Perspectives on Bereavement and Grief

Introduction

Death is an inevitable part of life. All of us will experience the death of a loved one, be that through ill health, old age or tragic circumstances. As therapists we are highly likely to be working with someone who has been impacted by loss, through death, worsening ill health, sudden disability, redundancy, divorce, etc. In this video, our focus will be on working with bereaved clients, in particular those whose experience may have been traumatic or ‘complicated’.

Our three expert speakers will share their experiences of working with those who have been bereaved, exploring what might work and sometimes what doesn’t. We will explore working with traumatic memories, traumatised and complicated grieving, and be guided through some notable research about what works when offering therapy to bereaved clients, when so much evidence suggests counselling may not be that helpful after all.

Dr Erin Hope Thompson: “Working with traumatic memories in grief, with a focus on compassion focused therapy”

In this presentation Dr Erin Hope Thompson will conceptualise grief in response to traumatic bereavements, with a focus on working with traumatic memories that arise in grief.

Erin will share;

• The use of metaphors in working with trauma memories
• A psychological model for trauma related work
• A compassion focused therapy approach to distressing grief memories
• Exercises for working with traumatic memories in grief
• Case studies

Tony Buckley: “Grief Behind Perspex: Navigating trauma and complexity in bereavement”

In this presentation Tony Buckley will look at what happens when there are complications to the grieving process, and what happens when people get ‘stuck’ in their grief.

This might be for a variety of reasons, including those arising from Covid-19 restrictions, which may have denied relatives their usual and natural impulses, ways of being there, and responding to the needs of a loved one during critical illness, and subsequent loss. For some this may result in patterns of delayed, inhibited and complex grief.

Tony will explore and share a number of somatic focused skills, working towards completion of grief through gestures or actions which can resolve activation patterns of traumatic grief and bereavement complications expressed through the body.

Dr John Wilson: “Making Bereavement Counselling Effective: In spite of the evidence that it often isn’t”

In this presentation John Wilson will share the findings of research into bereavement by Stroebe et al (2001) and Neimeyer & Jordan’s (2003) (see references below). This research demonstrated conclusively that bereavement counselling is often ineffective and may even do harm.

John will go on to:

• Share the findings of his doctoral research into the efficacy of bereavement counselling,
• Discuss how his research confirms, rather than contradicts, the research evidence that most bereavement counselling is ineffective,
• Show how therapists can offer effective bereavement counselling which meets the unique needs of each client,
• Show how therapists can attribute what happens in sessions to the client’s measurable outcomes.

References:

* Schut, H., Stroebe, M. S., van den Bout, J., & Terheggen, M. (2001). The Efficacy of Bereavement Interventions: Determining Who Benefits. In M. S. Stroebe, R. O. Hansson, W. Stroebe & H. Schut (Eds.), Handbook of Bereavement Research: Consequences, Coping and Care (pp. 705 -737). Washington DC: American Psychological Association.

* Jordan, J. R., & Neimeyer, R. A. (2003). Does grief counseling work? Death Studies, 27(9), 765-786.

Dr Erin Thompson’s presentation is available to purchase for hire individually HERE

Tony Buckley’s presentation is available to purchase for hire individually HERE