How do couples support each other when they are both simultaneously grieving the loss of a child? Grief can create either connection or isolation in couple relationships, as parents cope with the gravity of their own tragedy while also bearing witness to their partner’s suffering and pain. A research-based systemic perspective on bereaved couples’ coregulatory dynamics provides insight into the fluctuating dyadic processes that can prompt relational and individual resilience.
Expanding on the relational states presented in a previous module on the Relational Window of Tolerance, this module will demonstrate specific therapeutic interventions, such as encouraging attunement between partners, facilitating couple responsiveness, harmonizing fragility and stability, and enacting resonance with a couple in the aftermath of their daughter’s death. Clinical videos illustrate key moments of therapy that expand the couple’s tolerance for grief through coregulatory interaction, relieving both partners of the burden they experienced in an imbalanced state. Cultural factors that impact couple coregulation will be presented as well. Learners will complete the training with more strategic flexibility in addressing different grieving styles in joint sessions.
