Meaning in loss therapy group for complicated grief

Project title:

Meaning in loss therapy group for complicated grief: a UK pilot study

“This project constitutes a UK pilot study in meaning-orientated group grief therapy for complicated grief…[It] seeks to prepare the ground for a randomised-controlled trial of the protocol in the UK.”

Researcher:

Project proposal:

This project constitutes a UK pilot study in meaning-oriented group grief therapy for complicated grief based on a protocol developed in Canada and the United States, where an initial pilot has shown promising results. There are currently few if any evidence-based group grief therapy protocols available that are grounded in state-of-the-art bereavement theory and research, and this research seeks to prepare the ground for a randomized-controlled trial of the protocol in the UK.  

The pilot group will run from November 2016 to January 2017 at the research clinic of the University of Roehampton’s Centre for Research in Social and Psychological Transformation (CREST). It will recruit 10 participants, referred by the University’s student counselling service and local hospices and bereavement services. The group involves 12 weekly 2-hour sessions focusing on loss narrative reconstruction and living a meaningful life without the deceased. Data collection involves pre-post and session-by-session questionnaires to measure its effectiveness as well as audio-recording of group sessions for therapy process analysis and interviews with participants to gain their perspectives on what has been helpful or unhelpful. 

The results will feed into the planned RCT and will be widely disseminated to extend therapy service provisions for individuals experiencing complicated grief.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

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