Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 4:289-309 (2004)
Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention Vol. 4 No. 3, © Oxford University Press 2004; all rights reserved.
Research Commentary |
Intersections Between Grief and Trauma: Toward an Empirically Based Model for Treating Traumatic Grief
From the Centre for Applied Social Research and Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.
Contact author: Cheryl Regehr, PhD, Centre for Applied Social Research, University of Toronto, 246 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A1. E-mail: cheryl.regehr{at}utoronto.ca.
Two divergent areas of study have focused on the experiences of grief, i.e., bereavement, and on trauma and its aftermath. The grief literature has its foundations in psychodynamic and relational theories, and thus treatment modalities have focused on resolving relationship issues through reminiscence and developing a new sense of the relationship and of the self, independent of the lost loved one. The trauma literature, while having some psychodynamic roots, has been founded primarily on biological and cognitive formulations. Again, while many different treatments are discussed, cognitive-behavioral approaches based on cognitive restructuring and symptom management dominate the practice efficacy literature. But trauma and bereavement/loss are not mutually exclusive, and when a practitioner is faced with a client suffering from both, it is necessary to attempt to integrate these divergent theories and at times antithetical treatment approaches. This paper therefore seeks to address the issue of treatment efficacy in traumatic loss and develop guidelines for evidence-based approaches to practice.
KEY WORDS: traumatic grief, traumatic loss, posttraumatic stress disorder, evidence-based practice
