen survivors were interviewed in Tamil Nadu (India) 14 months posttsunami. Loss of life followed by loss of property and disaster exposure positively predicted the dimensions of trauma. Survivors having lower social status and income received less material and informational support than their equally affected counterparts, which furthered stress and distress. The survivors’ trauma can be arrested, minimizing the exposure and tangible resource loss, and improving the delivery of social support.     

Youth and Trauma: Terror,War, Murder,Incest, Rape,and Suicide

College students in the United States post-9/11 face a different world than did their predecessors. In short vignettes this article reveals some of the numerous traumas that have been reported in a full-service counseling center at a small state university. Exploration of the impact of traumas past and present is interwoven with commentary on the impact of systems dynamics. A brief theoretical exploration is included of post-trauma resilience and the ongoing sense of threat that many traumatized persons experience.     

Goodbye,Daddy: An Autoethnographic Journey Through the Grief and Mourning Process

The purpose of this article is to present an autoethonographic study in how I experienced and communicated parts of the mourning process when my father died at the age of 73. The article highlights the stages of grief experienced during the first year. Autoethnographic means are used chronologically to explore how the loss of a family member impacts the stages of grief that are present and how they overlap. In particular, I highlight the events that carried meaning or provided an outlet to express one of the stages of grief. It is hoped that this article can be used to understand why grieving is not an overnight process, but rather is drawn out through the highs and lows of remembering a loved one.     

Surviving and Thriving After Trauma and Loss

Abstract

Individuals and their communities experience trauma and loss during times of natural disaster. Using Hurricane Katrina as a context, the authors provide an overview of the phases of disaster coping and discuss the ambiguous losses that can occur during these traumatic and life-changing times. The use of rituals as a creative intervention is introduced to help individuals and families facilitate their grief processes.     

Spirituality and Loss: Approaches for Counseling Grieving Adolescents

The death of a loved one has serious implications for adolescent growth and development. The authors review relevant research on the grief process and spirituality in adolescence, and they give a rationale for integrating spirituality into adolescent grief work. By way of a case illustration, they draw implications for counselors’ use of spirituality in addressing adolescent grief.     

After the Terror: A Book and Further Thoughts

There are great goods desired by all of us, and the lack of themmakes for bad lives. One sample of bad African lives involves aloss of 20 million years of living time. The questions raised bythese and other facts are to be answered by the Principle ofHumanity, about bad lives and rationality. It is superior tomorality of relationship and all else, and in a way is undeniable.The principle together with other things issues in six propositions.One gives us a moral responsibility, our politicians at our head,for the terrorism of September 11. To be ordinary is not to beinnocent. Another proposition is that the Palestinians have a moralright to their terrorism. The latter proposition can be given stillmore support than in the book from which this paper derives.     

Bereavement,received social support,and anxiety in the elderly: A longitudinal analysis

Abstract

Determinants of anxiety and life satisfaction were examined among the elderly. Study I related the experience of stressful loss events, i.e., the death of a friend or family member, as well as received social support, to anxiety. Support buffered the effects of life events: Only those who received no support after loss were highly anxious. Study II explored determinants of anxiety and life satisfaction over a twelvemonth period. About half of the criterion variance could be explained. Perceived health turned out to be an influential predictor, whereas the role of social support remained ambiguous. The results are discussed in terms of social factors and emotions in the life of the elderly.     

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.     

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.     

Personality, values and belief in a just world

This study investigated the relationship between general belief in a just world (BJW) and different values (conformity, security, self-direction) as well as personality traits (Five-Factor-Model of personality) among 104 college students and 108 professionals. Previous findings have shown that BJW is positively related to the value domains conformity and security as well as to extraversion and negatively to neuroticism and openness. In this study, a negative correlation between BJW and openness to new experience was found. Furthermore BJW correlated positively with security and conformity. A cluster analysis on BJW and the value domains revealed three types: value-conscious (high in all values and low in BJW), dependent-just (high in BJW, security and conformity, low in self-direction) and self-directed (only high in self-direction). Value-conscious and dependent-just participants showed higher scores on conscientiousness, whereas self-directed participants scored higher in openness. Further research should take into account the individual function of BJW and values for personality functioning.