Ambivalence Resolution in Meaning Reconstruction Grief Therapy: An Exploratory Study

In psychotherapy, ambivalence may be conceptualized as a conflict between two distinct motivations: one that is favorable to change (pro-change) and another that favors the maintenance of a problematic pattern (pro status quo). Previous studies identified two processes by which clients resolve this conflict: imposing the innovative part and silencing the problematic one (dominance), and establishing negotiations between the innovative and the pro status quo parts (negotiation). The present exploratory study examined ambivalence resolution in a sample of clients diagnosed with complicated grief. Results revealed that, in recovered cases, negotiation increases and dominance decreases from the beginning until the middle sessions of therapy and the opposite tendency is observed from the middle to the final sessions. Unchanged cases reveal an overall high proportion of dominance and an overall low proportion of negotiation. These results are partially divergent from those reported in previous studies with samples of clients diagnosed with major depression.

Making meaning with metaphor in grief therapy

Metaphors play an important role in contemporary approaches to grief therapy by helping clients (re)construe their continuing relationship with the deceased. Relevant studies have illustrated the substantive elements of metaphors (i.e. sources, targets, and mappings) in this regard, often focusing on localized bursts of intense metaphoric activity. This paper highlights the extended nature of metaphoric conceptualizations and their relationship with key meaning-making processes, following the principle of ‘correspondent analysis’ as a collaborative move between language analysts and therapy practitioners. Three specific phenomena are detailed through a mixed methods analysis of 18 motivated segments in a single session of grief therapy: (i) sporadic sources, (ii) persistent sources, and (iii) metaphor ‘chaining’ across embodied and verbal activity. Their respective links to treatment objectives and processes demonstrate how metaphor theoretic constructs dovetail with therapeutic work, and suggest future avenues for modeling unfolding metaphoric activity as a time series.

Demystifying Grief in the Dementia Divide: A Case for Grief Therapy in Dementia Care

The results of emotional and psychological losses overlap with behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) in the neuronal and structural changes in the brain. The aim of this current study was to explore the magnifying effects of COVID-19 on exacerbating residual losses, illuminating a case for using grief therapy to moderate BPSD. A case control study was conducted with people ages 65 and greater, with an established diagnosis of dementia prior to March 2020. Compared with an active control group - participants without a current dementia diagnosis who self-reported mild cognitive shifts and who also received active grief-informed therapies – offer supporting evidence of a strong factor of efficacy for including grief therapy in services offered to people living with dementia. Evidence of a continued point improvement on both the brief grief questionnaire and inventory of complicated grief, as well as decreased severity of items on NPI-Q corroborate this therapeutic recommendation. Now more than ever – as people across the globe who are diagnosed with dementia face uncertain ramifications of previous grief episodes, ones that have potentially been reignited by the flames of COVID-19 – therapists must foster safe spaces informed by novel therapeutic grief approaches. In any just society, emphasis on therapeutic techniques that allow participants to ventilate their feelings and fears, as well as promote movement along a continuum from isolation to intimacy, must prevail. People exhibiting BPSD should not be excluded from such treatments.