Though grief is widely considered a family affair, how can therapists best promote both personal and interpersonal resilience in a field dominated principally by individualistic theories? Approaching this question from a systemic perspective, meaning can be viewed as a fundamental principle of resilience and shared meaning has the potential to bring families and communities together. The goal in this module is to illuminate the interactive dynamics of grieving couples and families and consider their implications for the practice of family therapy.
Accounting for the varied and differential grief experiences of surviving family members, interpersonal meaning-making processes become increasingly complicated in the wake of loss. Qualitative studies suggest that family members must co-regulate emotional responses to effectively co-construct meaning together. In this training, we will explore how to facilitate co-regulation strategies in grief therapy. By blending concepts and interventions from Emotionally Focused Therapy and the Meaning Reconstruction Model, the Meaning Co-Construction approach offers clinicians a comprehensive, process-focused conceptualization of family grief therapy.
The Meaning Co-Construction approach outlines four specific goals for family grief therapy: 1) facilitate shared meaning in a relational context, 2) reestablish an enduring connection with the deceased, 3) deepen attachment security in relationships with surviving family members, and 4) reorganize narratives of the self and loss through new patterns of interactions. Additionally, four key strategies facilitate change within the family system: 1) accessing and expressing primary emotions, 2) deconstructing and exploring narrative alternatives, 3) reconstructing narratives of self and family in relation to the loss, and 4) facilitating co-regulative patterns of interaction. Learners will be able to understand the role of coregulation in the meaning-making process, learn new therapeutic strategies to incorporate into practice, and discover the power of relational connection in the grieving process.
